{"id":48198,"date":"2018-01-15T10:04:08","date_gmt":"2018-01-15T18:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=48198"},"modified":"2018-01-15T12:14:10","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T20:14:10","slug":"a-legend-passes-dan-gurney-april-13-1931-to-january-14-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/a-legend-passes-dan-gurney-april-13-1931-to-january-14-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"A Legend Passes – Dan Gurney: April 13, 1931 to January 14, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo: Anne Proffit – Dan and A.J. got together last April in Long Beach to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Ford GT<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The racing legend has passed.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Dan Gurney, 86, died due to complications from pneumonia today. He had become physically frail in the past few years, but his mind was still as acute as ever. As he wished, Gurney\u2019s funeral services will be private.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Gurney, the sole American driver to win a Formula 1 race – at Spa in 1967 – with a car of his own design and construction, was an acknowledged master of all aspects of motorsport. His acuity behind the wheel, his ingenuity in the workshop and his ability to understand the politics of racing were beyond that of his contemporaries. He could win in any aspect of the sport: in open wheel, sports cars, NASCAR – if it had wheels, he would master the discipline.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Daniel Sexton Gurney, the son of an accomplished opera singer, was born April 13, 1931, and won races in Trans-Am, Can-Am, NASCAR, Formula 1 and Indy cars. Once he retired from driving, Gurney dedicated himself to the design and construction of race cars and motorcycles, notably his self-designed Alligator motorcycle. His All American Racers\u2019 (AAR) Eagle Indy cars were amongst the best of the best in the 1970s and through to the 1990s. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo: Terry Malone – Dan at his 85th birthday party with my service animal Leah (she always jumped in his lap)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In all, AAR Eagles have earned 78 winner\u2019s trophies over the years, including the Indianapolis 500, the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring and eight championships in so many disciplines. Dan Gurney\u2019s All American Racers Toyota-powered Eagles were dominant in IMSA\u2019s GTP class in the early 1990s, at one point winning 17 consecutive races and taking back-to-back driver and manufacturer championships.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Personally, Gurney\u2019s 351 racing starts brought him 51 victories and 47 podiums. He drove more than 50 makes of vehicle and in excess of 100 actual vehicle models as he competed from his beloved California home, throughout the United States, Canada and in Europe.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The driving highlights of Gurney\u2019s career include that Belgian GP victory at Spa Francorchamps in 1967, when he became the first driver to spray champagne in celebration. In all, Gurney won four grands prix in 86 starts, driving for Ferrari, BRM, Porsche, Lotus, Brabham, McLaren and his own, AAR Eagle team. He also won the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans co-driving a Ford GT with A.J. Foyt and the duo celebrated the 50th anniversary of that victory this past April at Long Beach.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo: courtesy All American Racers – these three men with Dan (from left) his first employee Bill Fowler, Ed Marsh and Terry Malone were among Gurney\u2019s early hires at All American Racers; this photo was shot last April 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gurney\u2019s 1979 \u201cWhite Paper\u201d delineating the means to a healthy American open wheel series paved the way for Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), and his ideologies moved CART forward to where it became a challenge for NASCAR to usurp the open wheelers, which they eventually did when open wheel racing became fragmented in 1996.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Gurney is also known for his \u201cGurney flap\u201d aerodynamic insert for the rear wing of an Indy car that added stability to these track-going missiles. His genius in stepping outside the box in the design and construction of racing cars and parts cemented Gurney\u2019s reputation as a true Renaissance man in the motoring world. He was respected for his talents in finding the right solutions to most any problem<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Dan Gurney\u2019s contributions to the racing world span the spectrum. He was involved in all aspects and made friends in every discipline. He\u2019s survived by his wife Evi and their two sons – Justin, the current president of AAR and Alex, an accomplished racer himself. Gurney\u2019s children from his first marriage are John, Lindy, Danny and Jimmy. Gurney\u2019s family requested any donations in his name go to Hoag Hospital Foundation, Newport Beach, Calif.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo: Terry Malone – Dan with his grandchildren at his 85th birthday party in 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The racing legend has passed. Dan Gurney, 86, died due to complications from pneumonia.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":48200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3470,5029],"tags":[5614,2074,41,1343,1632,2914],"class_list":["post-48198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-racing","tag-anne-proffit","tag-dan-gurney","tag-news","tag-obituary","tag-racing","tag-rip"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Dan-and-A.J.-at-Long-Beach-last-year.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-cxo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48198"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48216,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48198\/revisions\/48216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}