Motorsport: Paul Turnbull’s career set to take off with races planned for Belgium and Germany.
Dec 2 2010 by Chris Roberts, Huddersfield Daily Examiner
Motorsport: Paul Turnbull’s career set to take off with races planned for Belgium and Germany.
PAUL TURNBULL’s future has never looked so exciting.
The Classic Sports Car Club driver from Golcar is next season set to drive at world-famous circuits such as the Nurburgring (Germany) and Spa(Belgium) as he seeks revenge for his second-place class finish last campaign.
Born in Crosland Moor, the 36-year-old has been regularly successful in the Swinging Sixties Class of the CSCC, which will now feature overseas races from next year.
Despite the upbeat outlook, he is hoping for much-needed sponsorship to help his Championship push next time around.
“It’s come to the point where if I want to race at the best venues I need sponsorship,” he said.
“It will be expensive to race at those fantastic circuits abroad so if sponsorship allowed me to do that then it would be great.”
Last season Turnbull was unfortunate not to win the Swinging Sixties Class for the second year running after agonisingly running out of petrol on the penultimate lap of the final event.
“I was chasing down first place and I was looking good for the championship,” he explained.
“During my second to last lap at Donington the incident happened. I was going round and there was just no fuel left. It was disappointing but these situations happen in car racing.”
It was an achievement for Turnbull to still be in contention in the last race, as he raced in only four of the nine races.
He finished sixth and first in class at Mallory Park, second and first in class at Silverstone, first at Snetterton and recorded that DNF with his incident at Donington.
Turnbull has been working in a team with father Philip and friend Andrew Daniel, and after spending approximately £20,000 on a 1968 TVR Tuscan V8, the car was ready for the second half of the season.
“After a very busy 12 months we finally got the car ready,” he said.
“I was repeatedly finishing first in class during my races but due to the time constraints it was always going to be very difficult to finish first overall.”
Turnbull’s racing ambitions were realised six years ago when he had his own company fixing cars.
“I had my own business working on cars at Electrical Plus and I just thought that maybe I should give racing a shot,” he said.
“I got into hill-climbing and sprinting and originally bought an old Reliant Scimitar. After winning the best novice award my career took off.
“Four years later I began driving in the CSCC and it’s progressed really well with regular class wins and podiums throughout.”
With the season over Turnbull currently works as a Maintenance Engineer at VTL Europe in Huddersfield, while trying to improve his car for next year’s crucial championship.
