During the 75 years of the F1 World Championship, an exclusive club of just five American drivers won a Grand Prix, two of whom went on to win the F1 World Title. The new RACER issue 336 covers all five. Here we consider one of the true symbols of racing.
and a stretcher
Number of Grand Prix starts: 86 (1959-1970)
Grand Prix Winner: 4 times
Best result in F1 World Championship: 4th place in 1961 and 1965
Daniel Sexton Gurney made 26 starts in the eponymous Grand Prix before signing with Brabham for the 1963 F1 season. He finished on the podium twice in 1959 in an antiquated Ferrari 246 Dino, only finished twice in 1960 in a pathetically unreliable BRM P48, and then spent two years in Porsche’s short-lived first foray into F1. He finished on the podium in 1961 in a 718, then won at Rouen in a jewel-like 804, and took pole position and third place at the Nürburgring. Gurney was fast, brave, and technically astute. It was everything Jack Brabham wanted from the team he founded just two years earlier.
Throughout 1963, Brabham’s teammate choices were correct. When Gurney’s Brabham Climax BT7 crossed the line, it was a strong result, with Dan scoring three podiums and finishing fifth in the championship. The following year, Gurney did a great job with the updated BT7. He never finished lower than fifth in qualifying and spent the season competing with the likes of Jim Clark, John Surtees and Graham Hill. However, a DNF ended his title hopes. At Monaco he suffered a gearbox failure while running second, at Zandvoort his steering failed and at Spa, where he won the weekend, he ran out of fuel on the penultimate lap.
And everything went well (again) in Rouen. Gurney lost pole position to Clark and had to sit behind him for 30 laps, but when the leading Lotus suffered a burnt piston, Dan the Man took over and won. Clark had benefited from Gurney’s misfortune at Spa, so this felt like karma righting a wrong. And Brabham, who finished third, couldn’t have been more proud to see his brand crowned a Grand Prix winner. But then Gurney’s fate became typical again. Ignition problems while running 2nd at Brands Hatch, overheating at the Nurburgring, broken suspension while running first at Zeltweg, alternator failure while fighting for the lead at Monza, oil pressure drop while running 2nd at Watkins Glen… it was getting crazy.
At the finale in Mexico City, Clark led most of the way, followed by Gurney, but his Lotus suffered an oil leak with two laps remaining and the engine seized up. Dan came home as the winner at the expense of his best friend, but the two were also able to sympathize with each other. Despite Jimmy leading eight Grands Prix and Dan seven, they finished third and sixth respectively in the year-end points table.
Lotus was relaunched in 1965 and although the 33 model trailed behind the technically inferior Brabham BT11, Gurney got the best out of it, finishing on the podium in the final five GPs and finishing fourth in the championship. But nothing can match the joy felt when Brabham took its first victory at Rouen in 1964. And Gurney will move forward with all the lessons he learned with his team…
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It was Dan Gurney who expanded Brabham’s All American Racers into F1 as Anglo American Racers. Brave adventures in the exquisite car Eagle. In its early form it was powered by a 2.8-litre Climax, but it was later blessed and cursed by the powerful and complex 3-litre Weslake V12.
Gurney won at Spa-Francorchamps, but Brabham’s departure probably cost him his second world championship. Gurney was faster than Jack Brabham and his successor Denny Hulme, who won the titles in 1966 and 1967 respectively.
F1 Eagles was in decline in 1968, so AAR ran its final three GPs in a private McLaren. After taking a year off to focus on AAR’s IndyCar campaign in 1969, Gurney briefly returned to F1 in mid-1970 as a replacement for the tragically departed Bruce McLaren, but the sport’s appeal had faded. Gurney has completely transformed into a constructor and team owner on this side of the Atlantic.
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