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Daniel Sexton Gurney was born April 13, 1931, in Port Jefferson, Long
Island, to John Gurney, a Metropolitan Opera star, and his wife Roma
Sexton. Following high school, his family moved to Riverside, California,
where Dan developed his driving skills by weaving through Southern
California orange groves. He graduated from Menlo Junior college and
served two years with the United States Army, most of that time overseas
in the Korean War.
Dan has had 3 very successful careers A) Racing Driver B) Racecar
Manufacturer / Inventor and C) long term team owner.
In the spring of 2002 Dan surprised the automotive world by branching out
into a new field of endeavor. He introduced his revolutionary single
cylinder ALLIGATOR motorcycle, a project in the making for 2 decades
His racing career,
which started with a Triumph TR2 in 1955, spanned 15 years. During that
time he became the top road racing star in America, as well as one of the
most popular F1 Grand Prix drivers ever. Gurney etched himself a place in
racing lore with exciting battles against drivers like Stirling Moss, Jimmy Clark, John
Surtees, Jack Brabham, Graham Hill, Phil Hill and many others on the
classic road courses of the Nuerburgring, the Targa Florio and Monte
Carlo. He remains the only US citizen to win a Grand Prix in a car of
his own construction in the 100 year history of F1 racing.
With his success, the Dan Gurney fan club flourished, with a worldwide
membership that included people from behind the Iron Curtain. In fact, at
one point, Car and Driver magazine launched a "Dan Gurney for
President" campaign that is periodically resurrected.
By the time he retired from active driving in 1970, Gurney
had raced in 312 events in 20 countries with 51 different makes of cars
winning 51 races and finishing on the podium an additional 47 times!
Among his most important victories: 7 Formula One races (four Grand Prix
World Championship events), 7 Indy Car races, 5 NASCAR Winston Cup
stockcar races (all 500 mile races in Riverside, California), and two
second place finishes at the "Indy 500". Additionally he
captured wins in Trans-Am, Can-Am and Sports car races including the
endurance classics at the Nuerburgring, Daytona, Sebring and Le Mans. He
claimed 42 career pole positions and started on the front row of the grid
an additional and astonishing 58 times! The many "races that
got away", i.e. those that Dan was leading - often by a considerable
margin - but could not finish due to mechanical problems, made him almost
as famous and popular as the wins.
This versatile and winning record made Dan the first driver ever to win
races in the four major categories of motorsports: Grand Prix, Indy Car,
NASCAR and Sports Car. To this day he is one of only two drivers in
history (the other being Mario Andretti) who have ever accomplished that.
While his second and third career as a race car manufacturer
of the Eagles as well as team owner of AAR started while he was
still actively driving, it went into full gear upon his retirement in
1970. At that time he bought out AAR co-founder Carroll Shelby and has
been sole owner, chairman and CEO of the company ever since. AAR has been
designing and manufacturing race cars with great success during the last
30 years, winning 8 Championships and capturing 78
victories and 83 pole positions, including the Indy 500 and the 12 hours
of Sebring and 24 Hours of Daytona. 66 drivers from around the
globe have been employed at AAR between the years 1965 and 2000, the last
one being Dan's son Alexander Gurney who raced in the Atlantic Series.
Eagles bought by customers raced on the Indy circuit and Formula A/5000
circuit with great success, capturing numerous victories, most notably the
Indy 500 twice with Bobby Unser in1968 and Gordon Johncock in 1973, plus 3
Championships in Indy Cars and Formula A.
A member of various Motorsports Halls of Fame, Gurney has been a pioneer
of racing innovations. In 1971 he developed the Gurney Flap (wickerbill),
an invention which has been adopted by the automobile racing and aviation
industries throughout the world. He was the first race car driver to
introduce a full-face helmet to Indy Car racing as well as Grand Prix
racing. He was instrumental in launching the rear-engine revolution in
Indianapolis in 1963. He is the only American in modern day Grand Prix
racing who built and raced his own Formula One car to victory (1967 Grand
Prix of Belgium). His exuberant gesture of spraying champagne into the
crowd from the victory podium in Le Mans 30 years ago has been emulated
worldwide by winners ever since.
One of the original founders of Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART),
Gurney came up with the name and acronym. He was instrumental in bringing
Monte Carlo-type street car racing to the United States and became a
co-founder of the Long Beach Grand Prix in 1974 where he continued to
serve on its Board of Directors for 24 years.
Gurney is no stranger to Hollywood either. A member of the Screen Actors
Guild since 1965, Gurney has appeared in such motor racing films as
'Winning', 'A Man and a Woman', and 'Grand Prix'. His win of the
'Cannonball Run' across the United States in 1971 inspired his friend and
co-pilot Brock Yates to write the screenplay for the 'Cannonball' movies.
His long term relationship with Toyota started in 1982 when Dan was hired
by the company to do TV commercials for the introduction of the Supra.
This relationship has resulted in three Drivers and three Manufacturers
championships for the auto maker.
An avid reader of political and military history, Gurney loves old movies,
opera, cigars, traveling to historical places and riding motorcycles.
Gurney and his wife, Evi, who was a junior executive in the public
relations/press department of Porsche in Stuttgart and a well-known
motorsports journalist in Germany during the sixties, have two sons. Dan
has four grown children from his first marriage and five grandchildren.
They live in Newport Beach, California.
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