(WASHINGTON POST) Dan Gurney, one of the most versatile and successful auto racers in U.S. history, who won championships around the world, inaugurated the tradition of spraying champagne after a victory and entered popular culture by winning the “Cannonball Run” coast-to-coast race in 1971, died Jan. 14 in Newport Beach, California. He was 86.
His family announced the death in a statement. The cause was pneumonia.
In the 1960s, Gurney was one of the best-known figures in his sport, easily switching from one kind of car to another, equally adept on oval tracks and twisting road courses. He won races by driving stock cars, Indy-style open-wheel cars, sports cars and sleek Formula 1 racers on the European Grand Prix circuit.
As a driver, car designer and team owner, he contributed to several major innovations in motor sports, from rear-mounted engines to aerodynamic devices to the full-face driving helmet.
The 6-foot-3 Gurney was unusually tall for a driver, and his patrician appearance and elegant driving style sometimes masked his competitive fire. In 1963, Sports Illustrated called him “America’s best and most influential racing driver.”
