Dan Gurney has passed away.

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Dan Gurney, one of the great developers of Formula One racing cars in the Golden Age of F1 racing (read: incredibly unsafe) has passed away.
Gurney was also a passionate motorcyclist and developed his own motorcycle, called the Alligator. He also sponsored motorcycle racing.

He was of course best-known for developing his own open-wheeled Grand Prix racing car, the Gurney Eagle.

Gurney was among the topmost, elite racers of his time and in all of Formula One history, which include racers like Jackie Stewart, Mario Andretti, and A. J. Foyt, as well as James Hunt and Niki Lauda, who are profiled in the movie "Rush".


Gurney is said to have originated the tradition of spraying pressurized champagne at the crowd.


Gurney's Alligator motorcycle.


Dan Gurney's Eagle open-wheeled Formula One racing car.

Gentlemen,

Dan Gurney absolutely started that tradition in 1967 after winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans co-driving with A.J. Foyt in the #1 Ford GT Mark IV. The picture above was taken after that race. Carroll Shelby was running the team for Ford. While heading to the winners circle with A.J. driving that Ford GT and Dan riding on the left front fender an enthusiastic race fan or possibly a race official in a white sweater jumped on the fender with Dan and handed him a big magnum of champagne. During the trophy ceremony Dan popped the cork intending to drink some but spontaneously decided to shake the bottle and spray it everywhere. That had never been done before and it created such a stir that soon everybody was doing it.

I've been very involved in the Ford GT community for the last 12 years and was at Le Mans last summer with the Ford team who was racing the new Ford GT. On the 50th anniversary of that win at Le Mans Ford invited A.J. Foyt and Dan Gurney to return with the team but Dan was too frail to make the trip. I talked to A.J. Foyt for about 30 minutes and asked him who the guy was that handed Dan that bottle of Champagne. He didn't know. I asked A.J. how many times he raced at Le Mans and he said, "Just that one time. Carroll Shelby asked me to co-drive with Dan, we won, and I never returned."

I never met Dan Gurney, wish that I had.

Chip

Gentlemen,

Dan Gurney absolutely started that tradition in 1967 after winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans co-driving with A.J. Foyt in the #1 Ford GT Mark IV. The picture above was taken after that race. Carroll Shelby was running the team for Ford. While heading to the winners circle with A.J. driving that Ford GT and Dan riding on the left front fender an enthusiastic race fan or possibly a race official in a white sweater jumped on the fender with Dan and handed him a big magnum of champagne. During the trophy ceremony Dan popped the cork intending to drink some but spontaneously decided to shake the bottle and spray it everywhere. That had never been done before and it created such a stir that soon everybody was doing it.

I've been very involved in the Ford GT community for the last 12 years and was at Le Mans last summer with the Ford team who was racing the new Ford GT. On the 50th anniversary of that win at Le Mans Ford invited A.J. Foyt and Dan Gurney to return with the team but Dan was too frail to make the trip. I talked to A.J. Foyt for about 30 minutes and asked him who the guy was that handed Dan that bottle of Champagne. He didn't know. I asked A.J. how many times he raced at Le Mans and he said, "Just that one time. Carroll Shelby asked me to co-drive with Dan, we won, and I never returned."

I never met Dan Gurney, wish that I had.

Chip Great story, Chip, thank you!