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Dan Gurney: All American Racer(Part 7)
Career OverviewLooking at the statistics related to Dan Gurney's career as a race driver (see table below), you can't help but be struck by the remarkable consistency that he maintained throughout his career and by the racing "bad luck" that kept him from winning many more races and maybe a good number of championships (particularly in Formula 1). Based on the information I've been able to compile (which admittedly might have some errors and/or omissions), he finished in the Top 10 in a remarkable 45% of the races he started -- with 32% of that 45% actually being podium finishes. In contrast, Dan DNF'd in 52% of his starts because of mechanical problems of one kind or another. Also note that he rarely crashed out (only five times, if my info is accurate). What this tells me is that, more often than not, Dan Gurney was either going to be a contender or his car was going to break. He rarely crashed and he rarely finished outside of the Top 10 if his car was still running. To me, that means that he was a race driver of remarkable skill who, given the right equipment and a little bit of good luck, could have been regarded in the same breath as the great Formula 1 champions -- like Juan Fangio, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Ayrton Senna, and Michael Schumacher. Among American drivers, only one driver stands out as having the versatility that Dan had -- that driver being Mario Andretti. Dan Gurney truly was an "All American Racer."
Running
Outside Crashed Mechanical
Type of Racing Starts 1st 2nd 3rd Top 10 Top 10 DNF DNF
-------------------- ------ --- --- --- ------ ------- ------- ----------
American Sport Cars 66 23 6 0 32 0 1 33
FIA Sports Cars 41 8 4 0 15 0 1 25
FIA Formula 1 86 4 8 7 40 1 2 43
Non-Champ Formula 1 19 3 1 0 5 0 0 14
US Formula Libre 4 2 1 0 3 0 0 1
USAC Indy Cars 28 7 4 5 18 0 1 9
British Saloon 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 1
NASCAR Stock Cars 16 5 0 0 7 1 0 8
SCCA Can-Am 23 3 0 1 7 0 0 16
SCCA Trans-Am 12 1 0 2 5 0 0 7
------ --- --- --- ------ ------- ------- ----------
Totals 297 57 24 15 133 2 5 157
====== === === === ====== ======= ======= ==========
Percentage 100% 19% 8% 5% 45% 1% 2% 52%
====== === === === ====== ======= ======= ==========
'--> 32% <--' '-----------> 100% <---------------'
Dan Gurney - Car Builder and Team OwnerThe career of Dan Gurney "the car builder and team owner" has been as remarkable as that of Dan Gurney "the race driver." Below are a few of the championship highlights of Dan's All American Racers (AAR):
For More Information
For an excellent history of Dan Gurney's racing career, look for the book:
Dan Gurney: The Ultimate Racer or visit Dan Gurney's All American Racers web site
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