Eagle

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Dan Gurney’s All-American marque, which triumphed in Formula 1, at Indianapolis and in USAC and IMSA

Motor Sport Hall of Fame inductee Dan Gurney enjoyed a spectacular eight days some 50 years ago this June. He shared the winning Ford GT40 MkIV at Le Mans with A J Foyt – a feat he celebrated by becoming the first man to spray champagne on the podium. Then he travelled to Spa to win the Belgian Grand Prix for his own Eagle marque, thus emulating Jack Brabham as a race winner in his own car. Gurney was a polished and versatile racing driver whose four GP victories were scant reward for his natural talent.

He formed the All-American Racers with Carroll Shelby and turned constructor in October 1965. Both Formula 1 and USAC Eagles were built in Santa Ana, California and a European headquarters was established in the Sussex coastal town of Rye.

In 1968 Bobby Unser led Gurney in an Eagle 1-2 at Indianapolis and won his first USAC National Championship driving a Leader Card-entered machine. That was in stark contrast to Eagle’s F1 fortunes that season, and the marque withdrew at the end of the year to concentrate on its thriving Indycar business.

Gordon Johncock won the rain-affected 1973 Indy 500 for Patrick Racing and Unser registered a second national title a year later for the works All-American Racers. Bobby then delivered the marque’s third and final victory at the Brickyard in 1975. AAR ran Toyota’s successful IMSA programme from 1983 and Juan Manuel Fangio II was a double Prototype champion when driving an Eagle-Toyota.

‘Data Trace’ was born from Motor Sport’s online Database, which includes results from around the world, from the mainstream to the obscure. There are full results for the sport’s main championships, while the history of others is detailed with race winners and champions, a feature that is expanding all the time. Add to those 11,000 driver profiles (and counting), 750 circuit histories and a compare/contrast function for all F1 drivers.

www.motorsportmagazine.com/database