Darren Turner notched up his fourth podium from three successive race weekends when he rewarded The Heart of Racing (THOR) team with an inspired third place alongside Gray Newell in the second GT World Challenge America race at Road America on Sunday.
The works Aston Martin driver was delighted to be able to deliver more silverware to the team after they successfully recovered from a heavy accident he suffered during Friday’s practice sessions. Turner admitted he feared the worst for the team’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3 after he made a rare error through the ultra-fast kink at Turn 11 and backed the British-built sportscar into the wall.
“I haven’t done that much damage to Aston Martins over the years, and I haven’t gone off that often in race cars,” said the veteran endurance racer, who is competing in his 21st consecutive season with the brand in 2025. “But when I got out of the car and went to look at the back after the crash, I was sure there was no way that we were going to get back out over the weekend.
“But the team did an incredible job, they dug in and pulled an all-nighter on Friday, and I simply can’t thank them enough. They really had to make parts and repair the unrepairable to get us back out there, but they did, and we ended up with a fast race car as well!”
THOR rebuilt the Vantage enough for both drivers to cautiously complete a single lap in their respective qualifying sessions to register for the races, Newell in ninth and Turner seventh.
The first race proved to be a washout as an electrical storm and then torrential rain brought an early halt to proceedings. Newell worked his way up to sixth in the 15 laps that did take place, many of which were behind the Safety Car to clean up another crash at Turn 11. Turner didn’t even get to drive the car.
It meant that Darren’s first competitive laps of the breathtaking, undulating and superfast 4.05-mile Road America since 2006, were completed at the start of the second race; this time held in blazing sunshine. And he had the bit between his teeth. Moving up a position on each of the first three laps, Turner was up to sixth in the Pro-Am class and 11th overall before the race had even settled into its stride.
“The car was really fast,” said Turner. “I had some great battles. But then I caught one of the Pro class BMWs and we got stuck behind them until they pitted. I then had another four laps before my stop, and I used those to get my head down and really press on.”
Use them he did, and by the time Turner pitted he was fourth in class, as well as overall. Once the dust had settled and the field had completed its driver changes, Newell found himself running third and sixth overall... thanks in no small part to slick work by the THOR pit crew.
“Gray did a superb job and was really strong,” said Turner. “He was closing in on the BMW in second place and if the race had gone on for three or four more laps under green flag conditions, he would have had a real chance of attacking for the class's runner-up spot.”
Newell’s pursuit of second place was cut short by a late full course caution, which ultimately released the field into a chaotic one-lap sprint at the race’s end, but Gray stayed calm and out of trouble to deliver the podium. If you discount the race Turner didn’t drive in on Saturday, it marked the fourth time in succession that Turner had stepped onto the podium, having recorded a second and a third in the previous GT World Challenge America meeting at Virginia International Raceway in July. He then followed that up with third place in the Aston Martin LM4 at Silverstone, immediately prior to the Road America weekend.
In the end though, this weekend was all about THOR and the team’s remarkable engineers and mechanics.
“The pace on Friday looked good. We should have been starting further up the grid and who knows what we could have achieved if we hadn’t been put on the backfoot by the incident,” said Turner. “There is a feeling of frustration because my mistake probably didn’t give us the best opportunity, but that’s racing, and these things do happen. But it’s how you bounce back that counts, and the team achieved a deserved podium. I’m just massively grateful to them all for their efforts and for getting us back on track on Saturday. Everyone just went above and beyond, and I’m super happy that we were able to reward everyone.”
Turner’s next outing in the GT World Challenge America is at Barber Motorsport Park, on 5-7 September.