CONCORD, N.C. — While drivers spent grueling days and nights up and down the road with the DIRTcar Summer Nationals, Todd Turner pioneered instant news coverage in dirt racing through pure passion.
The Kentucky native was raised with racing in his area, but it wasn’t until his teenage years that he found his true love in motorsports: dirt late models.
“I grew up as, actually, an asphalt racing fan,” Turner said. “When I was a teenager, I discovered dirt racing because my asphalt track closed in Louisville, Ky. Once I found dirt late models, I was much more captivated by it.
“It was much more exciting, and I was growing up to where I could be able to drive myself to these races. Soon thereafter, I couldn’t go back to asphalt compared to the excitement in dirt racing.”
Turner graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Western Kentucky University in 1988 and then with a master’s degree in history in 1990. That same year, Turner had his first interaction with the Summer Nationals at Indiana’s Tri-State Speedway on July 15.
After witnessing Scott Bloomquist win his third race of the season en route to the championship, Turner realized the challenge of the Hell Tour, with its daily racing in the sweltering heat.
“I lived in Owensboro, Ky., in 1990 for my first job at a newspaper there,” Turner recalled. “I used to go to Tri-State Speedway, which is about an hour away. That was the first time I saw them, and I literally stumbled onto it. I remember watching the Summer Nationals and knowing it was a big race.
“Then, I saw somebody looking at this colored flyer, and they left it on the bleachers. So, I grabbed it and then saw that they were racing the next night in Missouri, and I was like, ‘This is fantastic.’ Soon enough, I was taking all my vacation days each summer to follow the series because it was all within a reasonable distance to drive, and it was such a cool thing to do during the summer.”
In 1995, Turner began covering dirt racing events under his own publication, DirtNews Digest. Before smartphones, Wi-Fi, and social media, Turner used email newsletters to cover the Summer Nationals nightly, delivering beats to fans who followed the Hell Tour at a faster rate than traditional newspapers.
“By 1995 is when I started covering through (DirtNews) Digest,” Turner said. “I covered a lion’s share of them through the first couple years, so it became more of a passion when I was actually reporting on it and going to all those races. I know for younger folks it’s hard to explain, but people were waiting for coverage from the news of races in their newspaper that would come through the mail.
“So, to be able to report on those night after night races, turn around the race stories immediately, and send out that information was really changing, you could report on things quickly. It made it all the more exciting for me to be covering it that way and something that was nightly, not just something that was on Saturday night and come in the next week’s paper.”
The defining Hell Tour moment that remains vivid in Turner’s mind is the 1997 Herald & Review 100 at Macon Speedway. After Shannon Babb’s car had a terminal engine issue before the start of the Feature, Illinois local Virgil Bilbrey offered a last-second seat for the 23-year-old to climb into. Though Babb barnstormed through the field to pass the finish line in first place, he came up 20 pounds short of victory at the scales – handing the win to second-place Ed Bauman.
“I remember specifically the 1997 race that Shannon Babb crossed the finish line first at Macon,” Turner reminisced. “He ended up being DQ’d because he was light. It was such an exciting race that he had come from the tail, driving Bilbrey’s car, and he presumably won the race. It turned out he was light, so he ended up losing.
“The excitement of all that, and how it turned out, I remember going to Farmer City the next night, and people were reacting to that story and talking about that specifically. It was one of those where if you had done that story for a newspaper, it would have been two weeks, basically, until you got the news. So, it was just perfect for that kind of thing to have instant news.”
Through Turner’s coverage, he became a first-hand source to write about the unlikeliest events to occur that remain unique to Summer Nationals lore. Between underdog tales, regional racers before becoming the biggest names in racing, and the daily racing in between are the types of storylines that Bob Memmer’s “brainchild” has created over four decades of operation.
“I think going back to Bob Memmer’s brainchild, he loved the little guy,” Turner said. “He’d always talk about the little guy in this series. That was the ideal of it. You’re going to draw your Billy Moyers, John Gills, Jim Curry’s, and Scott Bloomquist’s to the biggest races, but you also hold out hope that one of the local guys is going to upset them.
“Bob Memmer’s rules and ideas were, if you can set these rules up, we can have a series where the local guy can compete with even the traveling pros. That’s what the night-after-night saying can give guys that opportunity. Everybody likes to see fantastic drivers gather and race, but also local fans wonder in the back of their minds if their guy can win that night too.”
Throughout the 21st century, Turner has continued to cover all the happenings across the dirt late model world as the managing editor for DirtonDirt.com.
In 2024, he was inducted into the National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame with the “Contributor to the Sport” award for his journalistic coverage of over 30 years. But the honors have not stopped him from finding a weekend at the track with a notepad and pen in hand to write about the undiscovered storylines in dirt Late Model competition.
“I’m humbled by it all,” Turner said. “I’ve told many people that if I ever dreamed as a kid that I could make a living covering auto racing as a reporter, I would have never believed it. So, the Summer Nationals is particularly special to me in that way because it gave me that opportunity.
“Drivers are honing their skills and learning night after night. As a journalist, I’m also learning how to work quicker, how to work better, and find better stories because each night I’ve got to come up with something creative. I feel blessed to be any part of the Summer Nationals and the sport as a whole to have an honor like the Hall of Fame. I will still hold Summer Nationals near and dear to me for those reasons.”
