The Life and Fast Times of NASCAR Legend Curtis Turner by Robert Edelstein, is the unremitting, over-the-top biography of stock car racer Curtis Turner, the most dynamic stock car racer of all time, who wrote the book on living fast and dying young. Curtis Turner was a racing legend in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, a peer of Lee Petty (father of Richard Petty) and Junior Johnson; he was the Dale Earnhardt of his time. A fellow NASCAR racer summarized Turner’s legacy with the words: “There never would have been a Dale Earnhardt without Curtis Turner.”
Born in 1924 in Virginia, Curtis Turner was the true pioneer of NASCAR racing; his life embodied everything that today makes NASCAR the biggest spectator sport in American history: the adrenaline rush of the races, the potential for danger at every turn, and the charismatic, outrageous personality of a born winner who possessed an uncanny business savvy. From his mountain country beginnings to running moonshine as a teenager and executing dangerous 180-degree spins on a single-lane bridge to elude the police to being the first NASCAR driver ever put on the cover of Sports Illustrated-and the only one so honored after having had his license revoked in two states-Turner created drama. Both at the racetrack and in his personal life-with constant partying and a no-holds-barred, good-times lifestyle-Curtis Turner lived the American Dream several times over-including the co-building of the Charlotte Motor Speedway against all odds and in the face of great controversy-before he died a violent and mysterious death in 1970 at the young age of forty-six in a plane crash that is still considered a great mystery.
In gripping prose, and with full access to the files of Turner’s widow, Bunny Hall, biographer Robert Edelstein, the exclusive motorsports writer for TV Guide and the author of NASCAR Generations, thrillingly recreates the life of this American legend. FULL THROTTLE is the first ever full-scale chronicle of Turner’s legendary life, from his 357 racing wins to his millions earned and just as quickly spent in fearless finance deals, to his incredible comeback after four years of being banned from the NASCAR circuit for trying to start a union among his fellow racers. (He was reinstated partly due to the thousands of rabid fans who demanded his return.) Motorsports, momentum and mayhem, the non-stop pursuit of outrageous dreams, high-speed thrills and a really good time these are the raw materials of FULL THROTTLE.(2-9-2005)
