Turning a wheel with Darren Turner

Introduction

When we refer to motorsports the first thing that pops up into everyone’s mind is Formula 1 because it has the biggest global reach as well as what we can assume to be the highest top-speeds in the racing world. However, speed is not always everything and sometimes it is more to do with style, class and endurance. I place significance on the last word because that is a different style of motor racing altogether when compared to the single seater race cars that we are so familiar with.

One of the lesser known but really exciting motorsports of this nature is endurance racing. It requires a different approach and has been a great boon in terms of improving fuel efficiencies across manufacturers. So obviously, when we were given the chance to interview Aston Martin endurance driver Darren Turner, there was no way we could say no to the opportunity.
Captivated by the famous powder blue and orange livery (courtesy Gulf Oil) of the Vanatge GTE racer, we just had to find out what made him tick as well as his motivation for participating in the sport.

Image:Darren Turner's Facebook Page

In the beginning

A happy coincidence is perhaps the best term I can use to describe how Darren Turner began his racing career. As a little kid, he began in Go-Karts for fun. Fun led to interest which ultimately turned into a passion thus putting an eight-year old Darren Turner on his future career path. He trundled down the obvious path of progression that exists and made his way up the single-seater racer car hierarchy.

We all have that one moment in life which we would like to define as the ‘big change’ and for Darren Turner it would have to be his clinching of the 1996 McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year title at Silverstone after beating other legendary drivers like Dan Wheldon, Peter Dumbreck and Tim Mullen. The win got him membership at the BRDC (British Race Driver’s Club) and the opportunity to test with the McLaren F1 team as well as a cheque for 50,000 GBP which he says; he promptly spent on his racing career rather than making a down payment for a home which seemed to be the in-thing to do at that time.

Image source:Darren Turner's Facebook Page

Endurance racing

Reality hits at a time when you least expect it and for Darren Turner it was during the course of his single-seater career. Formula 1 is the most prestigious of the lot when it comes to world of fast single-seater race cars. The attention you get thanks to its global presence is unmatched but at a certain price which is that the induction rate into the F1 grid is just 1-3 drivers a year.

Having realised this, Darren began to look elsewhere and found his calling in the form of sports car and endurance car racing. This choice has resulted in him participating in a variety of formats like DTM, BTCC, GT1 racing, V8 supercars. He switched to these various formats before finally getting the call from Aston Martin who were looking to enter endurance racing in 2005.

He has been with the team since then and has worked his way from being the newbie to the oldest and most experienced member of the team. He has raced on a variety of courses including the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans. It is the crown jewel in the endurance racing calendar and is what the Monaco Grand Prix is to the Formula 1 circuit.
One of the things (and I suspect the main one) that attracted him to endurance racing is that it gives you more time to spend in the car. On an average you spend at best maybe 2-3 hours per racing session in single seater cars but in endurance racing the time spent in the cars can be anywhere between four hours to eight hours making for larger stints behind the wheel.

Image:Darren Turner's Facebook Page

What it take to participate in endurance racing

As we had said earlier, endurance racing requires you to do long stints behind the wheel with each member of the driving crew putting in at least eight hours throughout the race. Obviously you have to be at an optimum fitness level to take up motorsports as a profession but the extra push comes when you are ‘driver-fit’;- a concept I could not figure out and had to cut into Darren’s flow to get an explanation.

Being driver fit means you are familiar with the environment that you are working in as well as adapting your body to the environmental constraints like heat, dust and vibrations. Darren explained that with repeated exposure, your body adapts and you tend to use lesser energy for peripheral tasks and you can give your 100 per cent to racing rather than forcing yourself to keep adjusting in a bid to concentrate.
Keeping with this theme Darren told us that the best place he has ever driven in is the Nordschleife a.k.a the Green Hell. It is basically the north loop of the infamous Nurburgring race track in Germany. While the Le Mans circuit maybe the pinnacle in the sport, the Nordschleife sits on a throne of its own when it comes to driving challenge and speeds. It is no wonder then that the track is used as a benchmark by many manufacturers especially for high performance cars.

What is the scope for such kind of sports in India

Darren tells us that India is still a long way from matching Europe or America in terms of motorsports and still has to climb quite a few milestones before it can create a full-blown motorsports scene.

However, with the enthusiasm of Indian fans (whose support he is very grateful for) and a large stream of budding talent, the Indian motorsports scene will grow much faster than expected.

Aston Martin and Gulf Oil

One of the hidden heroes of the Aston Martin team (quite literally) is their engine lubricant which in this case is Gulf Oil who has been their partner since 2008. In simple terms, Darren described their relationship as one of silent harmony.

He said that generally race drivers complain about a bunch of things across the cars and constantly want changes. Gulf Oil is something they never had to complain about as it has performed perfectly on every occasion.

Signing off

We posed one last question to him which was to find out what was the scariest moment he had ever faced on track so far. In response Darren said that racing has always had a certain element of danger in it and that anything could happen at any time. The best one can do is to always be prepared and keep faith that nothing will go wrong.

Summing up our conversation, I would say that it was quite interesting to interact with Darren and know the know-how’s of what it takes to succeed in endurance racing. He has promised to come back to India once again and give us a demonstration of the roaring Aston Martins and that is something we will hold him to!

Image source:Darren Turner's Facebook Page