AAR History - Continued
Hide TextEagle racing cars soon became very popular on both sides of the Atlantic and were driven by the hot drivers of the era like Jochen Rindt, Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme, Ritchie Ginther, Lodovico Scarfiotti, James Hunt, Swede Savage, Bobby Unser, Al Unser, Al Junior, Mark Donohue, Joe Leonard, Wally Dallenbach, Gordon Johncock, Jerry Grant and many more. The crowning achievement in Formula 1 was Dan's victory at the 1967 Grand Prix of Belgium in Spa-Francorchamps. It was the first and only time in the 100 year history of Grand Prix racing that an American had driven a car of his own construction into the winner’s circle of a Formula One World Championship event. No one has since duplicated this effort and is unlikely to do so as it has become far too expensive for an individual and a small, independent race car company to attempt it.
Apart from fielding Formula 1 and Indy Car racing teams, AAR also entered at various times the U.S.-Sports car, Trans-Am, Can-Am, Formula A, Formula 5000 and Atlantic Series as well as IMSA championships with GTU and GTO Toyota Celicas and GTP with Toyota Eagles.
From its inception, AAR intended to build cars for its own racing teams and also for sale to customers. The first big reward came with a victory at the 'Indy 500' and the USAC National Championship in 1968 with Bobby Unser in a customer Eagle. In the following three decades All American Racers employed 66 drivers (see our driver gallery) who won 8 Championships, gathering 78 overall victories in races as varied as the Indy 500 (1975) and the Daytona 24 Hour endurance classic (1993) plus 83 pole positions. Eagle customers did equally well, winning championships in Indy cars, Formula Ford and Formula A categories. Twenty-one of the 33 cars on the grid at Indianapolis in 1973 were Eagles. Overall, AAR has built over 157 race cars.
In 1970, upon retiring from driving, Dan bought out Carroll Shelby and has been sole owner, CEO and Chairman of All American Racers ever since. In 2002 Dan made his son Justin, 32 at the time, General Manager of the company. AAR has been continuously modernized and expanded. The 75,000 sq. ft. factory encompasses five buildings. These house a state-of-the-art CAD design department, quality assurance, vehicle dynamics, data acquisition and analysis department, a development team and race shop, CNC machine shop, two 5-Axis mills, fabrication shop, 40% scale wind tunnel, water tunnel, an 800 degree/200psi electrically heated TEC autoclave and a complete composite material department where all race car bodies and chassis are built. Through the decades, AAR has employed between 20 and 140 people.