The Daily Oklahomian (Oklahoma City, OK), Tuesday, September 6, 1938:
p. 1, c. 4-6 -

PICTURE:  "I was scared I'd tear a wing off," says Roscoe Turner to
          Frederick C. Crawford, president of the company which presents
          the Thompson trophy won by Turner Monday at the Cleveland air
          races.

ROSCOE TURNER WINS $22,000 RACE
WITH SPEED OF 283 MILES AN HOUR
        -----------
300,000 See End Of
   Air Circus At
  Cleveland Port.
    -----------
        CLEVELAND, Sept. 5 - Dapper Roscoe Turner, hard luck champion of
speed flying, refused to be jinxed Monday.  He flew the "easiest" race of
his long career to take the 300-mile Thompson trophy classic before
300,000 spectators at the national air races.
        Twice the Chicagoan lost previous Thompson races through cutting
a pylon, but Monday he combined care with record-breaking speed and
spurred his silver-colored Turner-Laird Pesco special to a mark of
283.419 miles an hour-- nearly five miles a minute.
        The unprecedented pace for the international speed classic put
Turner more than 10 miels ahead of his spirited rival, Earl Ortman, who
encountered motor trouble, and made him the first man to win the event
twice.
        He decisively shattered Michel Detroyat's previous Thompson mark
of 264.26 miles an hour, set in 1936.
        In a blue and brown uniform, Turner climbed out of his powerful
plane and said:
        "It was the easiest race I've ever flown.  I was scared a couple
of times because of the heavy load- I had 205 gallons of gasoline- and I
was afraid I'd pull off a wing, but the engine worked perfectly.
                        *       *       *
        "I flew an extra lap because I didn't want to make a mistake."
        He made no mikstakes Monday.  Back in 1933, Turner made a turn
too short- and was disqualified after appearing the certain winner.  In
1934 he won his first Thompson- at a speed of 248.12 miles an hour over a
course only one-third as long as Monday's.
        In 1935 his plane spurted oil and almost burned as he was leading
on the last lap.  He cracked up before the 1936 races and automatically
was out.  Last year, he held an apparently decisive lead on his next to
last lap when he lost a pylon in the sun and thought he had "cut" it.
        He hadn't, but because he rounded the pylon again he lost to Rudy
Kling, killed a couple of months later in a Florida race....



Abstracts (c) Copyright 1993 Stephanie L. Sandy

    Data transcription by: Milton Sandy, Jr. Corinth, MS - June 24, 1993