55 Facts About Dan Gurney

Widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of motorsport, Gurney won four Formula One Grands Prix across 11 seasons.

In endurance racing, Dan Gurney won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1967 with Ford, as well as the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1959 with Ferrari.

Interested by California hot rod culture, Dan Gurney built his first car aged 19 and became an amateur drag racer.

Dan Gurney took his maiden win at the 1962 French Grand Prix, which remains Porsche's only victory as a constructor in Formula One.

Dan Gurney moved to Brabham in 1963 as their first-ever driver, taking multiple wins in three seasons at the team, including another fourth-placed championship finish in 1965.

Alongside Carroll Shelby, Dan Gurney had founded All American Racing in 1964, entering Formula One with Dan Gurney at the wheel in 1966 under the chassis name Eagle.

Dan Gurney returned at three Grands Prix in 1970 for McLaren, following the death of Bruce McLaren.

Dan Gurney achieved four wins, three pole positions, six fastest laps and 19 podiums in Formula One, amongst winning the non-championship 1967 Race of Champions.

Dan Gurney was a record five-time winner of the Winston Western 500 in the NASCAR Grand National Series and, in American open-wheel racing, was a six-time race winner in USAC Championship Car and twice runner-up in the Indianapolis 500 in 1968 and 1969.

Dan Gurney was a race-winner in the Canadian-American Challenge Cup, the Trans-Am Series and the British Saloon Car Championship.

Dan Gurney was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990.

Dan Gurney's father was a graduate of Harvard Business School with a master's degree.

Dan Gurney who was responsible for the invention of the Dan Gurney Ball Bearing.

Jack moved his family to Riverside, California, when Dan Gurney was a teenager and had just graduated from Manhasset High School.

Young Dan Gurney quickly became caught up in the California hot rod culture.

Dan Gurney later studied at Menlo Junior College, a feeder school for Stanford University.

Dan Gurney then became an amateur drag racer and sports car racer.

Dan Gurney served in the United States Army for two years as an artillery mechanic during the Korean War.

Dan Gurney finished second in the inaugural Riverside Grand Prix, beating established stars like Masten Gregory, Walt Hansgen and Phil Hill.

Dan Gurney, teamed with fellow Californian Bruce Kessler, had worked the car up to fifth overall and handed over to Kessler, who was then caught up in an accident.

Dan Gurney came very close to scoring a maiden victory at Reims, France, in 1961, but his reluctance to block Ferrari driver Giancarlo Baghetti allowed Baghetti to pass him at the finish line for the win.

Dan Gurney was the first driver hired by Jack Brabham to drive with him for the Brabham Racing Organisation.

Brabham scored the maiden victory for his car at the 1963 Solitude race, but Dan Gurney took the team's first win in a championship race in 1964 at Rouen.

Dan Gurney developed a new kind of motorcycle called "Alligator", which featured an extremely low seat position.

Dan Gurney was not comfortable with the name at first, fearing it sounded somewhat jingoistic, but felt compelled to agree to his benefactor's suggestion.

Dan Gurney scored the team's first Championship points three weeks later by finishing fifth in the French Grand Prix at Reims.

The next season the team failed to finish any of the first three races, but on June 18,1967, Dan Gurney took a historic victory in the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix.

Dan Gurney became one of only three drivers to win a Formula One race in a car of his own construction.

Foyt at the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans, where Dan Gurney spontaneously began the now-familiar winner's tradition of spraying champagne from the podium to celebrate the unexpected win against the Ferraris and the other Ford GT40 teams.

Dan Gurney said later that he took great satisfaction in proving wrong the critics who predicted the two great drivers, normally heated rivals, would break their car in an effort to show each other up.

Dan Gurney led the 1967 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring when a driveshaft failed two laps from the end with a 42-second lead in hand.

Dan Gurney was particularly noted for an exceptionally fluid driving style.

Dan Gurney produced an inspired effort, made up the deficit and won the race with a dramatic last-lap pass of runner-up Bobby Unser.

Dan Gurney was ranked the 14th-best Formula One driver of all time.

Dan Gurney made his Indy debut at the wheel of a space-frame, rear-engined car designed by John Crosthwaite and built by American hot-rodder Mickey Thompson Despite a misfiring engine, Dan Gurney ran comfortably in the top 10 until a transmission seal failed on the 92nd lap.

Dan Gurney failed to finish in his next four appearances in the 500 mile race, but beginning in 1968 until his last attempt in 1970 he finished 2nd, 2nd, and 3rd, respectively.

Dan Gurney started a total of 28 Champ Car races, winning 7 times among his 18 top tens.

Dan Gurney was nearly unbeatable in a NASCAR Grand National car at Riverside International Raceway in California.

Dan Gurney won the pole for the 1970 Riverside race in a Plymouth Superbird.

Gurney is credited with numerous appearances in NASCAR Grand American stockcars, a pony car division that existed between 1968 and 1971, but these results came in races co-sanctioned with SCCA's Trans-Am, where Dan competed regularly for Mercury, and later Plymouth.

At about the time Gurney began making occasional appearances in stock cars in the United States, Dan took a Chevrolet Impala to England and entered it in several "saloon car" races.

Cutbacks at Chrysler forced Dan Gurney to cut back to a one-car effort mid-season with Savage driving.

In 1980, Dan Gurney came out of a 10-year retirement to help old friend Les Richter, the president of Riverside.

Dan Gurney was recruited by Carroll Shelby, who was mounting a Ford-powered challenge to Ferrari's dominance of the FIA 2+ liter GT class in the World Championship of Makes for the 1964 season.

In 1965 Ford teams won the Manufacturers' title for the GT class, although Dan Gurney was only with Shelby for Le Mans and did not finish.

Dan Gurney joined the Shelby-American campaign in the Sports Prototype class for 1966, which fielded the new 7 liter GT40 Mk II.

Dan Gurney stayed with Shelby-American for their 1967 World Sportscar Championship campaign.

Dan Gurney shook the bottle and aimed the spritz at the naysayers.

Shelby and Dan Gurney independently turned their efforts to the SCCA Trans-Am series for 1968.

Shelby and Dan Gurney teamed up again in 1970, with Shelby hired for Dan Gurney's All American Racing team.

Dan Gurney was the sole owner, Chairman and CEO of All American Racers from 1970 until his son, Justin, assumed the title of CEO in early 2011.

In 1978, Dan Gurney wrote an open memo to other race car owners with what is known as the "White Paper" in which Dan Gurney called for a series controlled more by the owners or "actual participants" than under the USAC banner.

In 2000, Dan campaigned a Toyota Atlantic car for his son, Alex Gurney under the AAR banner.

In 2018 Dan Gurney died of complications from pneumonia; he was 86 years old.

Dan Gurney was survived by his wife, Evi, six children, and 8 grandchildren.