16. Mike Turner: Reflecting on fifty years of racing

Host Sue Stockdale talks to Mike Turner who has been involved in motorsport for many years. Mike reflects on being part of the Sports 2000 community since almost the beginning of its existence, and his career in racing.

Mike Turner first attended a race meeting with his parents at 5 years old and began club racing in 1968 in a Mini Cooper S. He then progressed to Formula Ford racing a Merlyn Mk 11A competing in the British and European Championships in 1969 and 1970. Mike was studying automotive engineering when the opportunity arose to join March Engineering in 1970. During this time, Mike worked on the Formula 1 and 2 teams, which included the team winning the European Formula Two championship in 1971 with Ronnie Peterson.

He later worked for a couple of other teams before starting a career in publishing, working for The Engineer magazine for thirty years. Mike started racing again, firstly in Multisports winning the championship in 1994, and then moving to Formula 2000 single seaters until 1997. In 1998 Mike started racing in Sports 2000, driving a Pinto, a Lola, and also a Shrike, where he won Class B. Mike then moved onto Duratec in the mid 2000s and has driven Van Diemen, Lola, and MCR Sports 2000 Duratec cars since then.

Key Quotes

‘The more you go back to a circuit, the more familiar it becomes, and you start to learn what you can do with the car.’

‘I think the thing with racing cars is you're never finished with them. No matter how much time you spend in the workshop or trying to get ready, there's always something else to do.’

‘We (the March team) won the European Formula Two championship with a guy called Ronnie Peterson. Another guy I’m sure people will have heard of was Niki Lauda who was an up and coming youth at that time, but turned out to be very, very quick.’

‘We (Sports 2000) still retain the ethos of fun racing at a sensible cost.’

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The Sports2000 Championship has been established since 1977 and features four championships - Duratecs, Pintos, Historic Pintos and Mini Enduro.

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Sound Editor: Matias de Ezcurra (he/him)
Producer: Sue Stockdale (she/her)