Harry Turner did it all in midget racing. Never a point
champion he was however a big winner in the midgets from
Kansas City to Chicago.
While skilled as a driver he was also a top mechanic
and as a car builder produced a monocoque midget for Gary
Bettenhausen which was very successful.
As a car owner,
Turner is credited with shaping Rich Vogler’s career. Turner,
from the “old school” was hard nosed and hard to beat. When
the team was suspended from USAC after an altercation at
Moline, Illinois Turner took the young Vogler into the
Mid-west regional clubs and they won countless races and the
National Alliance of Midget Auto Racing Championship in 1973.
After being struck by a midget at Kankakee, IL, he
spent the last few years of his life in a wheel chair, still
producing championship caliber drivers. Turner owned at least
one midget every year from 1936 until his death in 1988 at the
age of 76. He built over 25 cars including the first
lightweight space-frame midget and 11 monocoque tubs.
