The pensive, chiseled, handsome face of Daniel Sexton Gurney, The All American Racer.
Me and Dan. Just hanging out. With cake, champagne, and about 250 of his closest friends.
It is with humble pride, and a bit of hero worship, that I tell you it was my honor to attend Dan Gurney’s 85th birthday party yesterday afternoon. The warm, love filled, and race fueled gathering was hosted by his family at their All American Racers Southern California epicenter, and it could haven’t been at a more worthy spot; the compound where AAR has built so many great Eagle racing cars, now a living and working museum to AAR’s many successes as a racing carbuilder and team owner and entrant, not to mention Dan’s larger than imaginable accomplishments behind the wheel as one of America’s greatest motorsport treasures. Plus it is still a working shop. Few great men stand alone, and any success he’s ever enjoyed or been credited with is liberally shared with his fabulous wife Evi, and several great kids, most notably his sons “Danny”, Justin and Alex. Plus a lot of blonde, handsome and wonderful grandkids running around. Plus of course a team, and I mean a true team, of engineers, hot rodders, drivers, fabricators, pit crew members and anyone else who has ever worn an AAR patch on their uniform. As they often say at hotel lounges “I feel lots of love in the room.”
I won’t recount Dan’s entire life or racing history here, as that info is well told in a variety of places. But I at least want to mark this special occasion for this special friend of mine, and share with you a few happysnaps from yesterday. It was a simple affair; the family greeting a who’s who of the racing fraternity, showing photographs, telling stories, and otherwise celebrating the Big Eagle. The more I stood back and visually picked through the crowd, the happier I was about the people that came out to celebrate a great day with Dan. Not everyone, but MOST everyone was there: Tommy Kendall, Danny Sullivan, Linda Vaughn, Peter Brock, Bobby Rahal, Lyn St. James, and I’m sure another dozen drivers I’m forgetting to name or didn’t see. Plus again many current and former AAR crew and team members, a variety of authors, racing journalists and photographers. Racing officials. The President of the SCCA.
Legends, heroes, and friends.
Dan is seated at right in his ever present blue fleece, his fabulous, eternally elegant wife Evi at right in the light jacket, and son Justin telling stories and otherwise hosting a marvelous, warm, and loving tribute to The Eagle Scout. Son and now retired racer Alex Gurney is standing behind his folks at far right.
Everyone was there, and I’m certainly pleased that I was.
You may have heard that Dan has suffered some health challenges as of late, and it’s true. But he was looking robust and happy yesterday, with strong voice and handshake, telling stories, posing for selfies, and in generally fine spirit. He’s aged a bit, but’s still ticking, and in the office nearly every day.
Hallowed Ground is this. The stories boil right off the workbenches and right out of the floors.
I will share with you one snapshot of his racing accomplishments that continues to amaze me on every possible level. It was from the months of May and June in 1967. Dan’s magic month began at the Indianapolis 500 on Memorial weekend. After challenging for the pole position in qualifying, Gurney started the race in his own Eagle Ford from the middle of the front row, and ran well enough to lead two laps, before finishing 21st. A.J. Foyt won the race taking his third Indy 500 victory, a point which will loom larger in a minute.
Go Big Red! 24 Hours of LeMans, LeMans, France, 1967.
AJ Foyt/Dan Gurney Ford Mark IV takes the flag.
Le Mans Magic, 1967. Foyt is still at the wheel of the winning Ford while teammate Gurney hops aboard for a victory lap.
Next up for both Gurney and Foyt was the 24 Hours of Le Mans on June 10/11. They were paired in a red Ford GT Mk IV, a larger and even faster development of the original Ford GT40. They won going away, two very red blooded American racing drivers in a big, fast, loud, equally red blooded American sportscar prototype.
Champagne almost too good to waste, but worth the birth of a great tradition as Dan sprays the bubbly and Foyt looks on from behind.
It is here than Dan coined the tradition of spraying champagne from the winner’s podium. Those bubble flew from a giant bottle of Moet Chandon champagne beginning a tradition in motorsport that’s today as ubiquitous as the smell of burning rubber.
LeMans, France, 1967. A Magic Man and his Magic Bottle.
Gurney still has that bottle, framed in a glass case, sitting in his office. It was Ford’s second win at Le Mans, ultimately the second in a string of four back to back wins. I can practically hear our National Anthem blaring through the PA system over the French countryside.
For my nickel, the prettiest, most elegant F1 race car ever.
And Gurney’s magical month, nor his conquering of Europe, were over, as he was slated to run the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa Franchorchamp a week later on June 18. Of course he was running his own, “home-built” (as in Made in American) Eagle F1 car powered by a screaming Gurney-Weslake V-12 engine. This stacked up as no small challenge, as SPA is a wicked fast and difficult course, and Dan the Man would be up against the best factory teams and the top rung of Formula One drivers of the late 1960s. Gurney’s race was not without challenge, but in the end he bested and outran no less than Jimmy Clark in his factory Lotus for the win. It is the first and only F1 win by an American driver in a car of his own construction, never done before, and I comfortably bet will never be done again.
So in a month’s time, that’s running at Indy in his own American car, winning Le Mans while sharing his American Ford with the previous week’s Indy 500 winner, then taking on the best of F1 and taking home all the marbles again in his own, American built mount. There are photos of Gurney, atop the podium, wearing the winner’s wreath of flowers and holding the 1st place trophy, quiet, with tear in his eyes. Brings tears to mine too.
Take a break for some cake Dan, you’ve earned it.
This little string of checkered flag magic has been called, by many, the greatest accomplishment in the history of American motorsport. And it is. But I believe it goes a step beyond that. In company with all the grand slams, three point shots at the buzzer, Hail Marys, holes in one, and Triple Crown winners, I call Dan and AAR’s (and AJ’s and Ford’s) Trifecta of Asskickingness among the greatest moments in sports. American or otherwise. Motor or equally otherwise. Period. G’head. Prove me wrong.