Posted on 01/14/2018 6:50:21 PM PST by Sam_Damon
The news that the legendary Dan Gurney died on Sunday night after a long battle with pneumonia was something racing legends Mario Andretti and Bobby Unser had difficulty accepting. Although they knew Gurney was in failing health, the fact that he was a “Mount Rushmore of Auto Racing” figure made him bigger-than-life to drivers who have been described in the same vein.
“It’s one freaking sad day,” an emotional Unser told Autoweek in a phone interview Sunday night.
Andretti echoed those sentiments from his home in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, on Sunday evening.
(Excerpt) Read more at autoweek.com ...
RIP, Dan Gurney.
Great success in every type of auto racing. He liked motorcycles, too. R.I.P.
Real bummer news, here. RIP Dan, my favorite since ‘62
Man, he was smooth. Went to school with his daughter in Newport Beach too.
RIP to the icon, Dan Gurney.
[Saw him race that monster Ford Galaxie 500 with the 427 cammer at Riverside in about 66 or so.]
I envy you. When stock cars were stock cars.
Prayers to his family...Dad said he was a great racer...
I remember seeing cigarette butts flicked out the drivers side windows at the end of caution flags too. Boy, those days are gone. What a prissy, girlified world we live in now
And America was America.
When goils were goils,
and men were men.
Yeah, long gone. I miss that country.
RIP, Dan Gurney, and sympathies to his family and friends.
When goils were goils,
and men were men.
Yeah, long gone. I miss that country.
RIP, Dan Gurney, and sympathies to his family and friends.
Great pix! Thanks for sharing.
Bottom one is at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan. Saw the car. Amazing bit of mechanical engineering. No fly-by-wire crap in it. Just good ‘ol AAA-mer-i-can engineering, done by slide rules (ok, might have been an early mainframe or two for help) and T-squares on drafting paper.
In Dearborn. Think about it.
Got his autograph at a Can Am race back in 1970 when I was a youth. RIP
Gurney and AJ Foyt ran that GT 40 to a 32 mile lead at al Le Mans. 212 MPH down the Mulsanne Straight. He was one of the very best.
With rue my heart is laden
For golden friends I had
For many a rose-lipped maiden
And many a lightfoot lad
By brooks too broad for leaping
The lightfoot boys are laid
The rose-lipped girls are sleeping
In fields where roses fade
Read more: http://autoweek.com/article/racing/dan-gurney-1931-2018#ixzz54FijZTb0
Did you notice the little dome on the right side of the roof? Gurney was so tall that they had to put that in so that he had clearance for his helmet.
Wow. Nice catch, hadn’t realized that before.
He also drove one of the Cannonball Baker Sea to Shining Sea Memorial Trophy races from the Red Ball Garage in Manhattan to the Portofino Inn in Newport, Calif. A parking ticket was time stamped when you left the Rad Ball. Cars had staggered starts. Net time at the finish was the winner. Burt Reynolds movie was based upon that REAL race.
Brock Yates was his co-driver.
ANY kind of vehicle. Any modifications allowed. ANY route you choose.
Brock wrote an article years ago about the fantastic eyesight Gurney had. Could ID a car they were about to overtake in the dead dark of night from quite a distance back. They used a ‘coin dispenser’ like a bus driver used to use to make exact change when buying gas.
Loved to watch him race & roam the pits. Another fine AMERICAN driver gone.
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