All American Racers

All American Racers is an American auto racing team and constructor based in Santa Ana, California.[1] Founded by Dan Gurney and Carroll Shelby in 1964, All American Racers initially participated in American sports car and Champ Car races as well as international Formula One events with cars named Eagle. The Formula One team, based in the United Kingdom and using British-built Weslake engines was named Anglo American Racers. Under team manager Bill Dunne they set up shop in Rye, East Sussex.[2] The team were adjacent to Harry Weslake's engine development plant and half a mile from Elva cars.[3] They participated in 25 Grands Prix, entering a total of 34 cars.

The first Eagles were created after AAR entered a Goodyear-backed Lotus 38 in the 1965 Indianapolis 500 and Gurney hired former Lotus designer Len Terry to develop their own car for 1966. The resulting Ford-powered Eagle T2G was codeveloped with the Eagle T1G for Formula 1. After exiting Formula One in 1968 and concentrating on Champ Car, Eagle turned to sports car racing in the 1980s, partnering with Toyota to develop the Celica and later sports prototypes for the Camel GT Championship.

The company built the Ben Bowlby-designed DeltaWing that was run by Highcroft Racing at the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Formula 1

An Eagle T2G USAC car, essentially identical to the Formula One T1G except for suspension and engine specifications.

In order to run the Formula 1 operations, Gurney established Anglo American Racers. The Eagle T1G, powered by an obsolete Coventry Climax engine, debuted at the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix and scored its first points with a fifth place three weeks later at the French Grand Prix. In 1967 Richie Ginther was signed as a second driver. The Climax engine was replaced by a new 3-liter Weslake V12 designed by Aubrey Woods and built in Great Britain by Harry Weslake. At Spa-Francorchamps in June of that same year Gurney got a victory, the first "all-American" victory in a Grand Prix since Jimmy Murphy in 1921. Excluding the Indianapolis 500, this is the only win for a USA-built car in Formula One.[1][4]

The Eagle-Weslake was a beautiful and efficient car, one example of which was constructed in titanium and exotic alloys. More than this, the Eagle was designed to make the tall Gurney fit comfortably at the wheel. Their efforts produced a V12 that was smooth and powerful. At Monza, an insight into the future of engine design was seen for the first time. The engine had four valves per cylinder at a narrow included angle (thirty degrees) that allowed a single cover to enclose both the close-spaced camshafts on each bank. The sixty-degree-vee layout. had a larger bore than stroke (72.8 X 60mm). Gurney's program ran out of money in 1968 and by the end of the year he returned to the United States to concentrate his efforts on the more successful Indycar program, in which Bobby Unser had won the Indianapolis 500 and the 1968 Indycar Championship. A non-works version briefly appeared with privateer Al Pease in the 1969 Canadian Grand Prix, but Pease became noticed for all the wrong reasons and made history as the only F1 driver ever disqualified for being too slow.

USAC & CART Champ Car

The Eagle driven to 6th place in the 1969 Indianapolis 500 by Joe Leonard

During the USAC years, the Eagle chassis was very successful in the late 1960s and 1970s, especially with driver Bobby Unser. Eagles won 51 Champ Car races, including the 1968 and 1975 Indy 500's won by Unser and the 1973 race won by Gordon Johncock. The All American Racers team was inactive in single seaters from 1987 to 1995 and returned in 1996 again building their own chassis and using new Toyota engines. However, this new effort, a combination of new and untested equipment, did not prove to be successful, never winning a race and collecting only occasional top-tens. The team ceased active racing after the 1999 CART season.

CART drivers

IMSA GT

Gurney's team was contracted by Toyota in 1983 to enter the IMSA GT Championship with specially-modified Toyota Celicas.

In 1988, the team moved up to the GTP category with two chassis - a modified Toyota 88C Group C car and a team-designed Eagle HF89 purpose-built for IMSA competition.

AAR experienced its greatest success in GTP competition with the Eagle MkIII, introduced in 1991. Powered by a turbocharged 2.1-liter Toyota inline-4 developing up to 800 horsepower and generating 10,000 pounds of downforce at 200 mph, the MkIII won 21 of the 27 races in which it was entered - a record so dominant that it has been blamed for the collapse of the GTP series.[5][6]

Trans-Am

AAR created a special Trans-Am Series version of the Plymouth Barracuda, running in the 1970 season with drivers Dan Gurney and Swede Savage.[7] A homologation special production edition was offered in 1970.[8]

Racing results

Complete Formula One World Championship results

Anglo American Racers

(key) (Results in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Year Chassis Engine(s) Tyres Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Points WCC
1966 Eagle T1G Climax S4
Weslake V12		 G MON BEL FRA GBR NED GER ITA USA MEX 4 7th
United States Dan Gurney Ret 5 Ret Ret 7 Ret Ret 5
United States Phil Hill DNQ
United States Bob Bondurant DSQ Ret
1967 Eagle T1G Weslake V12 G RSA MON NED BEL FRA GBR GER CAN ITA USA MEX 13 7th
United States Dan Gurney Ret Ret Ret 1 Ret Ret Ret 3 Ret Ret Ret
United States Richie Ginther DNQ
New Zealand Bruce McLaren Ret Ret Ret
Italy Ludovico Scarfiotti Ret
1968 G RSA ESP MON BEL NED FRA GBR GER ITA CAN USA MEX 0* 12th
Eagle T1G Weslake V12 United States Dan Gurney Ret Ret Ret Ret 9 Ret
McLaren M7A Ford V8 Ret 4 Ret

* 4th place in the 1968 United States Grand Prix was scored in a McLaren-Ford, therefore the points did not count towards Eagle-Weslake's points total.

Non-works entries

(key)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine Tyres Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
1967 Castrol Oils Ltd. Eagle T1G Climax S4 ? RSA MON NED BEL FRA GBR GER CAN ITA USA MEX
Canada Al Pease NC
1968 Castrol Oils Ltd. Eagle T1G Climax S4 ? RSA ESP MON BEL NED FRA GBR GER ITA CAN USA MEX
Canada Al Pease DNS
1969 John Maryon Eagle T1G Climax S4 ? RSA ESP MON NED FRA GBR GER ITA CAN USA MEX
Canada Al Pease DSQ

Complete Formula One Non-Championship results

(key)

Year Chassis Engine Driver 1 2 3 4 5 6
1967 Eagle T1G Weslake V12 ROC SPC INT SYR OUL ESP
United States Dan Gurney 1
United States Richie Ginther 10

Complete CART PPG Indy Car World Series results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position)

Year Chassis Engine Drivers No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
1979 Eagle 79 Cosworth DFX V8t PHX ATL INDY TRT MCH WGL TRT ONT MCH ATL PHX
United States Mike Mosley 36 6 17 17 3 13 DNS 2 20 12 14 34 14 10
1980 Eagle 80 Cosworth DFX V8t ONT INDY MIL POC MDO MCH WGL MIL ONT MCH MXC PHX
United States Mike Mosley 48 19
Chevrolet V8 32 23 17
1981 Eagle 81 Chevrolet V8 PHX MIL ATL MCH RIR MIL MCH WGL MXC PHX
United States Mike Mosley 48 1* DNS 18 DNS 26 24
Australia Geoff Brabham 19 9
United States Rocky Moran 6
1983 Eagle 83 Chevrolet V8 ATL INDY MIL CLE MCH ROA POC RIV MDO MCH CPL LAG PHX
United States Jeff Wood 98 22 8
1984 Eagle 84SB Pontiac V8 LBH PHX INDY MIL POR MEA CLE MCH ROA POC MDO SAN MCH PHX LAG CPL
United States Mike Chandler 88 16 DNQ
United States Kevin Cogan 8
98 20 9 18 20 22
United States Pete Halsmer 14
United States Ed Pimm 26 13 22 22 19 10 12 19
1985 Eagle 85GC
Lola T900		 Cosworth DFX V8t LBH INDY MIL POR MEA CLE MCH ROA POC MDO SAN MCH LAG PHX MIA
United States Tom Sneva 2 8 20 2 24 6 11 3 21 8 15 7 5 19 19 21
United States Tony Bettenhausen, Jr. 97 29
United States Ed Pimm 98 12 9 21 19 DNS 5 11 20 9 8 3 14 9 12
1986 Eagle 86GC Cosworth DFX V8t PHX LBH INDY MIL POR MEA CLE TOR MCH POC MDO SAN MCH ROA LAG PHX MIA
Netherlands Jan Lammers 98 9 14 DNQ
1996 Eagle Mk-V Toyota RV8A V8t MIA RIO SFR LBH NAZ 500 MIL DET POR CLE TOR MCH MDO ROA VAN LAG
Argentina Juan Manuel Fangio II 36 21 17 15 25 25 22 19 18 14 13 28 14 20 8 19 28
United States P. J. Jones 98 Wth 24 9 24 23 20 16 25 18 13 27
1997 Reynard 96i
Reynard 97i		 Toyota RV8A V8t
Toyota RV8B V8t		 MIA SFR LBH NAZ RIO GAT MIL DET POR CLE TOR MCH MDO ROA VAN LAG FON
Argentina Juan Manuel Fangio II 36 20 20 26 15 20 23 21 10 22 21 19 11 25 10 12 15 27
United States P. J. Jones 98 28 26 16 21 16 21 14 14 20 25 21 28 17 14 25 17 10
1998 Reynard 97i
Reynard 98i
Eagle 987		 Toyota RV8C V8t
Toyota RV8D V8t		 MIA MOT LBH NAZ RIO GAT MIL DET POR CLE TOR MCH MDO ROA VAN LAG HOU SFR FON
United States Alex Barron 36 18 24 14 DNS 12 14 DNS 20 14 15 28 15 16 24 19 20 12 19 13
United States P. J. Jones 98 20 30 11 19 13 12 14 25 16 21 19 24 20 22 21
Italy Vincenzo Sospiri 22 15 15 23
1999 Eagle 997 Toyota RV8D V8t MIA MOT LBH NAZ RIO GAT MIL POR CLE ROA TOR MCH DET MDO CHI VAN LAG HOU SRF FON
United States Alex Barron 36 15 17 23 9 23 16 14
Brazil Gualter Salles 27 13 20 25 15 11 18
Brazil Raul Boesel 12 17
Italy Andrea Montermini 11 24 23 15

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://allamericanracers.com/gurney_grand-prix/eagle_f1-story.html
  2. ↑ Competition Press & Autoweek, March 26, 1966, Page 3.
  3. ↑ Competition Press & Autoweek, April 23, 1966, Page 6.
  4. ↑ Penske achieved a victory at the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix having raced with an American licence, but the car was built at the British base in Poole.
  5. ↑ Toyota Eagle MkIII, Mulsanne's Corner
  6. ↑ Eagle MkIII GTP, quoted from RACER magazine
  7. ↑ "Trans Am - The Early Years of American Sedan Racing". Car Craft. February 2009. Archived from the original on January 25, 2013. Retrieved January 25, 2013.
  8. ↑ "AAR ‘Cuda". Mopar Muscle Cars. January 27, 2011. Retrieved January 25, 2013.

External links