Life in the fast lane
DL man's interest in racing re-ignited in retirement
By Vivian (Makela) Sazama
As a young boy of 10 and 11, Dean Turcotte dreamed of racing cars. So much so, that when his parents suggested that he spend some time at his grandparent’s farm in North Dakota and help them out during harvest, he insisted on one thing – that they pick him back up on a Sunday and stop at the Dilworth Racing Speedway.
“Back then it didn’t matter if you weren’t old enough, you just did what needed to be done on the farm, driving a grain truck to the elevator, even at 10 or 11 years old,” laughed Dean, who now lives in Detroit Lakes. Those driving skills and other practical things one learns on a farm were to serve him well over the years.
Dean’s passion for racing extended into his teenage years. After graduating from Perham in 1960 he became the flagger at the speedway just up Highway 59 from Detroit Lakes on the corner of #59 and Cozy Cove Road, where old machinery now lay.
Dean and his friend, Don Guida of Park Rapids, bought a modified car and got Daggett Trucking in Frazee to sponsor them in the races in Glyndon and Grand Forks for a year. The two decided to take it a step further, and found an old car in a field and modified it for racing.
“Merle Sherman in Detroit Lakes had an oversized garage in his backyard and he let us use it to work on our cars,” said Dean. The second year Guida drove for City Cabs in Moorhead, and became the #1 car in that part of the country. Dean drove for Buick Garage in Hillsboro that same year.
Dean attended Moorhead State University and during his first summer he worked for a family in South Fargo building the Fargo Speedway Park. “I helped design, build and maintain the track and also did the flagging for the races,” he said. “I was pretty much responsible for the track. The next year we did the same thing in Grand Forks. It was a lot of work, with very little sleep, but I loved it!”
Dean also drove a car for City Cab on the one-third mile dirt track. “It had a high bank in order to make the curves. It was a lot of fun,” he said. “However, one time a chuck of mud coming off another car’s tire hit me in the face and broke my nose. I had to lift my goggles every now and then in order to see past all the blood on my goggles.”
Just before graduating with a double major in Management and Marketing, Dean got into his first car wreck. “My radiator had issues so I had to make a quick stop for it to get fixed, and then had to make up time. Somehow, coming out of the third turn, my front tire got caught on the back tire of a car in front of me and that sent me flipping end over end, I don’t know how many times. It took only a few seconds but it seemed to me to be in slow motion as I went sailing through the air,” he said. “After I landed and sat for a while I realized the gas tank in the back could explode any minute so I got out in a hurry!”
After graduating college Dean went to work for Texaco, Inc. in the Twin Cities as a Dealer Representative. “There were 22 dealerships in St. Paul,” he said. “I also worked for Business Incentives out of Minneapolis. I lived in Houston but they flew me all over the country,” he said. “I did that for a year, but got tired of all the wining and dining clients, so went back to school and got my elementary teaching degree back at Moorhead State. Later I went on and got a Master’s degree in Education Administration from St. Cloud University.
“While working for Texaco, friends of mine had two sprint cars that raced in the IMCA, mainly in Iowa, which had the biggest sprint car sanctioned race in the Midwest. I worked on the cars for two or three years. I also worked on cars for World of Outlaws in West Fargo and Grand Forks at that time.”
Dean spent the next 25 years in education for the Randall School District as an elementary teacher, then as a principal. During this time he married and the couple had twin boys. “Those were fun years,” he said. “The boys got into racing bicycles when they were young. They got to be friends with Steve Scheels, whose family owns Scheels Sports in Fargo and would help him out.”
In high school the twins were in cross country skiing and Dean was able to start some of their races. While still in high school, the National Guard out of Camp Ripley asked them to join up with the Guard and become part of their biathlon team, which combines cross country skiing with shooting rifles. Dean told them absolutely not and to enjoy their senior year of high school. After graduating in 1995, the twins did join the National Guard and became part of the Biathlon Team, which went on to win the National Championships in 1996. “They had to train 500 hours that year. They had no time but eat, sleep and train,” said Dean. “The Guard even paid $5,000 a piece for specialized .22 rifles for the event. I got to start the races for them for the Olympic Trials, which was pretty special. They had planned on having the Olympics at Camp Ripley, but the snowfall was too little that year, so it got changed to the East Coast.”
After Dean retired from teaching at age 55 he spent a year working for the World Snowmobilers Association from the Twin Cities, building race tracks for their sanctioned snocross races and setting them up all over North America and Canada, including West Yellowstone. In 1999, Arctic Cat then hired him to be part of their racing team. “I spent three months in a motel by Forest Lake overseeing construction of their custom racing semi coach trailer. It was high end, complete with a loft area for the driver to relax with a couch, TV, and equipment drying racks. It had to be done by Thanksgiving and we got it done!” he said.
After the snowmobile races were over for the season Dean would take several weeks off and then spent the summers at dealer shows at NASCAR races.
In 1999, Dean and another worker were sent to Lake Tahoe for the World Cup Snowboarding event. “There was a big storm and no traffic going through, but we had to get there to set everything up,” he said. “We followed a snowplow up the backside of the mountain, with no rails on the valley side. Neither of us had ever been there before and it was pretty hairy! We finally got up there and unloaded the scoreboard equipment. We always had hotel rooms to sleep in, but neither of us wanted to make that drive back down the mountain so we slept in the van that night!”
It was at this World Cup Snowboarding event that Dean was to meet a gal from California, who had brought her son to snowboard. “It was a Sunday and the big event was being held, the Half-pipe. We didn’t have anything to do with it so I was wandering around, when I saw this pretty blonde gal. I finally got up the nerve to talk to her!” That chance meeting developed into a long-distance relationship.
“I was traveling a lot with Arctic Cat and we always had people who the company would send out to events to help out. One day I asked them to hire Kathy instead, and they did! She worked hard at helping set everything up. The second year we were together we got married. I don’t know what I would have done without her being there,” he said.
“Everyone was really nice,” said Kathy. “We helped each other out. We had some fun times.”
“One time we were asked to take a two-week trip to New Hampshire,” said Dean. “One of the local sponsors came across a big lake to take us out to dinner. Another one then offered to loan us their convertible, so we took a few days and drove out to the Coast. That was fun. But then we got a phone call from Arctic Cat asking us to go to Talladega, Ala, for an event, so we went. I got to ride in the pace car with Buster, who took me 140 mph around the track, which had high banks. When we were almost done with that event we got another phone call, this time to go to the Michigan International Speedway. By the time we were done the two-week trip ended being seven weeks!”
After two years on the road though, Kathy had had enough of the traveling. “I continued on for another few more years,” said Dean. “I retired again, but after two years I was approached to manage a snocross team. Jokingly I told them they couldn’t pay me enough. It turned out that they could, so I worked for them for two years, before finally retiring for good!”
What began as a fascination by a young boy of racing took him down many roads and experiences after a twenty-five year hiatus to raise a family. It goes to say it’s never too late to live your dream!
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