Happy 86th Birthday, Dan Gurney!

By RACER Staff / Images by Albert Wong, Marshall Pruett, LAT

Henry Ford III, Dan Gurney, Edsel B. Ford II, A.J. Foyt Jr. with the 1967 Le Mans-winning Ford GT Mk IV. (Image by Albert Wong). RACER would like to wish a Happy Birthday to Dan Gurney, who turns 86 today. Thursday, 13 April 2017


The all-American motorsports legend achieved fame first as a driver, winning races in Formula 1, Indy cars, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, NASCAR, Can-Am and Trans-Am. Along the way, Gurney becoming the only American to take a car of his own construction to win an F1 World Championship event. After his driving career, he enjoyed many more successes as a team owner and manufacturer of the All America Racers Eagle racecars.
Prior to last weekend's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, RACER sat down with two of motor racing's biggest legends, Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt, as the winners of the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans celebrated the 50th anniversary of the amazing achievement with Ford and the iconic GT40 in an April 7 ceremony at the Road Racing Drivers Club dinner.

In 2014, Robin Miller visited Gurney at the AAR shop in Santa Ana, Calif., for a series of video interviews for The RACER Channel – Dan Gurney: All American Racer, presented by Bell – in which Dan recalls some of the highlights of his epic career. Watch the first episode below, and click here to view the other five episodes in the series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4eK...CD1rdBLPU-cq1J

 

[h=2]Racing Legends Dan Guerney Jackie Stewart Chris Amon Jim Clark[/h]



50 years ago today: Gurney's all-American F1 win

Sunday, 18 June 2017

By RACER staff / Images by LAT archive

It was 50 years ago today that Dan Gurney took one of the most significant wins of his legendary career, in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps with his own Eagle-Weslake – making him a winner both as a driver and a constructor. And it came just a week after another of Gurney's iconic wins – winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Ford GT40 Mk.IV he co-drove with A.J. Foyt!
Gurney qualified second with his Eagle-Weslake to Jim Clark's Lotus Ford. Clark pulled away to a substantial early lead but was forced to pit for a plug change. This handed the lead to Jackie Stewart's BRM, which appeared to be in control of the race after Gurney, too, was delayed by fuel pressure problems.
However, the sleek Eagle – featuring a magnesium skin, titanium suspension and custom-engineered Weslake V12 engine – was at its best on the fast Spa circuit and, with the fuel pressure issues resolved, Gurney cut into Stewart's lead, setting a new lap record and reaching an estimated 197 mph on the back straight. That was a particularly impressive number given that the Weslake produced under 400 horsepower.
As Stewart's pace slowed due to gearshift problems, Gurney swept past with eight laps to go and went on to claim the "all-American victory."
In the following episode from RACER's 2014 video series, "Dan Gurney, All American Racer," Dan tells Robin Miller about taking the Eagle into Formula 1 and about the challenge of Spa-Francorchamps, which he considered one of the two most daunting tracks on the grand prix schedule at that time.