Dan Gurney - Continued
Hide TextA member of various Motorsports Halls of Fame, Gurney has been a pioneer of racing innovations. In 1971 he developed the Gurney Flap (wickerbill), an invention which has been adopted by the automobile racing and aviation industries throughout the world.
He was the first race car driver to introduce a full-face helmet (Bell) to Indy Car racing as well as Grand Prix racing. He was instrumental in launching the rear-engine revolution in Indianapolis in 1963 by bringing Ford and Lotus to the Speedway.
His exuberant gesture of spraying champagne into the crowd from the victory podium in Le Mans 30 years ago has been emulated worldwide by winners ever since.
One of the original founders of Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), Gurney came up with the name and acronym. He was instrumental in bringing Monte Carlo-type street car racing to the United States and became a co-founder of the Long Beach Grand Prix in 1974 where he continued to serve on its Board of Directors for 24 years.
In 2002 Dan surprised the engineering world when he introduced a revolutionary new motorcycle called the “Alligator” which he designed, developed and built over 2 decades. In 2015 Dan was granted U.S. patent #9,103,277 for his unique and promising new ‘moment-cancelling’ 4-stroke engine design.
Gurney is no stranger to Hollywood either. A member of the Screen Actors Guild since 1965, Gurney has appeared in such motor racing films as 'Winning'', 'A Man and a Woman', and 'Grand Prix'. His win of the 'Cannonball Run' across the United States in 1971 inspired his friend and co-pilot Brock Yates to write the screenplay for the 'Cannonball' movies.
An avid reader of political and military history, Gurney loves old movies, opera, cigars, traveling to historical places and riding motorcycles. Gurney and his wife, Evi, who was a junior executive in the public relations/press department of Porsche in Stuttgart and a well-known motorsports journalist in Germany during the sixties, have been married since 1969.
They have two sons. Dan has four children from his first marriage and has eight grandchildren. They live in Newport Beach, California.