From Publishers Weekly
Curtis Turner dominated the sport of stock car racing and thrilled fans with his daredevil driving in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, long before NASCAR became an official racing organization. Motor sports writer Edelstein breathlessly recounts Turner's career as well as his significant contributions to the sport. Turner (1924–1970) started driving his father's car at age nine; by the time he was a teenager, he was running moonshine in the Virginia hills, becoming famous for his ability to outrun cops. During those years, Turner perfected a move immortalized by Burt Reynolds in his Smokey and the Bandit movies: he'd slam on the brakes, spin a complete 180 to face his pursuers and escape. Turner moved on to racing at dirt tracks throughout the South, driving with the reckless abandon he'd learned as a teenage 'shine runner. His personal life moved quickly, too: he became a millionaire many times, but spent the money as quickly as he earned it, often on failed business ventures, women and parties. Edelstein is impressed by Turner's accomplishments (and rightly so); he effusively chronicles one after another (e.g., Turner's status as the first race car driver pictured on Sports Illustrated's cover; his building of the Charlotte Motor Speedway) and draws on concrete sourcing—based on Turner's personal files—to give the book depth and perspective. Photos. (Mar.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
In the NASCAR beginning, there was Curtis Turner, the "Babe Ruth of Stock Car Racing," who won more than 350 stock-car races, including 25 NASCAR events in 1956 alone, and was the first professional driver ever featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, in 1968. In his spare time, he threw the best and longest parties on the circuit and, by the way, earned millions dealing in timber, selling acreage the equivalent of six percent of the state of North Carolina. Edelstein offers a well-researched, thoroughly enjoyable account of the life of this NASCAR pioneer and iconoclast, starting with Turner's boyhood as a moonshine runner for his father (where Curtis learned his uncanny driving skills escaping the law), followed by his development as a timber entrepreneur (he started with a $32,500 investment in a Virginia mountain that he quickly turned around for $85,000), and covering the history of Turner's rough-and-tumble racing career, which ended with Turner's untimely death in 1970 in a plane accident. An excellent volume for libraries whose patrons have even only a passing interest in NASCAR. Alan Moores
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Book Description
Curtis Turner's life embodied everything that makes NASCAR the biggest spectator sport in American history. In gripping prose, and with full access to the files of Turner's widow, biographer Robert Edelstein thrillingly recreates the life of this American legend. Full Throttle is the first-ever full-scale chronicle of Turner's legendary life, from his days as a teenage moonshine runner, through his incredible comeback after four years of being banned from the NASCAR circuit. Motor racing 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: The Life and Fast Times of Curtis Turner. This one's on the fast track.
From the Publisher
The unremitting, over-the-top life of Curtis Turner, the greatest, most dynamic stock-car racer of all time, who wrote the book on living fast and dying young.
About the Author
Robert Edelstein is the exclusive motor sports writer for TV Guide, where his stories are read by more NASCAR fans than any other writer in the country. He is also a contributor to Stuff, Blender, and A&E Biography, among other publications.
Full Throttle: The Life and Fast Times of Curtis Turner FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Curtis Turner was the most dynamic stock car racer of all time; he wrote the book on living fast and dying young. His life embodied everything that makes NASCAR the fastest growing spectator sport in America: the adrenaline rush of the races, the potential for danger at every turn, and the charismatic, outrageous personality of a winner. Turner was the first NASCAR celebrity, driving in the sport's first race in 1949, and he was the first NASCAR driver ever featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He created drama at the racetrack and in his personal life, living the American Dream several times over before he died a violent and mysterious death at the young age of forty-six." Full Throttle is the first-ever full-scale chronicle of Turner's legendary life, from his days as a teenage moonshine runner in Virginia, through 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.
SYNOPSIS
"The unremitting, over-the-top life of Curtis Turner, the greatest, most dynamic stock-car racer of all time, who wrote the book on living fast and dying young. Curtis Turner's life embodied everything that makes NASCAR the biggest spectator sport in American history. In gripping prose, and with full access to the files of Turner's widow, biographer Robert Edelstein, the exclusive motor sports writer for TV Guide and the author of NASCAR Generations, thrillingly recreates the life of this American legend. Motor racing 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: The Life and fast Times of Curtis Turner. This one's on the fast track."
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Curtis Turner dominated the sport of stock car racing and thrilled fans with his daredevil driving in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, long before NASCAR became an official racing organization. Motor sports writer Edelstein breathlessly recounts Turner's career as well as his significant contributions to the sport. Turner (1924-1970) started driving his father's car at age nine; by the time he was a teenager, he was running moonshine in the Virginia hills, becoming famous for his ability to outrun cops. During those years, Turner perfected a move immortalized by Burt Reynolds in his Smokey and the Bandit movies: he'd slam on the brakes, spin a complete 180 to face his pursuers and escape. Turner moved on to racing at dirt tracks throughout the South, driving with the reckless abandon he'd learned as a teenage 'shine runner. His personal life moved quickly, too: he became a millionaire many times, but spent the money as quickly as he earned it, often on failed business ventures, women and parties. Edelstein is impressed by Turner's accomplishments (and rightly so); he effusively chronicles one after another (e.g., Turner's status as the first race car driver pictured on Sports Illustrated's cover; his building of the Charlotte Motor Speedway) and draws on concrete sourcing-based on Turner's personal files-to give the book depth and perspective. Photos. (Mar.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
In the pantheon of stock car-racing greats, the name Curtis Turner is met with vague nods of familiarity among NASCAR fans but not the sort of clenched fists and knowing grins that accompany mentions of Richard Petty or Dale Earnhardt. As Edelstein (NASCAR Generations) reveals in this biography, Turner was a hard-charging driver and a hard-living man. In 1961, however, he ran afoul of the powers-that-be in a still-growing but regionally based NASCAR when he tried to form a union among drivers. In the South, which was the base of operations for NASCAR, unions were not well regarded. Even though he had won hundreds of races and was the sport's biggest celebrity at the time, Turner was banished from NASCAR racing for four years. When he finally returned in 1966, hard living had begun to sap his skills and he never regained his former glory. Turner died in a plane crash at age 46 and was eventually inducted into racing's Hall of Fame. His colorful life is well related here in this first biography of the man except for an exceptionally rare (it was only located in four libraries) PR-type paperback published in 1966. It is an entertaining read, with 24 black-and-white photographs. Highly recommended for public and transportation libraries.-Eric C. Shoaf, Brown Univ. Lib., Providence Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Art & Photography
Book Info
