Sad day.
Also the best known winner of the Cannonball when he won in a Ferrari Daytona with Brock Yates. Naturally he was driving.
I remember an article by Brock where he describes riding somewhere with him driving a minivan. Somehow he was faster then anyone else in that, even in traffic. Anything he was in became a lesson in speed.

Oh... truly one of the greats.

I guess he should meet a whole lot of old buddies up there to party with.

RIP sir.

Off to race Jim Clark again...

Dan was a hero of mine. He was also one of the very few true gentlemen. Today's racers don't even know what that word means.. Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, etc. Whiny little kids. Dan was the real deal. Also, he created the most stunningly beautiful F1 car of all time, the Eagle Weslake Mk I.

When I get home, I will fire up Grand Prix Legends and race around Spa in the Eagle as a tribute to the great man.

Rest in peace, Sir!

"M'friend Dan Gurney died today too young. He was so gracious & kind to mutual friend, Russ Schleeh- took him to lunch every Sat., kept him alive 10 yrs longer. Whenever we were in LA, V & I were welcome & sure enjoyed it. Dan was such a kind, generous, interesting, talented guy." - Chuck Yeager

My heroes are almost all dead now. Farewell Daniel Sexton Gurney. We may yet meet.

Dan Gurney for President. I can no longer trot out that line. A true Legend.

I agree with what Semmern wrote. The Eagle was the finest looking F1 car of all time.

I was born in 1967, so wasn't in to this sort of thing just yet. But once I was, no era captured my imagination like the 1967 season with the big engines and no grip. We also recently lost Surtees. Just think of those names.... Brabham, Clark, Surtees, Hill, Gurney, Stewart and on and on.

Since then, technology has had an increasing effect of diminishing the driver part of the equation. When Dan Gurney raced, it was way too much power and speed, and not nearly enough safety. These men had balls of steel. Respect. RIP.

196 mph at Spa. 1967. Course had public roads, and houses next to it. No seatbelts. Cars were cans of avgas. Tires were rock hard. No aero.

Here's a piece from espn.com about Gurney. I'm sure some here, folks younger than some of us, may not be familiar with Dan Gurney or with how talented, successful and innovative the man was.

http://www.espn.com/racing/nascar/s...r-nascar-formula-one-le-mans-sports-cars

Dan Gurney was one of the greatest ever. Much respect and admiration.
RIP.

I was watching some of the Barrett Jackson auto auction tonight and Mike Joy did a short piece in honor of Gurney and he almost cried, his voice was breaking several times before he got through it.

Yep to the above, the 1967 F1 season (and 1966 Endurance Season, featuring a lot of the same protagonists) got to be the most fascinating era in Motorsports.

Gurney being of the best of that crowd. How cool is it that his invention was the first aerodynamics thing to move from racing into aerospace (and not, as usually the other way round).

It took years of discipline for Gurney to elevate himself into an Elite among his F1 peers though. He had great great talent and skill but it wasn't until later in his career that he developed the discipline to turn that all into brilliance in F1. Too bad it is forgotten now since he won so few F1 starts.

Luckier than contemporary Chris Amon, however, in that Dan won some F1 contests. If he had a little more money in his shoestring budget and could keep his hands off the car a little more in the paddock, he could have been a points leader, '66 or '67.

Some people scoff when I name Gurney as one of the upper echelon of his peers in F1. But he was, according to Jim Clark's father, the only driver in F1 that Jimmy considered his equal. Considering that Clark was the acknowledged Master of his trade at the time, that's the highest praise I can imagine re: F1. I'd name Clark Gurney Hill as my top three at the time of Clark's death, in that order.

Sportscar? Gurney/Bondurant all day every day, any day, against anyone.

Met him at a book signing in Newport, Rhode Island in 2007 when he was there to receive a lifetime achievement award along with Sir Stirling Moss.
He was as dignified, gracious, gentle and humorous as you could have hoped for on a very hot and uncomfortable day. He was under a tent on the lawn behind The Breakers, the Vanderbilt family mansion. Also in this tent was his legendary '67 Eagle Weslake F1 car. The lighting conditions were terrible, it was dark in the tent but the car was parked right on the edge next to bright daylight. As it was highly polished, it reflected the bright exterior sunlight off its dark blue paint creating high contrast. I feel I could do a better job now but I did get a few decent shots.

I felt this photo captured both Dan's class and gentle good humor:



And some posts of the 67 Eagle F1 car that he built and won the 67 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa in:

You were so lucky you got to meet him! Just look at that car. That is just spectacularly beautiful!


There are fewer and fewer true gentlemen around. One less with Dan's passing.

S!

Fantastic, Doc. Thanks for sharing.