CAISTOR CENTRE, Ont. – June 18, 2018 – A busy doubleheader weekend saw Team Turner Racing achieve its most successful week of the season as the three drivers drove to a combined three top-five finishes and five top-10 results during action at Ohsweken Speedway on Friday, June 15 and at Brighton Speedway on Saturday, June 16 with the Southern Ontario Sprints.
Cory Turner led the way for the team as he earned his first win of the season on Friday before a third-place finish on Saturday. Ryan Turner was in the wrong place at the wrong time Friday night and involved in an incident, but rebounded for a fourth-place finish on Saturday. Jamie Turner earned a pair of top-10s with ninth and 10th-place finishes.
“I was glad to see Cory win and Ryan had a pretty good weekend,” Jamie said. “Everything’s in one piece on Monday, so it’s good.”
Cory Turner
On Friday, Cory made it into the redraw by driving from seventh to fifth in his heat race, where he grabbed the eighth starting position for his KT Tobacco/Silo Wireless No.97. He raced forward immediately to fourth and then battled Jim Huppunen for second following the final caution at lap 12 before tracking down leader Tyler Hendricks on the final lap.
“We were good and I got into a slider war with Jimmy Huppunen and I finally cleared him with two to go,” Cory said. “Hendricks had 20 car lengths on me and I ran him down pretty good, and then he hit the outside wall. I drove hard into one and let the car go up to the top and then railed the top in turns three and four and we won.”
The win was the third of Cory’s career in a 360 Sprint Car and second at Ohsweken. None of the team had much time to celebrate as they returned home to prepare for Saturday’s race at Brighton.
Saturday, Cory qualified for the redraw with a third-place finish in his heat and pulled the seventh starting spot for the main event. He quickly raced forward to fourth and then tracked down Kyle Fraser for second just after halfway after also getting past Jake Brown. He eventually fell back to third after a tough race with Dylan Westbrook in lapped traffic during the caution-free race.
“We were good again and I was really happy with the car,” Cory said. “We got to the front on the bottom and I kind of stayed down there. I needed to go rip the cushion because it was good late in the race. It was a really good racetrack that was smooth right to the cushion.”
Ryan Turner
Ryan Turner had another strong weekend. On Friday night while battling Mikey Kruchka for fifth, Kruchka drove off the track in turn three and came back down right in front of Ryan, leaving him with nowhere to go.
“On lap 12, I saw Kruchka go over the top and I went down to the middle because I figured he would be coming back on the track and all of the sudden he appeared right in front of me,” Ryan said. “I hit his driver side door and it knocked the front end out of our car. I think we definitely had a top three car.”
After making repairs overnight, Ryan drove to a second-place finish in his heat to qualify for the Dash for Cash.
“We felt good in the heat,” Ryan said. “We only had a one lane racecar in the heat, so we knew we needed to make some adjustments and the dash played into our favour. I got to try a couple of things I wouldn’t normally do. We looked at the video and we made a couple more changes between the dash and the feature.”
The changes worked. Ryan initially fell back to 12th, but then raced his way forward to a fourth-place finish in the non-stop race.
“We started off slow and went back to about 12th until I found my rhythm on the bottom and we started picking off cars,” Ryan recalled. “We were a fast car at the end. I needed to find the bottom sooner and we needed a late caution to give the top three a run.”
Despite Friday’s wreck, Ryan is happy with how thing’s have continued to improve in his Kingpin Farms/Burger Barn No.91 car.
“We were happy with the car every time it hit the track,” Ryan said. “We’re just fine tuning things now, I feel. This week we’re not going to make many adjustments at the shop. We’re going to make the small adjustments and see how they work.”
Jamie Turner
Jamie Turner had his best weekend of the season in the Charlie Bee Honey No.11. Jamie grabbed a ninth-place finish on Friday night an a 10th-place result Saturday, his best finishes of the season to date as he continues to fine tune his car.
“I felt better than I have, so I feel like the car’s going in the right direction,” Jamie said. “I’ve struggled, but we just keep working at it.”
Jamie will be able to get more seat time over the next two weekends with a pair of doubleheaders on the schedule as the team plans to race at Ohsweken and Merrittville speedways each of the next two Fridays and Saturdays, respectively.
“We’re in the middle of June, but I haven’t raced that much and it’s nice to get some races in finally,” Jamie said. “My car’s starting to feel like it’s starting to set in. Now we just have to try and make some more gains on it.”
“Merrittville’s always been a bit of a hometrack race for us because we grew up watching my grandpa Don and my dad race there,” Ryan said. “We have a lot of laps around there in the Thunder Stock and Sportsman days, so that definitely helps you in a faster car.”
Up Next
All three Team Turner Racing cars will be back in action on Friday, June 22 at Ohsweken Speedway and plan to compete again on Saturday, June 23 with the Southern Ontario Sprints at Merrittville Speedway. For more information on Team Turner Racing, visit www.TeamTurnerRacing.ca.
SEASON STATS
11 Jamie Turner – 6 Starts: 0 Wins, 0 Top-5s, 2 Top-10s
91 Ryan Turner – 6 Starts: 0 Wins, 3 Top-5s, 5 Top-10s
97 Cory Turner – 8 Starts: 1 Win, 6 Top-5s, 6 Top-10s
TEAM TURNER MEDIA
Website: teamturnerracing.ca
Facebook: facebook.com/TeamTurnerRacing
Twitter: @11TeamTurner19
YouTube: Youtube.com/RacingTeamTurner
MAILING LIST
Join the Team Turner Racing mailing list by emailing claytonjohnsmedia@gmail.com with the subject “Turner” to be added to the list.
TEAM TURNER PARTNERS
Team Turner Racing is proud to partner with several dedicated marketing partners for the 2018 race season, including KT Tobacco, Charlie-Bee Honey, Mudcat Entertainment Centre, Braemar Building Systems, Pyett Spring & Alignment, DSE Performance, Gale’s Auto Aftermarket, Plazek Auto Recyclers, Malabar Super Spice, V&R Recycling, Country Event Services, JNE Recovery, Skyway Lawn Equipment, Total Coatings, KT Gas & Convenience, Six Nations Bingo, Silo Wireless, CJ Mulholland Mattress Factory, Truck Toppers, iC Super Computers, Silverdale Gun Club, Bryan’s Farm Supply, Beamer Farms, The Powerhouse, Hitchman Trailers, Barlow Farms, Mac Tools, V&R Hose & Hydraulics, RCM Racing Equipment, JLB Mobile Mechanical, Tetra-Chem Industries, Wix Filters, Mayhew Graphics, ImageFactor.ca, and Clayton Johns Media.
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