May 26 2016
Caistor Centre, Ontario - The "regular season" is now underway for the Team Turner Racing Sprint Cars and drivers Jamie, Cory, and Ryan Turner. They enjoyed a solid opening weekend which - with some luck - could have been even better.
MAY 20 - OHSWEKEN SPEEDWAY
The Team Turner drivers were more than ready for Ohsweken's 21st season opener. Jamie won his heat race, while Ryan was close to doing the same, but settled for 2nd after losing the lead in the last corner. Cory missed the setup in his heat race and fell from 3rd to finish 6th.
Ryan drew the 3rd starting spot for the A-Feature, while Jamie drew 5th, and Cory started 17th. An early caution flag gave them a chance to adjust to changing track conditions, but with 18 laps of 20 in the books, Ryan had fallen back to 7th, while Jamie was up to 4th, and Cory had advanced to 10th.
"On the caution I slid the wing to try and hook up the rear wheels, but this made the car hard to handle," Ryan noted. "(I lost) multiple spots until I could get my wing back ahead."
Dylan Westbrook and Mitch Brown collided and brought out another caution flag while racing for the lead late in the race. Jamie dove to the bottom of the track to avoid them and touched the inside wall, which cut his left front tire. He stayed on the track and restarted 2nd for the green-white-checker finish, while Ryan restarted 5th, and Cory restarted 7th. The flat tire hampered Jamie and he fell back to finish 15th, while Ryan moved up to finish 3rd - his first podium finish in a Sprint Car - with Cory right behind him in 4th.
"It is great to start the year off on a high note," Ryan exclaimed. "I hope we can continue to build off of this. Even with JT's flat tire at the end...we are happy all 3 cars were fast in the feature. This is something we can take back to the shop and build off of."
MAY 21 - BRIGHTON
Saturday found Team Turner 250 kilometres east of Ohsweken at Brighton Speedway for the first round of the 2016 Southern Ontario Sprints tour. Ryan and Jamie each finished 3rd in their heat races to earn redraw spots for the A-Feature, while Cory finished right behind Jamie in 4th. Ryan and Jamie started nose-to-tail on the inside of rows 3 and 4 in the feature, with Cory starting behind them in 11th.
Both Cory and Ryan made gains early in the 25 lap feature, while Jamie stayed in the top 10. Ryan was 3rd and Cory 5th at the halfway mark, with Jamie behind them in 8th. Track conditions changed during the second half of the race, and Jamie began to advance while Ryan and Cory fell back. Ryan settled for 5th at the checkered flag, with Jamie and Cory right behind him in 6th and 7th.
“The track really slicked off throughout the night," Ryan observed. "With 5 (laps) to go the bottom seemed to go away, and the top came in. I was just holding on at the end, but Jamie was making a charge with a couple of other cars on the top - cars that we had already passed earlier in the race.”
"We had a real solid first weekend of racing," Jamie added. "Big thanks to all of our partners, team members, and supporters!"
UP NEXT
Friday, May 27 - Ohsweken Speedway (360 Sprint Cars)
POINTS CHASING
The TTR drivers are chasing points towards a pair of championships in 2016 - Ohsweken Speedway's weekly 360 Sprint Car series, and the Southern Ontario Sprints tour:
-#11 Jamie Turner: SOS 6th | Ohsweken 15th
-#91 Ryan Turner: SOS 5th | Ohsweken 3rd
-#97 Cory Turner: SOS 7th | Ohsweken 4th
SEASON STATS
-#11 Jamie Turner: 3 Races | 0 Wins | 1 Top Five | 2 Top Tens
-#91 Ryan Turner: 3 Races | 0 Wins | 2 Top Fives | 2 Top Tens
-#97 Cory Turner: 5 Races | 0 Wins | 2 Top Fives | 3 Top Tens
LINKS
Website: www.TeamTurnerRacing.ca
Twitter: @11teamturner19 and @CTMotorsports_
Facebook: search "Team Turner Racing" and "Cory Turner Motorsports"
YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/racingteamturner