Word: gurney
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...lightest Offy. Their power plants were Ford Fairlane V-8s-souped up to 376 h.p., but with carburetors, yet-and they got their nourishment from the good old Esso pump. Their drivers: Scotland's Jimmy Clark, 27, and the U.S.'s Dan Gurney, 32, veterans of the European Grand Prix circuit, greenhorns at the Brickyard. Their chances? "It's nice to see them in the race," said two-time winner Rodger Ward nearsightedly...
...qualifying trials! Jimmy Clark blazed around the 2½-mile Indy oval at 149.7 m.p.h., announced "I'll take it," and scooted back to Europe for some real racing. Trying to crack 150 m.p.h., Dan Gurney plowed into the Speedway wall and demolished his Lotus. Climbing out unhurt, he borrowed a spare and clocked 149 m.p.h. That was enough for Britain's race driver turned reporter, Stirling Moss: he picked the Lotuses to win, began taking bets around the pit area...
...Karts & 10? Parts. Offered the wheel of a blood-red factory Ferrari in 1958, Gurney came within an ace of victory at Le Mans and again at Rheims; both times his co-drivers wrecked the cars. At the Dutch Grand Prix in 1960, the brakes failed on his British-built BRM; the car hurtled off the track killing a spectator and breaking Gurney's left arm. Nowhere has Gurney's luck been worse than at his home-town Riverside International Raceway, a course he knows blindfolded. Last March, he won a $13,250 stock car race...
...This is a cruel sport," says Gurney, and last week he was back at Riverside for another try. The field in the $66,000 Grand National stock car race (distance: 500 miles) included such daredevils as Glenn ("Fireball") Roberts, Paul Goldsmith and Len Sutton. But in prerace speed trials, Gurney maneuvered his hopped-up 1963 Ford around the twisting, 2.7-mile circuit at a record clip of 99.5 m.p.h.. and rival drivers tabbed him as the man to beat. "If his machine can take the punishment," said Joe Weatherly, the 1962 U.S. stock car champion, "there...
Leaping & Somersaulting. Shunted back into eleventh place as the starter's green flag dropped, Gurney played a waiting game as A. J. Foyt, Goldsmith and the others dueled for the lead. Bumper to bumper the cars snarled around the circuit, hitting close to 150 m.p.h. on the straightaways, sliding boldly through the narrow turns. For some, the pace proved too fast. Clem Proctor's Pontiac hit an oil slick and leaped a 3½-ft.-high guardrail. Jim Paschal's Plymouth spun out of control, turned four somersaults and plunged over a steep embankment. Incredibly, neither driver...