RACER with Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt on Le Mans 1967

Well, guys, we just went to see the car that you guys made history with 50 years ago. The number one who convinced who to be a teammate. Did you convince him to be your teammate? I think it was Ford's decision, right? I think it was yes. because I just wanted to thank Andy and stuff, and you know, I was supposed to go in 66 and I got burned. Remember at Milwaukee and Ford that weekend lost about four or five of their drivers, so they asked me at 67, so I think Ford was the one that matched us up, but you hate foreign food, did you eat there?

Well, I'm sure you didn't gain weight. What about the testing program? Did they get tested for a week, two days, 30 minutes, uh, 15, 15 minutes? Did you have a test or a serious testing program? No, so Ford had a very serious program with a lot of people involved, but we were both racing elsewhere. I think it's okay, but the interesting thing is that people always talk to you and Par. Oh. It's a shame that you guys were never able to win Formula 1, but you had the chance. They always told me I don't want to go there and run, that's exactly right and I just didn't care, so what made them want to?

To do this right, I was a rookie and I just won Indie and all that and I knew Carol Shelby is from Texas and she says she makes a good team and Dan Gurnie knew he was a great race car driver and all that on the road. courses and I thought I would go as a newbie and see what happens and luckily we came out on top. I hear you? Was it difficult to train at all? I mean, he couldn't have done a better job, Dan when you think about Phil Remington and I mean he wasn't telling him how to drive or anything.

I talk some stories from the past and everything, but AJ had the talent to do it whether I was there or not and he was a real winner and that's what his fans have felt all along and from time to time he's good at making it up. excuses also super Tex no, you've never made excuses, so you're going to go practice in Lama for the first time. At night, you go 240 M per hour on a straight line and a track you don't know much about, you did it, that was it. Dawn, where did you think a little, man, man, no, can I handle this or not?

Or did you accept it right away? Well, the only thing I followed uh, what did I tell you? What was his name when he went out at night? Oh, I named it before. uh, Denny Holmes, yes, Denny Holmes. I knew he had a lot of experience. there and I followed him about 10 laps and then he showed me the way and then I continued after that, but the only thing I didn't like, I say clearly, they had no railing, nothing more than They painted damn trees about 7 feet and when you passed by there at more than 200 M hour you kept seeing all those trees in white water, so you knew that if you went into them you were in big trouble and that's the only thing that bothered me the most at night.

Anything, yeah, trees at 200 miles an hour could be an obstacle, so when you get in the car and you have to go find Phil Remington to help you because you're big, he's big and we just went and looked the Piggy and it is. Still, the driver was small. The comfort was basically putting a bubble on top and a little pad behind you. I thought the car was very comfortable once we had the bubble, so in comparison I had been in much tighter cars. AJ talks about driving, I imagine it was pretty tight, yeah, real cramp, yeah, well here's the other thing, so the race starts guys, in 24 hours LED, all but 90 minutes, did you think that after qualifying after practice were you guys? to beat, did you think we had the car to beat?

Well, Gurnie put him on the pole, so that should tell you that we're going to start first, maybe we won't stay there, but we'll be there the first time, but I mean. Did you think okay, this is definitely my best chance to win this race because this car is so good? The long answer is yes, it's a no. I mean, of course, if you're realistic, you don't know. That is until the end, right, and uh, we're both pretty realistic, yeah, okay, now the guy you said makes excuses once said it was his turn to rest and he couldn't find you because you were somewhere, so he I had to drive two or three periods in a row in the rain.

It is a fact. It's an AJ Foy fact. I'll take the fifth. Robin is trying. You're trying to stir it up. I don't think so. I think it is. I think it's great that you stopped him, no, no, I mean we had an incident there, that's right, and it was that AJ had to drive two periods and, but you know, outside of a few words, you can I won't repeat why It was good, we didn't have four or five drivers like they have now, just Dan and I, that made it a lot better. What about cars that go 100 miles per hour slower than you?

It was the most dawn moment of the whole B he so fast they couldn't even see us, so you lead all but 90 minutes of this race, you win it by four laps and you never want to think it's in the bag, but I mean there's one or two hours to go, you guys are thinking that unless something really drastic happens, we're going to win this. I know the people at Ford didn't want me there, they wanted AJ for the finish line. because they felt like he had a better chance of going to hell and winning it, they knew he was tired and worn out so they knew he couldn't run too hard, did you?

Were you pretty? Were you pretty fucked when it ended? crazy, that's that question, hell yeah. You were a young man, you weighed 170 pounds, you were chiseled. I don't care how young he was, he was still tired, in fact, they knew when they said you had to go back. I said the Gurn man's arms were 6 in I said my shoulder hurts so much I can't stand it and they said we can't find him. I said don't tell me that, so anyway, did you come back in? Were you taking a nap? Sir, no, sir, he was not there.

Were you drinking wine? Were you still there? I knew what time I had to come back and um and you made it. I was watching closely on my watch and walking with h with Evie. 3500 on May 31, you win Lama. I think that on June 10 and 18, Spa and Águila win. I would say that in your life, as great as you, you had as many things that you accomplished, as great as you, that you could have been. The best month of your lives was a good one and, yes, from a racing point of view, it was. You couldn't make me say that.

Could you? Well, all I can say is probably one of the best times of my life was 1958, my first year. I qualified for the n500 coming from a quarter mile and that was a race I always dreamed of and since then I was lucky throughout my life winning and after I learned how to win, I loved it and wanted to keep winning, but you . when you won you said I won it the first time that's enough I'm not going to come back well I have to invite you back for two or three years and I said I was a rookie I have nothing to prove and I enjoyed it a lot It was a lot of fun being with Ford Motor Company like they treated us like we were something even though we weren't, but they had put us on a pedestal like Daren was something.

AJ was something, but we really enjoyed it. and Ford was a great team to work with and they wanted to win as much as we did, you know, last question, 50 years later, everyone is still talking about it, hey, we need a photo, let's talk about this, it will be in 100 years, people are I'm still going to be talking about this just because they were Americans and it was the way you guys won the race and it was and it was your career years. Can you prove that will happen? I can't prove it. No I can not.

Daniel, I can't prove that. but I think it's going to happen. I wouldn't be surprised at all. I know, if people were half as proud as us, why would it happen well to the great Legends of all time. Sometimes they lie most of the time. Not really for me, although this is, oh wait, yes sir, well, I didn't know he was going to quit already, but one of the things I have to say about AJ is that not only was he an excellent racing driver and it was noticeable. I enjoyed doing it and different ways of achieving it were explored and everything, but he was also a dog with a good engineer and he never emphasized that, but there were new things.

Trends to work with. He was probably involved now if he was okay. I just remember that, and if you thought you were going to design it, another thought probably occurred to you. You didn't really have a soft spot in your heart for English engineers in the '80s and '90s, so it was probably pretty good. You were an engineer, what are you saying? I say I knew I wanted to win, look how I had to do it and you're saying a race car is a race car and you figured it out a little bit at every step and then you ruined it all. true, I was lucky enough to see these guys race and they answer my phone calls when I call Callum, we are going to write this on

racer

.com and Marshall pu is going to take the photo, so thanks for watching, see you around. the way you veterans, thank you Robin, thank you