Story by: Langley Austin ~ langley@RACE22.com

Richmond, VA(December 17, 2009) -- Richmond, Virginia isn't the typical city of residence for UARA-STARS Series drivers, in fact Scott Turlington is the only series regular from the state of Virginia.

While handicapped by the distance he had to travel to each of the fifteen races he competed in during the 2009 season, Turlington made the most of his long travels and came home with a second straight top ten points finish in ninth position. Turlington and his Richmond based Mid Atlantic Racing team made the haul to all of the UARA-STARS Series races except for the 15th of sixteen races at Kingsport Speedway in Kingsport, Tennessee, which would have been his longest tow.

Turlington's season started off with the young driver being among the fastest in testing at Bristol Motor Speedway, where the first race of the season would take place. However that first race didn't go quite like he had planned after qualifying 13th of the 36 starters on the 1/2 mile speedplant as early in the race he had mechanical issues and triggered one of the biggest wrecks of the season. Turlington's car was heavily damaged, but lucky for him he was ready to roll out a brand new chassis from Marlowe Racing Chassis and hoped that, that would change his bad luck that had seemed to carry over from the 2008 season.

31st would be the finish record for Turlington at Bristol and as the series headed to stop number two at Rockingham Speedway he would qualify a disappointing 22nd, but rallied late to finish 12th surviving many crashes. Many of Turlington's finishes would be in the teens with a 19th at Concord Speedway, 12th at Tri-County Motor Speedway and a 13th at Dillon Motor Speedway in the next three races, but when the series headed to Turlington's 'home track' of sorts, things changed.

That next stop took the UARA-STARS Series back to Orange County Speedway and while the Rougemont, NC track isn't exactly close to Richmond, VA, but it was a track that Turlington had been a frequent competitor at before joining the tour full time at the beginning of the 2008 season. Turlington turned in his best performance of the season on the 3/8 mile high banked facility with a sixth place finish after starting 17th.

A season that was expected to be a break out year for Turlington turned into little more than much of the same as the 2008 season as he went on to record finishes of; 12th at Hickory Motor Speedway, 14th at Lonesome Pine Raceway, 12th in the second stop at Tri-County Motor Speedway, 17th at Ace Speedway, 23rd at Myrtle Beach Speedway, 12th at Newport Speedway, 18th in the second stop at Dillon Motor Speedway and 11th in the second stop at Hickory Motor Speedway on October 18th.

Turlington however closed out his 2009 season with only his second top ten finish with a ninth place effort at Concord Speedway in Concord, NC. For Turlington it certainly wasn't the results that he and his team had expected to have when the season started, but it was a
 

season of ups and downs and missed opportunities. Turlington invested heavily in his team this season with new cars and engines, a new crew chief and more, but he simply couldn't shake his bad luck.

Scott Turlington's 2009 Season at a Glance:

Date Track Name Start/Finish
3/21/09 Bristol Motor Speedway 13th/31st
4/18/09 Rockingham Speedway 22nd/12th
4/25/09 Concord Speedway 16th/19th
5/22/09 Tri-County Motor Speedway 15th/12th
5/30/09 Dillon Motor Speedway 17th/13th
6/6/09 Orange County Speedway 17th/6th
6/27/09 Hickory Motor Speedway 24th/12th
7/4/09 Lonesome Pine Raceway 14th/14th
7/17/09 Tri-County Motor Speedway 9th/12th
8/7/09 Ace Speedway 20th/17th
8/15/09 Myrtle Beach Speedway 21st/23rd
8/29/09 Newport Speedway 8th/12th
9/19/09 Dillon Motor Speedway 13th/18th
10/18/09 Hickory Motor Speedway 14th/11th
11/14/09 - Concord Speedway 15th/9th

Average Start - 15th Average Finish - 14th