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NASCAR HALL-OF-FAME INDUCTION CEREMONYJanuary 23, 2016Kevin HarvickMargaret Sue Turner WrightLen WoodCharlotte, North Carolina KEVIN HARVICK: Thank you. Known as the Babe Ruth of stock car racing, this pioneer entertained NASCAR's earliest fans with not only his ability to whip a car around the track but also with his colorful personality away from the wheel. More than 45 years since his final race, this sultan of speed remains the only driver to win two consecutive races from the pole leading every lap. (Video shown.) KEVIN HARVICK: Accepting on behalf of 2016 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Curtis turner, please welcome his daughter, Margaret Sue Turner Wright. LEONARD WOOD: It is now my honor on this 23rd day of January, 2016, to present the NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee ring and officially induct one of the most famous, best drivers in NASCAR history, Curtis Turner, into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. MARGARET SUE TURNER WRIGHT: Thank you, Leonard, so much for all your support for our dad, and also the whole Wood family. And thank you to NASCAR and the NASCAR Hall of Fame so that we have this wonderful event, and to my husband and our family and our children and all of our friends here and home, back in Roanoke, Virginia, and Floyd, Virginia. Curtis Turner was really many things to many people. He was a star to some people, a great race car driver to many people, a track president, a track promoter and an owner, and an entrepreneur, and we just called him Dad or Daddy. Dad started driving at the age of nine when his uncle Cam taught him to drive a school bus. Soon my grandpa, his dad, Morton Turner, let him go on a run with the family business, and he loved it. So on the back roads of Floyd, he learned to drive very well, very fast. And he loved doing doughnuts in the backyard of the family farmhouse. Dad grew up on his mom and dad's farm in Floyd, of Morton and Minnie Turner. He didn't really have time to finish his high school education because of helping out on the farm and with the business. Yet he never let his lack of education determine his future, and if there was anything he ever wanted to do, a project or a new business, he just never let doubt get in the way, and he just went full speed ahead into his dreams, and that's inspiring. As a young businessman, dad realized he needed something more than a good ol' boy's handshake to seal a deal. So he decided to buy a set of law books, and he taught himself how to write a contract, and he wrote a lot of contracts, a lot of businesses, and his life became busier with traveling, and so soon he decided he really needed to fly in the air instead of on the road. He needed to take flying lessons. So he took some flying lessons, and I saw mom and dad studying, Ann Ross Turner, who's our mom, she was his supporter throughout his racing career, and she was quizzing him in that living room just about every night on either law books or for the flying. He did pass the test, and he bought his first plane, a Piper Cub. He was the first race car driver to own an airplane, and there's many stories on that. They're true. (Laughter.) A day in our life one time was when mom and I went for a drive with dad to see grandma and grandpa up the mountain to Floyd. I was about seven and I was sitting in the backseat, and we're coming down a hill, and there had been a little bit of a rain on the road, so the roads were a little wet, and at the bottom of the hill, we come over the hill, and suddenly Mom goes, like this, grasps and holds onto the door, and Daddy, I couldn't even see what was going on, and all of a sudden Daddy just turns that car real quick because the car was sideways. It had spun out in the bottom of the curve, and right at the bottom of the hill, it was blocking both lanes of the road. There was nowhere to go. On the left was a dropoff, and on the right was a big embankment, and it was kind of a rainy day. So Daddy turned the car real quick, jumped a little ravine, and we were sideways for a while going bumpity bump and we came around that car that had been stopped there. So he looked back, and I guess he was looking to see, make sure that the fellow had finally moved, and he was probably like this, and then we just took off. So he probably saved our lives that day, and that was just the way it was. Another day in our life was when Daddy was going to go to Charlotte and wanted to know if I'd like to go along. I was about nine. He said he wanted to show me something he was working on. So we left Roanoke, and we drove towards Charlotte, and near it, we eventually got out on the side of a road. So we got out, and there was just this big meadow, and he said, I want you to look at this big field, meadow, and this is where I'm going to build the best racetrack there's ever been. And while he was showing me and talking about it, I could tell he was really seeing it. I could only see grass. I just couldn't get that. So I realized later he was a visionary. So even though through tough times in the beginning with Charlotte Motor Speedway, the track was completed and he did his part to see it through, and at day's end, the main thing I want to leave you with, is the inspiration of having a vision and following through because many times he would say to me, anything's possible. And for him, yes, it was, and so it can be for us. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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