Dave Turner got his first motorcycle, a Honda CT70 minibike, in 1971 and began racing shortly after. He joined his high school motocross race team in 1974 and “never stopped riding motorcycles after that point,” he says. “I raced motocross all through high school and then I started hill climbing. I hill climbed professionally from 1980 through 1989.” He was ranked third in the Southern California Hillclimbers Association in 1984 and 1985.
He raced in major races in Billings, Montana, Medford, Oregon, and Roseburg, Oregon. He also raced at Saddleback Park and DeAnza Cycle Park in California, and at the Widowmaker in Salt Lake City, Utah. “I was fourth in the unlimited class on a 1,000cc Triumph at the Widowmaker in 1985 and appeared on ABC Wide World of Sports. I also made the hill that day in the 0−700cc class on a 490 Maico,” he says. It is estimated that only 13 people ever made the summit of the original Widowmaker hill climb.
He worked for Mazda Motors as the accessory development supervisor, then the offroad racing coordinator. He began racing trucks for Mazda, then other automotive brands. “My first race was the Baja 1000 in Class 7 in a rotary engine powered Mazda B2000,” Turner shares. He finished first in the Gran Carrera de Campeones, third in the Winston Smokin’ Wheels in Guam, and first in the U.S. Off Road Championships in Tokyo.
“We switched to Pro Rally in the early ’90s and won the 1994 SCCA Pro Rally National Championship in the production class driving a Mitsubishi Eclipse,” he says. “In 1995, we won the Rally Truck class championship in a Mitsubishi Mighty Max.”
He returned to off-road racing in 1999 and in 2000, he placed second in class 3100 in the Best in the Desert Silver State Series. In 2001, he placed first in class 3100. He continued to race for Ford in an Explorer, a Sport Track, and an F150 through 2010. “In 2011, I joined Bob Mamer in an Unlimited Jeep Cherokee, and we won the General Tire Jeep Speed Cup series championship,” he says.
In 2014, he began dirt bike racing again and placed second after a tiebreaker in the AMA National Hare and Hound Series 50+ B class. He also placed second in the SoCal MX International 60+ Expert Class in 2017 and 2018.
“I had knee replacement surgery in 2019 and have managed the U.S. Hard Enduro Team and EnduroCross teams ever since,” he says. “I’ve been involved in motorsports or some form of the automotive or motorcycle industry my whole life. My dad owns auto parts stores so that’s been my life from the very beginning. I’m still racing. I raced last Sunday, and I’m old, but I can’t seem to stop,” he laughs.
His wife, Deb Turner, doesn’t race, but she is a constant supporter. “She’s always at the races,” Turner says. “She was there when I was racing trucks, helping manage the team. When we got married, I was hill climbing at that point, and she was okay with motorcycles in the living room. So that’s always been good,” he laughs.
Dave Turner Adventure Tours
In 2008, he started a motorcycle touring business in Morongo Valley, California. Dave Turner Adventure Tours rented out dirt bikes, which led him to become a Beta USA dealer in 2009. “Our shop is in a little town called Morongo Valley that is about 1,300 people… We still have a tour page on our website and people can go on there and book directly,” he explains. “I sold Beta’s up until around 2016. We were the fourth largest Beta dealer in the U.S. at that point.” He named his business Get Dirty Dirt Bikes.
Get Dirty Dirt Bikes
Around 2016, Turner added TM Motorcycles to the dealership. “The importer at that time was Ralf Schmidt and I went to his house and introduced myself and talked to him and we struck a deal. I started selling TM Motorcycles,” he says. “In 2018 or 2019 we were the largest TM dealer in the U.S. as far as sales.” During the pandemic, the importer of TM Motorcycles had to leave the U.S. and Get Dirty Dirt Bikes became the brand’s distributor until 2023, when the company left the U.S. market.
“We’re keeping our fingers crossed that we’ll be selling TM Motorcycles at some point,” Turner says. “I know that they’re negotiating to have an importer for the U.S. again… We really liked the bikes. They sell themselves.”
The dealership also manages the TM Motorcycles Extreme Off-Road racing team and EnduroCross team. “We’re still doing that, and we do it under the Get Dirty Dirt Bikes name,” Turner says. “And we have a pro rider that’s riding for us that’s riding Betas this year.”
Race managers
“We prep and prepare the bikes, and we supply the bikes to pro riders,” Turner says. “We have amateur riders that ride for us as well and they usually buy their bikes at a discount, and we help them maintain the bikes and then we go to the series that we’re involved in which is the U.S. Hard Enduro series and EnduroCross series. We transport the bikes, we set up the pits, we keep the bikes running during the races and riders hydrated.”
The Enduro series started at the beginning of October, and Turner and his wife will go to all six of the races in the series. “It’s pretty cool. It’s a lot of work, but it’s not really work when it’s fun,” he says.
Braeden Sundelius works in the service department at the dealership and when he is unable to attend races with the dealership owners, he is still involved in race prepping the bikes. “We have our own suspension set up,” Turner says. “We do everything on the bikes for the races.”
Best practices
Get Dirty Dirt Bikes posts regularly on Facebook and Instagram, and sometimes on LinkedIn. He says that the dealership receives the most engagement on Facebook.
“I know Facebook is the old-school thing, but we get a ton [of interaction] from that,” he says. “We have 13,000 plus followers. We’re involved in vintage racing as well, I sponsor a series called The American Retrocross Series, and we also race with them. When we post stuff about vintage bikes, we get so many responses. I posted something last week that got 105,000 impressions.”
Turner also shares his excitement for the dealership’s new and updated website. “It’s really nice compared to the one we have now,” he says. “The new one has more functions… I’m pretty jazzed about the new website.” He had used the same hosting site since 2008 but will now work with a more affordable host that will also enhance his website.
Family and the future
“For us, it’s great,” he says about working with his wife daily. “She’s here every day. She sometimes comes in at like 11:30 or leaves at two o’clock,” he laughs, “but it’s really good. She’s been here since the beginning. We’ve been married 44 years.”
And now, his granddaughter, Laynie Turner, also works part-time at the dealership.“It’s been great. She helps us keep track of the books and dealer invoicing… It’s so easy for us to call and say, ‘Laynie, we need help,’ and she’s here and it gets done.”
Turner says that the used motorcycle market was slow in September, partly due to the season. “I have a 300 KTM in here and we used to sell those super easy. I’ve had it for a month,” he says. “One thing here is, its 100 plus degrees in the summertime. During the summer people just don’t ride much. Come October when the weather is really nice here, things pick up. That’s what I’m basing our inventory on. We need to be ready for the cooler months.”
