A highlight of the 2010 Rolex Monterey Historic Reunion was The Dan Gurney Garage presented by Garage Scenes. Fans were treated to a variety of cars that Dan Gurney either drove and built.
Canadian Gilles Villeneuve started his racing career driving snowmobiles. After attending Jim Russell Driver’s School he hired one of the school’s Formula Fords and proceeded to win four of the six races he entered and a Canadian National title.
In 1974 Villeneuve won the international snowmobile championship and then signed for the Ecurie Canada Formula Atlantic team. During the winter he became snowmobile World Champion and the following season scored his first Formula Atlantic win, at Gimli, Manitoba.
The staged spraying of champagne by the race winners actually started as a spontaneous reaction by Dan Gurney after winning the 1967 Le Mans 24 Hour race. Gurney and AJ Foyt were the improbable winners of the event. The two, while fast, were not expected to last the distance, much less lead the majority of the race at a record pace. Dan Gurney led a number of races for Ford only to retire due to mechanical problems; it was Foyt’s first visit to the French race. The Gurney/Foyt team moved into the lead of the race in the second hour and led until the end. The Scarfiotti/Parkes Ferrari 330P4 team drove flat-out for the last hours of the race in an effort to catch the leading Ford. But the Ford Mk IV never missed a beat and won by over four laps.
Phil Hill, the first American to win the Formula One driver’s championship, died today. He was 81. He died at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula of complications from Parkinson’s disease.
Phil is survived by his wife, Alma, son Derek, daughter Vanessa, stepdaughter Jennifer Delaney and four grandchildren.
Visit The Phil Hill web site and sign their Book of Remembrance
