Darren Turner
Darren Turner in 2013
Nationality	British
Born	(1974-04-13) 13 April 1974 Camberley, Surrey, England, United Kingdom
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years	2003 –
Teams	Prodrive Racing, Aston Martin Racing
Best finish	5th (2007)
Class wins	3 (2007, 2008, 2017)
FIA World Endurance Championship career
Debut season	2012
Current team	Aston Martin Racing
Car number	98
Starts	59
Wins	8
Poles	11
Fastest laps	2
Best finish	3rd in 2013
Previous series
2008–09 2008 2007–09 2006–08 2003, 2005–08 2003, 2007–09 2002 2000–01 2000–01 1999 1998 1997 1997, 1999 1995–96 1994 1993	Rolex Sports Car Series Formula Ford 1600 Le Mans Series BTCC American Le Mans Series FIA GT Championship ASCAR DTM Formula One testing Italian Formula 3000 Formula Palmer Audi British Formula 3 Formula One testing Formula Renault UK Formula Vauxhall Lotus FFirst Great Britain W. Series
Championship titles
2007, 2008 1993	24 Hours of Le Mans – GT1 FFirst Great Britain W. Series
Awards
1996	McLaren Autosport Award

Darren Turner (born 13 April 1974) is a British racing driver and owner of Base Performance Simulators. He races for Aston Martin Racing as a factory driver and also works as a high performance test driver for Aston Martin.

He was McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year in 1996. He is a former test driver for the McLaren Formula One team, but has raced primarily in touring cars and sportscars since 2000. He spent 2 years in the DTM for Keke Rosberg's Mercedes-Benz-powered team, also winning several ASCAR races. In 2006 he raced sportscars for Aston Martin, but also competed five rounds of the British Touring Car Championship for SEAT, sharing their 2nd car with James Thompson. In his first drive for the team he finished 3rd.

He remained with the team for 2007, now full-time team-mate to Plato. Luck was again against him at Rockingham – after qualifying on pole the car had an electrical failure before race one. His first win came in race 11 at Croft Archived 8 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine, with two more at Knockhill.

Turner driving for SEAT at the Oulton Park round of the 2007 British Touring Car Championship.

As well as driving for SEAT in the BTCC, Darren also competed in the 2007 Le Mans 24 Hours, competing in the GT1 class driving for Prodrive Aston Martin Racing alongside David Brabham and Rickard Rydell. After a tense fight against the Corvette Racing Corvette C6.R of Johnny O'Connell, Jan Magnussen and Ron Fellows, the Aston prevailed to win a Le Mans class race for the first time since the return of Aston Martin to endurance sportscar racing.

He opened his 2008 racing season by competing in the Rolex 24 finishing 4th in class and overall sharing a Krohn Racing Pontiac-Riley with Niclas Jonsson and Ricardo Zonta. At the 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans Turner won the GT1 class (13th overall) driving an Aston Martin DBR9 shared with David Brabham and Antonio García.

Turner also participated in the Gold Coast 600 race as part of the 2011 International V8 Supercars Championship. He entered the race as a replacement driver to Dan Wheldon, who was scheduled to drive in the race but was killed in a 15-car crash at the IndyCar World Championship race at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, less than a week before the race.

In 2012, Turner competed in the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship season with Aston Martin Racing in the GTE-Pro class Aston Martin Vantage.

In the 80th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2012, Turner and the Aston Martin Racing finished third place in the GTE-Pro class along with his co-drivers the German Stefan Mücke and the Mexican Adrián Fernández, their Aston Martin Vantage 4.5 L-V8 covered a total of 332 laps (2,811.65 miles), in the Circuit de la Sarthe without failure or serious mechanical problems. Also the team achieved the fastest lap of the category with 3 minutes and 54.928 seconds.^[1][2]

Turner continued to race for Aston Martin Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship until 2020, notching up numerous victories, the biggest of which was his third 24 Hours of Le Mans win, which came in 2017. He raced the #97 Aston Martin Vantage GTE to a class win in GTE Pro, alongside Jonny Adam and Daniel Serra. It was Turner who took the GTE pole position for the 2017 race with a time that broke the lap record.

Darren continues to race, competing in events including the Nürburgring 24 Hours.

As a high performance development driver for Aston Martin, Turner has worked on the development of cars including the Aston Martin Vulcan and the Aston Martin Valkyrie.

Turner is also a regular competitor at the Goodwood Revival and in 2018 he was named "Rolex Driver of the Meeting" in recognition of his performances at the event.

Racing record

24 Hours of Le Mans results

The #97 Aston Martin Vantage V8 during the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans

The #95 Aston Martin Vantage AMR at the 6 Hours of Spa 2018

Year	Team	Co-drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class pos.
2003	Veloqx Prodrive Racing	Anthony Davidson Kelvin Burt	Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello	GTS	176	DNF	DNF
2004	Prodrive Racing	Colin McRae Rickard Rydell	Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello	GTS	329	9th	3rd
2005	Aston Martin Racing	David Brabham Stéphane Sarrazin	Aston Martin DBR9	GT1	333	9th	3rd
2006	Aston Martin Racing	Tomáš Enge Andrea Piccini	Aston Martin DBR9	GT1	350	6th	2nd
2007	Aston Martin Racing	David Brabham Rickard Rydell	Aston Martin DBR9	GT1	343	5th	1st
2008	Aston Martin Racing	David Brabham Antonio García	Aston Martin DBR9	GT1	344	13th	1st
2009	Aston Martin Racing	Anthony Davidson Jos Verstappen	Lola-Aston Martin B09/60	LMP1	342	13th	11th
2010	Aston Martin Racing	Juan Barazi Sam Hancock	Lola-Aston Martin B09/60	LMP1	368	DNF	DNF
2011	Aston Martin Racing	Stefan Mücke Christian Klien	Aston Martin AMR-One	LMP1	4	DNF	DNF
2012	Aston Martin Racing	Stefan Mücke Adrián Fernández	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	GTE Pro	332	19th	3rd
2013	Aston Martin Racing	Stefan Mücke Peter Dumbreck	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	GTE Pro	314	17th	3rd
2014	Aston Martin Racing	Stefan Mücke Bruno Senna	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	GTE Pro	310	35th	6th
2015	Aston Martin Racing	Stefan Mücke Rob Bell	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	GTE Pro	110	DNF	DNF
2016	Aston Martin Racing	Marco Sørensen Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	GTE Pro	338	23rd	5th
2017	Aston Martin Racing	Jonathan Adam Daniel Serra	Aston Martin Vantage GTE	GTE Pro	340	17th	1st
2018	Aston Martin Racing	Nicki Thiim Marco Sørensen	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	GTE Pro	339	23rd	8th
2019	Aston Martin Racing	Nicki Thiim Marco Sørensen	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	GTE Pro	132	DNF	DNF

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Darren Turner.

• Darren Turner official website
• Darren Turner career summary at DriverDB.com
• Profile at BTCCPages.com