Darren Turner

Darren Turner

Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello from Turner, McRae and Rydell at Goodwood

Seat Leon TDI by Darren Turner 2007

Turner during qualification at the Nürburgring

Aston Martin DBR9 from Turner, García and Rydell at Goodwood

Darren Turner in the Aston Martin AMR-One

Darren Turner (born April 13, 1974 in Camberley ) is a British racing driver .

Career

Beginnings

Darren Turner entered formula racing in the winter of 1993 and won his first race in 1995 in the British Formula Renault . The following year he increased his performance and finished the championship with two wins and several podiums as runner-up behind David Cook and won the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award at the end of the year . He then switched to British Formula 3 in 1997 , but was unable to build on his results. Nevertheless, in the same year he was given the opportunity to test a Formula 1 car for McLaren , Jordan Grand Prix and Arrows . In 1998 Turner decided to start in the Formula Palmer Audi , which he finished with three overall victories as runner-up behind Justin Wilson .

At Mercedes

At the beginning of the 1999 season Turner initially wanted to contest the Italian Formula 3000 , but received a contract with McLaren-Mercedes as a test driver in Formula 1 and then broke off his participation in the national racing series after just one championship run. Turner remained a test driver at McLaren-Mercedes for the next two years. He also joined the DTM with Team Rosberg . Turner drove a Mercedes-Benz CLK there from 2000 to 2001. In the following year his contract was not renewed, so he reoriented himself and started in the ASCAR oval racing series . There he won six championship races, but ended the season only in seventh place.

At Prodrive

In 2003 Turner switched to GT racing. He was registered in the FIA GT Championship as a driver alongside Kelvin Burt in a Ferrari 360 Modena, but was not very successful until the middle of the season. After the 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps , he got a new team-mate in Jamie Davies . After that, his performance increased and he finished two runs on the podium of the N-GT . At the same time, he received a contract with Prodrive and competed in the Sebring 12-hour race in the American Le Mans Series . He, his FIA-GT team-mate Burt and Anthony Davidson finished the race on the podium in the GTS class . Midseason joined the team with the Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello then the 24-hour race at Le Mans , but could not finish the race due to a technical defect. Thereafter, Turner was given the opportunity to start again for Prodrive in the ALMS. At the penultimate run in Miami Turner had to replace Jan Magnussen at short notice . He and his teammate David Brabham finished the race as class winners of the GTS. Turner then returned to Europe to end the year with another class win at the Le Mans 1000km race with Jamie Davies.

In 2004 Turner tested an Audi R8 in the Le Mans Endurance Series , but did not race. This year Turner only drove for Prodrive in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and finished the race with Colin McRae and Rickard Rydell on the podium of the GTS. Prodrive, where the development of the Aston Martin DBR9 was being worked on for the next season , enabled Turner to join the Aston Martin Racing factory team . Therefore, he took part in several championships in 2005. With David Brabham and Stéphane Ortelli, he finished the Sebring 12-hour race as class winner in the ALMS. He then drove to the podium in the championship run of the FIA ​​GT Championship and later with Brabham and Stéphane Sarrazin at Le Mans and Spa. He also started with different driver line-ups for the Aston Martin customer team Convers in the Le Mans Endurance Series, where he achieved another class win with compatriot Robert Bell . Despite good results, Turner only finished midfield in all championships at the end of the year, as he only took part in a fraction of the respective runs in the individual series.

Seat, Prodrive and Nissan

In 2006, Turner stayed with Prodrive and thus in the Aston Martin works team, but was now scheduled for a full season in the American Le Mans Series. He and Tomáš Enge finished two championship races as class winners in the GT1. At the same time, Turner signed a contract with Seat Sport for the 2006 season and competed in twelve of the 30 championship races in the British Touring Car Championship . On September 3, 2006, Turner had to choose between the ALMS and BTCC. He started at the Knockhill Racing Circuit and lost the opportunity to win a championship title in the competitive GT1 class of the ALMS.

The following year, Turner focused on the BTCC and now participated in the entire championship. He finished three races there as the overall winner and the season in sixth place. Nevertheless, he continued to compete in GT racing. He drove for different teams and in different racing classes in the American Le Mans Series, including a Ferrari F430 GT for Krohn Racing . He was also at the start again for Aston Martin Racing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He, David Brabham and Rickard Rydell won the GT1 class. He was also registered for selected races in the FIA ​​GT Championship and the Le Mans Series .

Turner and teammate Jason Plato also drove a Seat Leon TDI in the British Touring Car Championship in the 2008 season . By the end of the year he had finished two races as the overall winner and six more on the podium, but with eighth place in the drivers' standings he was only in midfield and behind team-mate Plato. After Turner had already competed in a sports car race for Tracy Krohn last year , in 2008 he was given the opportunity to drive a Daytona prototype at the Daytona 24-hour race . Together with Niclas Jönsson and Ricardo Zonta , he finished his first round of the Grand-Am Sports Car Series in fourth place. He then defended the GT1 class win at Le Mans for Aston Martin Racing with David Brabham and Antonio García and then drove one round each of the FIA-GT, Le Mans Series and American Le Mans Series for the customer teams Gigawave, Strakka Racing and Drayson.

In 2009 Turner ended his involvement in touring car racing and now concentrated more on the sports car sector. At the beginning of the year he drove again for Krohn Racing in the Daytona 24-hour race, but did not finish the run in the Lola B08 / 70 . Later in the year he was to drive the car again with Niclas Jönsson at the 250 miles of Daytona, but could not build on the performance of the previous year. In Europe, Turner was also involved in the Aston Martin and Nissan projects. Gigawave, which provided the team for the development of the Nissan GT-R in 2009 , enabled Turner to run several times with Michael Krumm in the FIA ​​GT Championship. The car, which was developed for the 2010 FIA GT1 World Championship , was unable to compete with the older and more powerful vehicles. Turner also competed at Aston Martin in the Le Mans prototype newly developed with Lola Cars , the Lola-Aston Martin LMP1 , in Le Mans and throughout the entire season of the Le Mans Series . However, he and Harold Primat were only able to achieve a podium finish in the 1000 km race at the Nürburgring and at the end of the season they lagged behind teammates and champions Stefan Mücke , Tomáš Enge and Jan Charouz in the drivers' standings . In Le Mans, too, Turner with Anthony Davidson and Jos Verstappen was only able to finish the race in 13th place overall after technical problems.

In the 2010 season, Turner started together with Tomáš Enge in the FIA GT1 World Championship for Young Driver Aston Martin Racing from Paderborn. The duo won a championship run and two further qualification runs. They finished fourth in the championship at the end of the year. Turner was also involved in both the Le Mans Series and the 24 Hours of Le Mans for Aston Martin. In Le Mans, Turner joined Juan Barazi and Sam Hancock in the Le Mans prototype of the works team, but engine failure was canceled. In the Le Mans Series he competed with Robert Bell for the British customer team JWM Motorsport in an Aston Martin V8 Vantage . However, the team had to contend with a number of technical problems and played no role in the outcome of the championship in the GT2 category.

In 2011 Turner drove the newly developed Aston Martin AMR-One . Who did not finish a championship run due to technical problems. Aston Martin Racing then switched to the previous year's Lola-Aston Martin LMP1 and reduced the commitment to one vehicle. Therefore, a start in the prototype was not allowed in the runs towards the end of the year. In the FIA ​​GT1 World Championship, he shared the cockpit with Stefan Mücke, as in the previous year. With regular podium finishes and a win on the Goldenport Circuit , he finished runner-up for Young Driver Aston Martin.

In 2012 Turner competes in the FIA World Endurance Championship for Aston Martin in the GT2 category.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2003	Veloqx Prodrive Racing	Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello	Anthony Davidson	Kelvin Burt	failure	Suspension damage
2004	Prodrive Racing	Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello	Rickard Rydell	Colin McRae	Rank 9
2005	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin DBR9	Stéphane Sarrazin	David Brabham	Rank 9
2006	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin DBR9	Tomáš Enge	Andrea Piccini	Rank 6
2007	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin DBR9	Rickard Rydell	David Brabham	5th place and class win
2008	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin DBR9	Antonio García	David Brabham	Rank 13 and class win
2009	Aston Martin Racing	Lola-Aston Martin LMP1	Anthony Davidson	Jos Verstappen	Rank 13
2010	Aston Martin Racing	Lola-Aston Martin LMP1	Juan Barazi	Sam Hancock	failure	Engine failure
2011	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin AMR-One	Stefan Mücke	Christian Klien	failure	Engine failure
2012	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage GT2	Stefan Mücke	Adrián Fernández	Rank 19
2013	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	Stefan Mücke	Peter Dumbreck	Rank 18
2014	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	Stefan Mücke	Bruno Senna	Rank 33
2015	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	Stefan Mücke	Rob Bell	failure	Engine failure
2016	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	Nicki Thiim	Marco Sørensen	Rank 23
2017	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	Jonny Adam	Daniel Serra	17th place and class win
2018	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	Nicki Thiim	Marco Sørensen	Rank 23
2019	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	Nicki Thiim	Marco Sørensen	failure	accident

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2003	Veloqx Prodrive Racing	Ferrari 550 Maranello	Anthony Davidson	Kelvin Burt		Rank 13
2005	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin DBR9	David Brabham	Stéphane Ortelli		4th place and class win
2006	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin DBR9	Tomáš Enge	Nicolas Kiesa		Rank 6
2007	Team Modena	Aston Martin DBR9	Antonio García	Liz Halliday		Rank 11
2012	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage V8	Adrián Fernández	Stefan Mücke		Rank 32
2013	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage V8	Bruno Senna	Stefan Mücke		Rank 23
2015	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin Vantage V8	Pedro Lamy	Paul Dalla Lana	Mathias Lauda	Rank 17

Web links

Commons : Darren Turner  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Darren Turner website