The American visionary who couldn't wait for Ferrari
Dan Gurney won Le Mans and began the venerable tradition of spraying champagne on the podium - then won the Belgian Grand Prix a week later. NIGEL ROEBUCK recalls a racer who passed up a chance with Ferrari because Maranello was too slow to keep up...
In 2015, a few days before the race, I was invited to a private dinner attended by nine winners of the Indianapolis 500 - plus one. Although Dan Gurney's face is not on the Borg-Warner Trophy, he twice finished second, and to omit him would have been unthinkable. In the hands of others, after all, his Eagle cars several times made it to Victory Lane.
It was primarily to attend this dinner that Gurney, 84 years old, came back to Indianapolis and, earlier that day, after flying in, he suffered a heart 'event' and was taken to hospital. When he walked into the restaurant, smiling as always, the joy was unconfined. "They defibrillated me," he said, "and I'm fine - no way I was going to miss this!"
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