Plenty of experience will be inside the zMAX CARS Tour technical inspection areas when the 2025 season commences.
Robert Turner, who co-owns Ace Speedway in Altamahaw, North Carolina, has been named the official technical director for the CARS Late Model Stock Car Tour. Joining Turner in the tech shed is Scott Larson, a long-time series official who will be overseeing inspection duties with the Pro Late Model Tour.
Having witnessed many CARS Tour events firsthand, Turner has been impressed by the foundation the series has built over a decade of being in operation. Now that he is taking on such a pivotal role with the Late Model Stock division, Turner is eager to start working closely with teams and the rest of the officials.
“This is something I’m really looking forward to,” Turner said. “The CARS Tour is the premier late model series. They have a lot of expectations, great teams and a lot of great people involved. This series is still growing, so it’s just exciting to be a part of it.”
Racing has always been a part of Turner’s life. He primarily competed in Late Model Stocks at Ace and several other facilities around the southeast before gradually transitioning into being a technical inspector during the latter years of his career.
Along with overseeing inspection at Ace, Turner served as the primary technical official at the now defunct East Carolina Motor Speedway for five years. He also helps oversee the inspection process for the Virginia Late Model Triple Crown, which includes the prestigious ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway.
The knowledge Turner possessed from a technical standpoint is why the CARS Tour enlisted his assistance on several occasions before becoming the LMSC Tour technical director. Each event Turner attended only broadened his appreciation for the CARS Tour and their vision to build a sustainable Late Model Stock division in the southeast
Like Turner, Larson brings years of experience to his role as a technical inspector. After starting his career in drag racing, Larson shifted his focus over to circle-track events, developing a blueprint on all the essentials needed to craft a legal, reliable race-winning engine.
Larson was more than happy to accept his new role with the PLM Tour, having previously worked with other organizations like CRA. With the CARS Tour as a whole continuing to attract more teams every year, Larson believes one tech director for each division will make the inspection process flow more seamlessly.
“More than anything else, this was something that needed to happen,” Larson said. “We have two divisions, so [the series] decided to have a director for each one. I still have the engine side that I work on, which is what I was initially hired to do for the CARS Tour several years ago. We want to try and make everything as safe as possible and legal as possible.”
Larson is already hard at work curating a rulebook for the 2025 PLM Tour season. He admitted there are a lot of elements that are going into the 2025 guidelines for teams, such as the age diversity within the PLM Tour driver roster, but Larson believes the final version of the rulebook will be fair to everyone involved.
No matter how the rulebook materializes, Larson wants to emphasize accountability. Running a fair but tight ship inside the tech shed is something that Larson knows will help the CARS Tour sustain its growth by showcasing efficiency to potential new teams and sponsors.
“[The standards] will be safety, consistency and treat everybody equally, whether it’s a brand-new team or one of our veterans,” Larson said. “I want to see that every week, so that [teams] can respect when we make a decision, it’s the right decision. That way we can expect the same from them when they bring the car through tech. We’re holding them to those rules.”
Turner intends to adhere closely to Larson’s mindset when it comes to inspection protocol. As a former competitor, Turner knows how tedious and frustrating the inspection process can be from both perspectives, but he is committed to ensuring every competitor feels they are being given equitable treatment.
“Our expectation is there’s a lot on ourselves,” Turner said. “Our tech department as a whole, with all the men and women involved, we want to meet our own expectations, which is to support the rulebook and have a level playing field. There are some things we need to work on, but we’ll hit the ground running right away. Hopefully [everything] will be well-accepted.”
It will only be a few months before Turner and Larson are at the track for the first event in their respective new roles. The 2025 zMAX CARS Tour season opener at New River All American Speedway takes place on March 1, which will be broadcasted live on FloRacing.
For more information on the zMAX CARS Late Model Stock Tour and the zMAX CARS Pro Late Model Tour, visit www.carsracingtour.com. Be sure to stay active and social with the tour by liking “CARS Tour” on Facebook, following @CARSTour on X (formerly known as Twitter) and scrolling through photos on Instagram cars_tour.
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