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RIP Dan Gurney 1931-2018

RIP Dan Gurney 1931-2018 15th January 2018

The great American driver Dan Gurney has died, aged 86, in Newport Beach California.  His driving career spanned the last of the front-engined Grand Prix cars to the start of F1’s commercial era in the early 1970s.

He was one of the last all-rounders, at the top of his game in any category, and a well-respected manufacturer of racing cars, AAR (All American Racers), in his own right. While not quite at the level of Moss, Stewart or Clark, Dan Gurney could rival any other driver and was almost unique in being so capable in so many different disciplines.

With Phil Hill and Richie Ginther, Dan Gurney was one of the three American racing drivers equally at home at the wheel of single-seaters and sports-racers both in the US and Europe. All were members of Ferrari’s 250 Testa Rossa sports-car line-up and when Gurney fell out with Enzo Ferrari over money in 1960, he joined ‘Lucky’ Casner’s CAMORADI équipe and scored a superb win at the ’Ring that year, sharing a Maserati Tipo 60 ‘Birdcage’ with Stirling Moss.

Gurney was the lead driver for Carroll Shelby’s Cobra team, later graduating to GT40s, Mk IIs and the Mk IV, in which he scored the Blue Oval’s second win at Le Mans in 1967. He also drove in NASCAR, saloon cars, Trans-Am and Can-Am, and raced each year in the Indianapolis 500 from 1962 to 1970, scoring two seconds and a third.

His greatest achievement in F1 was 1st place at the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix driving his own Eagle-Weslake. It was the last of his four World Championship GP victories.

The photo shows Dan Gurney with Harry Weslake contemplating the 100 bottles of champagne won at the 1967 Brands Hatch Race of Champions. Gurney’s Eagle-Weslake V12 came first in both 10-lap heats and the final, 40-lap decider.

Photo by Alamy/GP Library