The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion enters a new dawn of historic racing by honoring one of the true legends of motorsports – Dan Gurney – the Cars He Built, the Cars He Drove – August 12-15 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion will feature a display of Gurney Eagle Racing Cars: Formula 1, Indy cars, IMSA GTP prototypes, Can-Am and Trans-Am machines. Gurney will share some of his favorite stories with the fans through public interview and autograph sessions on Saturday, August 14.
“We are proud that Dan has accepted our invitation to be our first featured guest at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion,” said Gill Campbell, CEO/general manager of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
Gurney’s career at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca spans 50 years of winning there as a driver, manufacturer and team owner. He drove in the first professional race ever held at the track – the 1960 Pacific Grand Prix. He competed twice more in that event, piloting a Lotus 19 to victory (which will be one of the cars on display) in the first of the two-heat race in 1962. Gurney competed in several Monterey Grand Prix Can-Am races in the late sixties, before his worldwide racing ambitions kept him away from the track for several years.
As a driver, Gurney put his name in the record book with victories in the sports car races at Daytona, Sebring, the Targa Florio, the 1000 km at the Nuerburgring and Le Mans. He won four World Championship Grand Prix, in France, Belgium and Mexico, three additional Formula 1 races, seven Indianapolis road races and five NASCAR 500 Stock Car races. He was twice runner-up in the Indy 500. Gurney has the distinction of being the only U.S. citizen in the 100 year history of Formula 1 racing to win a World Championship Grand Prix in a car of his own construction. At Monterey, his All American Racers team won some splendid races with GTU and GTO Toyota Celicas, as well as the Eagle GTP Prototype sports car.
Gurney is the owner, chairman and CEO of All American Racers, Inc. founded in Santa Ana, Calif. in 1965. The company designed and built 157 Eagle racing cars between 1965 and 2000. This includes: four Formula 1 Eagles, 106 Indy Eagles, 20 Formula 5000 Eagles, 13 IMSA GTP Eagles, 13 Formula Ford Eagles and 11 other race cars including two Trans-Am Plymouth Barracudas, three IMSA GTU Toyota Celicas, three IMSA GTO Toyota Celicas, two Can-Am McLeagle and a Lola Can-Am race car.
Dan Gurney’s All American Racers is the only constructor in the U.S. that has designed and built a winning F1 grand prix car, a winning Indianapolis 500 car and a winning sports car. All American Racers’ factory team employed 66 drivers winning 78 victories, the “Indy 500,” 83 pole positions and eight Championships.
In 2002, Gurney surprised the automotive world and introduced his revolutionary single cylinder ALLIGATOR motorcycle, a project in the making for two decades. He rides with his sons and a few friends almost every Sunday. For more information, visit www.allamericanracers.com.
Gurney was inducted as the first Legend of Laguna during the season-opening U.S. Sports Car Invitational May 2007, where his son Alex was driving a Daytona Prototype in the Grand-Am race. Gurney was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, is a member of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, the Sebring International Raceway Hall of Fame and the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame.
More than 400 historic racing cars will compete in 14 groups at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. This year’s featured races are Formula 1, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year; Trans-Am; and for the first time ever, Stock Cars (with drum brakes) that competed between 1959 and 1975. Additionally, there will be a dedicated grid of Bugatti race cars in the Bugatti Grand Prix, with some coming from as far away as Australia, France, Germany and Switzerland.
Formerly known as the Monterey Historic Automobile Races®, the event is now produced by SCRAMP (Sports Car Racing Association of the Monterey Peninsula), a not-for-profit 501(C)4 corporation established in 1957. A professional staff is supported by thousands of community volunteers and a volunteer board of directors who are the backbone of every event.
For more information, visit www.MazdaRaceway.com or call 800-327-7322.
[Source: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca]
