Driver a winner on water this time

Turner flies along in his drag boat

When Tommy Turner returns to Wake County Speedway for tonight's stock-car races, he'll have a big victory to brag about -- but it didn't come on four wheels.

The 62-year-old Raleigh racer parked his Pro Modified Four-Cylinder car this past weekend and instead climbed into his drag boat. He steered the 20-foot vessel powered by a 300-horsepower Mercury outboard to his third Augusta Southern Nationals championship in four years, winning the Stock Eliminator class at the 23rd annual event on the Savannah River at Augusta, Ga.

The July 18-20 International Hot Boat Association (www.ihbaracing.com) competition, which benefits Special Olympics, is billed as "The World's Richest Drag Boat Race," with $140,000 in prizes. The N.C. State geology and education graduate won $1,150 plus $150 for expenses.

And the boat racer who races cars as a hobby again got the chance to enjoy the thrill and challenge of flying over the water instead of hugging the asphalt.

"Cars -- people run into you, they're hot, they're dirty," said Turner, who races cars about 20 weeks a year and boats six to 10, depending on the circuit and available events. "A boat at 100 mph is like riding a motorcycle.

"This boat is built in a wind tunnel. [Steering it is] like flying an airplane. ... I'm sitting there trimming it like flying an airplane."

Turner won the final quarter-mile race with an elapsed time of 11.076 seconds at 97.12 mph to defeat Bill Henderson of Wedowee, Ala., who had a time of 11.089 seconds at 94.48 mph.

Turner said his margin of victory was the closest in 34 years of racing. He credited son Chris, an N.C. State mechanical engineering student who serves as his crew chief and mechanic, with improving the boat's speed by more than 3 mph.

"I'm results-oriented. My son, he's the opposite -- he's an engineering freak," Turner said.

The son noticed the boat -- which weighs 1,520 pounds, including driver -- was faster in one lane. It turned out that the water was deeper, which meant the water was cooler and that the boat could go faster, the father said.

"That was the difference between winning and losing," Turner said. "... I was in another class that morning and had lost in the other lane."

Turner, who is self-employed, working 38 years with a cutlery company and now selling wellness products, also founded in 1993 the East Coast Drag Boat Association (www.ecdba.net). He said he is involved in trying to return a Make-A-Wish Foundation benefit race to High Point next year.

He will be back on four wheels tonight at Wake County, where he is the oldest driver but is fifth in his division's points standings.