The word legend is used erroneously in many cases to
describe athletes in the modern word. But to describe Dan Gurney as anything
other than a legend would be a mistake.
Gurney, one of the top drivers of his day and a leader in
the motorsports world both on and off the track for decades, passed away
Sunday, January 14, from complications of pneumonia. He was 86. Our condolences
to his family.
Gurney was the most driver in history to win races in
IndyCars, NASCAR, Formula 1 and the top-level sports car ranks. And when you
see drivers spraying champagne after they win a race – credit that to Gurney
too. He started the tradition after winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1967.
With all seven of his IndyCar victories, as well as one of
his NASCAR wins, coming in the No. 48, here are 48 bullet points – statistics,
facts and figures – on the career of Dan Gurney.
Dan Gurney – Racing Statistics
- - Gurney competed in 86 Formula 1 races, between
1959 and 1970 (he did not compete in 1969). He won four races, earned 19 podium
finishes and recorded three pole positions.
o
Gurney’s first race came in the 1959 French
Grand Prix, driving for Ferrari. He completed 19 of the 50 laps before retiring
with radiator problems.
o
Gurney’s first victory was the 1962 French Grand
Prix at Circuit Rouen les Essarts in Rouen, France, driving a Porsche. He
became the 12th driver born in the United States to win a race on the F1
calendar, but only second outside the Indianapolis 500 (Phil Hill was the 11th
American-born F1 winner and first outside Indy). The win came in his 23rd F1
race.
o
Gurney is second all-time in F1 wins by an
American (Mario Andretti has 12), and most by an American-born driver.
o
Gurney introduced his Eagle chassis for Anglo
American Racers – later changed to All American Racers – during the 1966
Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. He finished seventh. The car was
powered by a Climax 2.8L4.
o
A year later, Gurney became the first American
driver to win in a car of his own design when he won the 1967 Belgian Grand
Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. Interestingly enough, that race was one of two that
season, in 10 contests, in which Gurney finished. The other finish resulted in
a third-place at Mosport.
o
Gurney also won the French Grand Prix and
Mexican Grand Prix in 1964.
o
Gurney’s last race came in the 1970 British
Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, where he finished 11th driving for Bruce McLaren,
who was killed in an accident just six weeks earlier.
o
Gurney was the first driver to use a full-face
helmet, in the 1968 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. He finished ninth in
the race.
o
Gurney competed in every F1 race in an entire
season only four times – 1961, 1963, 1964 and 1967. His best championship
finish was fourth, achieved in 1961 and 1965, despite not winning a race either
season.
o
Gurney added a victory for the Eagle in the 1967
non-championship F1 race, the Race of Champions, at Brands Hatch. It was the
second of Gurney’s two non-championship F1 races – he also won the 1962
Solitude Grand Prix, at Stuttgart, Germany.
- - In 28 USAC National Championship IndyCar races,
spanning 1962-1970, Gurney won seven races, finished in the top five 17 times,
and recorded 10 pole positions. He also led in half (14) of those races.
o
His first IndyCar start came in the 1962
Indianapolis 500, driving for Mickey Thompson. He finished 20th.
o
Gurney was the first driver to break the 150 mph
barrier at Indianapolis, doing so in practice in 1963 (the session came before
official practice started in May).
o
Gurney’s victory in the 1967 Rex Mays 300 at
Riverside International Raceway was his first in IndyCar competition. It also
gave him the distinction of being the only driver to win in IndyCar, NASCAR,
Formula 1 and sports cars.
o
Gurney earned a season-high three victories in
1968.
o
Five of Gurney’s seven victories came from the
pole position.
o
All seven of Gurney’s IndyCar victories came on
permanent road courses – Riverside (2), Mosport (2), IRP (1), Brainerd (1) and
Sonoma (1).
o
All seven victories came in an Eagle/Ford.
o
In every race he finished, 18 of the 28, he
finished in the top 10.
o
Gurney completed in the Indianapolis 500 on nine
occasions, with a pair of second-place finishes (1968 and 1969) and a
third-place finish (1970). He led two laps in the 1967 race.
o
Gurney was dominating a 200-lap IndyCar race in
1963 at the one-mile Trenton (N.J.) Speedway, before retiring late in the race.
Starting alongside teammate Jim Clark on the front row, Gurney took command
after Clark – who led the first 49 laps – dropped out with oil line problems.
Gurney then led the next 97 laps, before he dropped out with oil line problems
as well, and finished 16th, completing 146 laps. Both had been looking to give
a rear-engine car its first victory in IndyCar competition (Clark would achieve
the feat later that year). It would mark one of Gurney’s best opportunities to
win an IndyCar race on an oval.
- - Gurney won five of his 16 NASCAR starts – all at
Riverside (1963, 1964, 1965, 1966 and 1968). Four of the victories came with
the Wood Brothers and the other came with Holman-Moody, and all five came in Fords.
o
Overall, Gurney notched eight top fives, 10 top
10s and three poles in NASCAR competition.
o
Nine of his 16 races, including the final of his
career, came at Riverside. His final NASCAR race came in 1980, in which he
finished 28th.
o
Gurney also competed in the Daytona 500 three
times, with a best finish of fifth in 1963.
- - Gurney won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1967,
co-driving a Ford GT40 with A.J. Foyt, who had just won the Indianapolis 500 a
couple weeks before. It was Gurney’s 10th and final race at La Sarthe. In celebrating, he spontaneously sprayed champagne, a tradition that continues today.
o
Gurney made his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut in
1958, co-driving a Ferrari 250 TR with fellow American Bruce Kessler. The car
was owned by North American Racing Team. The car did not finish, suffering an accident
in the seventh hour.
o
Gurney was fourth in the 1964 24 Hours of Le
Mans, driving a Shelby Cobra Daytona Ford with Bob Bondurant. It marked the top
result in the GT category, giving Gurney class honors but not yet overall
honors. It also marked the first time Gurney finished the race.
- - Gurney won three Can-Am races: 1966
Bridgehampton, N.Y.; 1970 Mosport; and 1970 Mont-Tremblant. Two of those
victories were with Bruce McLaren’s team, while the other was with his
All-American Racers team. Despite competing in only three races in 1970, he
still finished seventh in the points standings.
- - Gurney was the inaugural winner of the Rolex 24
At Daytona, in 1962, driving a Lotus 19B-Coventry Climax. At that time, the
race was only three hours, but eventually morphed into the 24-hour classic in
1966.
o
Overall, Gurney competed in the Rolex 24 six
more times, but did not win the race again.
- - Gurney won the inaugural USAC Road Racing
Championship in 1958, finishing second in two of the season’s four races.
- - Gurney won his sole Trans-Am race during his
magical 1967 racing season – a 300-mile affair at Green Valley Raceway in
Smithfield, Texas, driving a Mercury Cougar.
- - Gurney won the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1959 with
Phil Hill, Chuck Daigh and Olivier Gendebien, driving a Ferrari 250 TR 59. It
marked the final Sebring victory for Englebert tires and was the final time in
16 years four drivers shared a car to win Sebring.
- - Overall, Gurney won four rounds in the World
Sportscar: 1959 Sebring, 1960 Nürburgring, 1962 Daytona; and 1967 Le Mans.
- - Gurney added a device – a strip of aluminum – to
a rear-wing in IndyCars that helped increase downforce and add to the car’s
overall speed. The invention came during an IndyCar test in 1971 at Phoenix
International Raceway. The Gurney Flap, or wickerbill, is also now used on
aircraft.
- - Gurney was the author of the White Paper, the
formation of the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), in 1978. The paper
outlined a new direction for IndyCar racing and a call for a new series, CART, which
began in 1979.
- - Between 1965 and 1986, Gurney’s Eagle earned 22
wins, a total of 53 podiums and 33 pole positions in IndyCar race.
o
Bobby Unser earned the most Eagle victories with
12, including the 1975 Indianapolis 500. Gurney had five, while Swede Savage
Mike Mosley and Joe Leonard all had one.
o
Bobby Unser won the 1974 USAC National
Championship driving an Eagle.
o
All American Racers completed in CART between
1996 and 1999 and worked to develop the Toyota engine. The team earned six top
10s in 72 races, with a best finish of eighth, achieved by Juan Manuel Fangio
II in the 1996 race at Road America.
- - Between 1983 and 1993, Eagle chassis won 41
races, earned a total of 101 podiums and 38 pole positions in the IMSA Sports
Car Championship.
- - The Eagle won the 12 Hours of Sebring twice – in
1992 and 1993 (both with Juan Fangio II and Andy Wallace) – and the 1993 Rolex
24 At Daytona (with P.J. Jones, Rocky Moran and Mark Dismore).
- - All-American Racing earned a single Formula 5000
victory in 1976 at Road America, with Vern Schuppan at the wheel.
- - Gurney’s son, Alex, won the GRAND-AM Rolex
Sports Car Series championship in 2007 and 2009.
- - Gurney is a member of the International
Motorsports Hall of Fame; Motorsports Hall of Fame of America; Sebring
International Raceway Hall of Fame; West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame; and SCCA
Hall of Fame, and was a member of the Road Racing Drivers Club.
- - Gurney served as Grand Marshal for the 2008
Rolex 24 At Daytona, in which his son, Alex, record a career-best second in the
race.
Sources:
- - USAC Championship Media Guides
- - Wikipedia: Rolex 24 At Daytona; 24 Hours of Le
Mans; Dan Gurney
- - Racing-Reference.info
- - All American Racers website – www.allamericanracers.com
- - SCCA website – www.scca.com
- - Daytona 24
Hours: The Definite History of America’s Great Endurance Race, J.J. O’Malley
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