Racer decides to keep on trucking.

• Position: Fred Turner of Perry and Turner Co. sponsors a National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing team

In his youth, Fred Turner was satisfied to race on drag strips and dirt tracks, but then things sort of got out of hand.

"It started out as a hobby," says the president of Perry and Turner Trucking Co. in Greensboro. "But our annual |racing~ budget is in the range of $650,000. That kind of takes it out of the hobby range."

Even at that, the 47-year-old NASCAR team owner admits that he's pinching pennies, unlike well-heeled Winston Cup owners such as Rick Hendrick and Felix Sabates, who spend $2 million-plus a year on their racing teams. "Those guys are out of my league," he says. "They've got a lot of money. Not me."

But since going on the Busch Grand National circuit in 1989 with Sterling Marlin behind the wheel at Darlington, Turner says he's had a fair record.

After Turner's team won the October '89 race in Charlotte, StaffAmerica, a Charlotte-based human-resource compliance and payroll company, decided to sponsor his team for seven races in 1991 and has signed on for a full schedule this year. Although his best finish was 11th at Richmond in March, Turner has sunk too much money into his team to look at it as a pastime. It has clearly turned into an investment and business venture.

"We intend to be a contender for the Busch title," says Turner, whose love of racing dates to the days when, as a 19-year-old, he had to bring a note from his parents so he could race at Winston-Salem's Bowman Gray Stadium.

Turner, though, has the same problem as a lot of businessmen -- his business keeps getting in the way of his first love. "I've been racing for 20-some years, and it's always been my desire...