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VINTAGE: Dan Gurney Joins GT40 Panel
The 1967 Le Mans winner with co-driver A.J. Foyt for the Shelby-Ford GT40 team will appear at Amelia Island Concours where the race car is being honored.
Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt famously beat Ferrari to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans 24 in 1967 driving a Ford GT40. (Photo: Dave Wendt/Amelia Concours)
Le Mans winner Dan Gurney returns to the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance to join panel of international racing celebrities and experts honoring the 50th anniversary of Ford’s game-changing GT40 prototype on March 9.
Gurney will join fellow Ford GT40 racers Brian Redman and David Hobbs, John Wyer Racing Team manager John Horsman, Holman Automotive and Holman Moody president Lee Holman and Le Mans-winning Shelby American team member Alan Grant on the panel of the Celebration of Ford’s GT40 Seminar in the Ritz-Carlton at Amelia Island, Florida.
Gurney, who was 2002 Honorary Chairman of the Amelia concours, won just one race for the Carroll Shelby-led Ford GT40 team, but it was the race that mattered most: the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Gurney’s victory in the 1967 edition of the fabled Le Mans 24 hour endurance classic has become the stuff of legends and remains part of the most extraordinary three-weeks span in international motorsport.
From May 30 through June 18, 1967, Ford teammates Dan Gurney and Le Mans co-driver A.J. Foyt rewrote the history books and had automotive journalists scouring their thesauri for superlatives for the American racers, their competition feats and their American racing cars.
It started on Memorial Day in Indianapolis where Foyt, racing his Ford-powered Coyote, won his third Indy 500 at record speed. Just 11 days later, he and Gurney defeated the might of Ferrari to win the fastest Le Mans 24 Hours in the race’s 35 year history. The closest Ferrari was a distant 25 miles behind the Gurney/Foyt Ford GT after 3,237 miles of relentless, high-speed, open-road racing.
Another speed record came just one week later. Gurney, driving his own Eagle Formula 1 racer, won the fastest Formula 1 race in the sport’s 28 year history on the long, sweeping Spa circuit through Belgium’s Ardennes forest, the fastest road-racing circuit in the world. Gurney’s winning average speed over the Belgian public roads was just 5.2 mph slower than Foyt’s record-setting 500 speed on Indy’s high-speed oval.
Gurney went on to create some of history’s greatest racing cars. Less than a year after his victories at Le Mans and the Belgian Grand Prix, one of his Eagle Indy cars won the Indianapolis 500. Retirement from the cockpit kicked his racecar building business into high gear. Eagles won the Indy 500 three times and Gurney-built Eagle prototypes won multiple IMSA championships with victories in the prestigious 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring.
Dan Gurney’s ultimate gift to motorsport may be considered more cultural than technological or statistical. Just after 4 p.m. on June 11, 1967, Gurney and Foyt climbed on Le Mans’ victory podium. Gurney was handed the traditional victory magnum of Moet Champagne but instead of drinking it, Gurney shook the dark bottle, aimed it at the crowd and sprayed all hands.
Porsche racer Jo Siffert, winner of the two-liter prototype class, joined in, with Foyt laughing out loud. From that moment, nearly every major race winner has emulated Gurney’s creative Le Mans victory celebration.
The Celebration of Ford’s GT40 Seminar presented by Kelly Services happens at 10 a.m. March 9 in the Talbot Ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island.
Tickets are $30 each, available at ameliaconcours.org.
The 2013 Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance will be held March 8-10 on the 10th and 18th fairways of The Golf Club of Amelia Island at Summer Beach adjacent to The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island, Fla.. The show’s Foundation has donated over $2 million to Community Hospice of Northeast Florida, Inc. and other charities on Florida’s First Coast since its inception in 1996.
Gurney will join fellow Ford GT40 racers Brian Redman and David Hobbs, John Wyer Racing Team manager John Horsman, Holman Automotive and Holman Moody president Lee Holman and Le Mans-winning Shelby American team member Alan Grant on the panel of the Celebration of Ford’s GT40 Seminar in the Ritz-Carlton at Amelia Island, Florida.
Gurney, who was 2002 Honorary Chairman of the Amelia concours, won just one race for the Carroll Shelby-led Ford GT40 team, but it was the race that mattered most: the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Gurney’s victory in the 1967 edition of the fabled Le Mans 24 hour endurance classic has become the stuff of legends and remains part of the most extraordinary three-weeks span in international motorsport.
From May 30 through June 18, 1967, Ford teammates Dan Gurney and Le Mans co-driver A.J. Foyt rewrote the history books and had automotive journalists scouring their thesauri for superlatives for the American racers, their competition feats and their American racing cars.
It started on Memorial Day in Indianapolis where Foyt, racing his Ford-powered Coyote, won his third Indy 500 at record speed. Just 11 days later, he and Gurney defeated the might of Ferrari to win the fastest Le Mans 24 Hours in the race’s 35 year history. The closest Ferrari was a distant 25 miles behind the Gurney/Foyt Ford GT after 3,237 miles of relentless, high-speed, open-road racing.
Another speed record came just one week later. Gurney, driving his own Eagle Formula 1 racer, won the fastest Formula 1 race in the sport’s 28 year history on the long, sweeping Spa circuit through Belgium’s Ardennes forest, the fastest road-racing circuit in the world. Gurney’s winning average speed over the Belgian public roads was just 5.2 mph slower than Foyt’s record-setting 500 speed on Indy’s high-speed oval.
Gurney went on to create some of history’s greatest racing cars. Less than a year after his victories at Le Mans and the Belgian Grand Prix, one of his Eagle Indy cars won the Indianapolis 500. Retirement from the cockpit kicked his racecar building business into high gear. Eagles won the Indy 500 three times and Gurney-built Eagle prototypes won multiple IMSA championships with victories in the prestigious 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring.
Dan Gurney’s ultimate gift to motorsport may be considered more cultural than technological or statistical. Just after 4 p.m. on June 11, 1967, Gurney and Foyt climbed on Le Mans’ victory podium. Gurney was handed the traditional victory magnum of Moet Champagne but instead of drinking it, Gurney shook the dark bottle, aimed it at the crowd and sprayed all hands.
Porsche racer Jo Siffert, winner of the two-liter prototype class, joined in, with Foyt laughing out loud. From that moment, nearly every major race winner has emulated Gurney’s creative Le Mans victory celebration.
The Celebration of Ford’s GT40 Seminar presented by Kelly Services happens at 10 a.m. March 9 in the Talbot Ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island.
Tickets are $30 each, available at ameliaconcours.org.
The 2013 Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance will be held March 8-10 on the 10th and 18th fairways of The Golf Club of Amelia Island at Summer Beach adjacent to The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island, Fla.. The show’s Foundation has donated over $2 million to Community Hospice of Northeast Florida, Inc. and other charities on Florida’s First Coast since its inception in 1996.
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