Racing driver Darren Turner and some of his race cars

The "other" Darren Turner

Have to throw in some info on the "Other" Darren Turner, because there's an odd coincidence or two in each of their histories. "Other" Darren is on the web too, with quite a nice website at www.darrenturner.net. He also owns the domain name darrenturner.com, which is why the Canadian Darren Turner had to use the (very Canadian) darrenturner.ca domain name for this site.

A lap at Paul Ricard in the DBR9. The sound of that engine is incredible!

The Other Darren has had some great successes driving for Aston Martin Racing in wonderful race cars like the gorgeous hot rod DBR9. Here's a beautiful shot of the DBR9 Le Mans Series racecar that he co-drove with Nick Leventis and Peter Hardman at Silverstone in 2008). Here's a pair of Aston Martins at Laguna Seca, the #57 DBR9 being the Other Darren / David Brabham entry, and the #58 being the Pedro Lamy / Peter Cox racecar. He also drives another type of Aston Martin race car, the Lola Aston Martin. A pic here of the LMP1 Lola Aston racecar he co drove with Harold Primat. While the DBR9 looks like its streetcar brethern, the Lola Aston doesn't even have a street version.

Canadian Darren Turner has also driven the Laguna Seca race course while attending the Jim Russel racing school in 1990, which was located at the California track at that time, and so also has intimate knowlege of that challenging racetrack, although not in an Aston Martin DBR9 race car. Coincidentally (or perhaps not...), Other Darren also attended the Jim Russel School, but in 1992. Originally founded by the British racing champion Jim Russel in 1957, the racing school is now relocated to the Sears Point racetrack in southern California. The Skip Barber racing school, however, is now located at Laguna, so it's still possible to attend a race car driving school at the Laguna Seca racetrack.

We're digressing... back to Darren Turner, Other Darren, that is.

There's another awesome FIA GT1 race car that Other Darren Turner has raced and helped the development of. Nissan / NISMO's new 2010 FIA GT1 spec GT-R. Along with Michael Krumm and Anthony Davidson they even managed a 3rd place finish at the 24hr Spa Endurance race in July 2009. What make this all the more impressive is that the car is actually built to 2010 FIA GT1 specifications (i.e. more weigh & less power than 2009 specs.), so they were presumably at a disadvantage to the 2009 spec cars they raced against.
(click the image to see the full size picture taken at Silverstone).

Darren Turner does a lap of Snetterton in the BTCC Seat turbo-diesel.

Darren Turner has also worked as a test driver for the McLaren Mercedes Formula 1 Team, and raced a turbo-diesel(!) Seat in the British Touring Car Championship Series, winning at tracks like Knockhill and Croft. In a Diesel?! Yes, in a turbo-diesel. Unfortunately Turner didn't stay long in the BTCC, just the 2008 season. Other Darren's also driven a couple of seasons, 2001 & 2002, in German Touring Car (DTM) series Mercedes-Benz racecars for Keke Rosberg's team.

More recently Darren Turner has raced Australian V8 Supercars at the Gold Coast 600 race (near Brisbane, Australia), standing in for the late racing driver Dan Wheldon in the Toll Holden Racing Team #1 car with series regular V8 Supercar driver James Courtney.

With the recent announcement that the Australian V8 Supercars will be racing Austin, Texas in 2013, Canadian racing driver Darren Turner has potentially a golden opportunity to compete in these awesome race cars too.

When he's not busy racing, Darren runs 'Base Performance', a company that offers specialist expertise to the motorsport and automotive industries. Base Performance is involved in simulator set-up and development, racing driver development training, vehicle assessment, and also development of racing and street cars.

So, Other Darren really does have a very successful racing career, but please don't confuse the two of them. This is the official website of the older and hopefully wiser Canadian race car driver Darren Turner!