Dan's Day

Most auto racers stick to one well-practiced groove--either sports cars, Grand Prix machines, souped-up Detroit stock cars or big Indianapolis racers. Dan Gurney, 31, a lean, blond professional from California, drives anything with wheels--and does it so skillfully that Argentina's retired Juan Miguel Fangio recently went so far as to call him "one of the greatest race drivers in the world." But after eight years on the circuits, Gurney may sometimes wonder if selling insurance would not be better. Few top drivers have suffered through worse luck.

Go-Karts & 10-c- 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, but his Chevrolet was disqualified for being "gutted" to reduce its weight. Last October, Gurney was leading the Riverside Grand Prix when a 10-c- part broke on his Lotus, costing him victory and $12,000 in prize money.

"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'll be a lot of us chasing him."

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 3 1/2-ft.-high guardrail. Jim Paschal's Plymouth spun out of control, turned four somersaults and plunged over a steep embankment. Incredibly, neither driver was badly hurt. Streaking through Riverside's tricky S-curves in third gear at more than 100 m.p.h., Gurney grabbed the lead on the 43rd lap. Over the next 142 laps, until he finally flashed across the finish line in front, Gurney relinquished his lead only three times--each time for a pit stop. His winning margin for the six-hour race: 36 sec. Waving a $13,600 check, Gurney beamed the happy smile of a man who, at long last, had broken a jinx. "This was my first victory here," he said. "It feels very, very good."

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