Racing
John Oreovicz, Autos, Open-Wheel 9y

Dan Gurney honored for innovation

AutoRacing, IndyCar

DEARBORN, Mich. -- Automotive journalist and historian Gordon Kirby calls Dan Gurney "America's greatest racing man," and that's a difficult notion to dispute.

Gurney isn't the greatest American racing driver -- although with victories in Indy cars, NASCAR, Formula One and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, his impressive record speaks for itself. But when you combine those achievements with what the 84-year-old legend accomplished outside the cockpit as the leader and driving force of car builder All American Racers, Gurney stands above all others.

That's why around 300 people gathered at The Henry Ford Museum on Wednesday to celebrate Gurney and his remarkable career as he was awarded the Edison-Ford Medal for Innovation. After an introduction by television personality and emcee Charlie Rose, Edsel Ford II bestowed the honor before an appreciative crowd that included racing luminaries Sir Jackie Stewart, Roger Penske, Leonard Wood, Ray Evernham, Bruce McCaw and Harley Cluxton.

"It's not really surprising that these men have joined us tonight to honor our friend Dan Gurney," Ford said. "Besides the fact that he was, as Jackie Stewart would say, 'bloody quick,' there is not a person involved in this sport who does not respect Dan for both what he has done and for whom he is.

"We want to honor Dan Gurney tonight for being a great man -- for being a true American hero who has represented himself, his family and his country proudly across the world during his driving career and in the years since," Ford added. "I once told my sons when they were looking for heroes to emulate, they couldn't do better than race drivers. Dan Gurney is a man who always respected the sport as much as it respected him."

Gurney is just the second recipient of the Edison-Ford Medal, named after Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. The only other time it was presented was in 1989 to W. Edwards Deming, the influential American author whose research of Japanese management and production techniques helped revive the Ford Motor Co. and the American auto industry.

Gurney also has strong ties to Ford. In 1962, he invited Team Lotus founder Colin Chapman to attend the Indianapolis 500, with the goal of teaming up Lotus and Ford to race at Indianapolis in the future. The Ford-powered rear-engine car that Lotus produced revolutionized Indy car racing, and although it took the Lotus-Ford combination three years before they finally conquered Indy with driver Jim Clark in 1965, a front-engine car never again won the race.

After driving for Ferrari, BRM, Porsche and Brabham in Formula One, Gurney set out on his own. With the support of Goodyear, he formed AAR with Carroll Shelby in late 1964 (Shelby opted out in 1970) to build F1 and Indy cars from a base in Santa Ana, California, that the company still occupies.

"I drove for great teams, but I was always there at the wrong time," Gurney recalled to a half-dozen reporters at a luncheon before the medal presentation. "Ferrari won the championship two years after I left. Same thing with BRM, same thing with Brabham.

"I wanted to have more control of the technological and safety aspects, but I also often asked myself: 'Why is there no American Formula One car in the field?'"

AAR's first great moment came at the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix, when Gurney drove an AAR Eagle to victory at Spa-Francorchamps to claim the first win for an American F1 car since the 1920s. Just a week later, Gurney teamed with A.J. Foyt to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the Ford factory team.

Asked by Rose whether the F1 win at Spa in the Eagle was his greatest achievement, Gurney replied: "I guess the short answer to that is: 'You bet it was!'"

Aside from the significance of Ford defeating Ferrari for the first time, Gurney's Le Mans win was notable because he inaugurated the tradition of a driver spraying champagne from the podium after a race.

"It was a fabulous race, and I think we had upped the average speed by something like 10 mph," Gurney recounted. "We were up on a platform, and to me, the people looked expectant.

"Right then they handed me this fire hose of champagne, and I guess I thought that was what they expected. It was just a spontaneous thing."

Gurney and AAR achieved their first Indianapolis 500 win in 1968 with driver Bobby Unser. Gurney himself competed at Indy between 1962 and 1970, and while he never won, he finished second twice and third on another occasion.

In 1968, he was the first car racer to adopt a full-face helmet in Formula One and Indy cars -- the original Bell Star.

Gurney retired from driving after the 1970 season, although he made a nearly victorious one-off comeback to drive in the 500-mile NASCAR road race at Riverside International Raceway in 1980, an event he won five times between 1963 and '68.

That's when AAR really began to thrive. The 1972 Indy Eagle, equipped with huge aerofoil wings, unlimited turbocharger boost and newfangled, treadless slick tires, set an Indianapolis pole speed of nearly 196 mph, more than 17 mph faster than the existing record.

The '72 Eagle benefited from another Gurney innovation -- the Gurney flap, or wicker bill, a vertical strip attached to the trailing edge of the front and rear wings that maximized the downforce effect of the aerofoil.

"We realized we had discovered something really powerful," Gurney said. "In order to keep our advantage, he gave the device a deceptive name. We called it a wicker bill and said its function was to reinforce the thin trailing edge of the wing.

"We used it to great advantage for a whole season before our competition caught on."

Within a couple of years, AAR was supplying the majority of the Indianapolis 500 field, but the company's Indy car fortunes soured in the early '80s when the latest Indy Eagle's Boundary Layer Adhesion Technology form of ground effect was banned by CART. Mike Mosley scored the last Indy car win by an Eagle at Milwaukee in 1981.

However, AAR became a force in sports car racing, linking up with Toyota for a dominant run through the IMSA-sanctioned championship. From 1991-93, the Toyota Eagle MkIII won 21 of the 27 races it was entered in, including a run of 17 consecutive.

More recently, AAR was involved in the construction of the radical, narrow front track DeltaWing car that has appeared at Le Mans and other sports car races.

AAR also produces an unusual, limited-production motorcycle called the Alligator that features an extremely low seating position and center of gravity. Gurney hopes to begin testing a new model, featuring a bespoke engine of AAR's own design, in July.

At age 84, Dan Gurney is finally showing some sign of slowing down. He walks with a cane, courtesy of an Alligator accident a couple of years ago, and his memory isn't quite as sharp as it was. But he remains a towering presence in auto racing, both in America and worldwide.

Asked to sum up his legacy, Gurney quipped: "Depends on how my new engine runs."

We won't see anyone like him again during our lifetime.

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