All American Racers

All American Racers is an American-licensed^[1] auto racing team and constructor based in Santa Ana, California.^[2] 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.^[3] The team were adjacent to Harry Weslake's engine development plant and half a mile from Elva cars.^[4] 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 IMSA 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

In order to run the Formula 1 operations, Gurney established the Anglo American Racers team, based in Rye, East Sussex, UK, though the cars were built in Santa Ana, California, USA by the All American Racers team. The Eagle T1G car, 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. For the season Richie Ginther was signed as a second driver. The Climax engine was replaced by a new 3-liter Weslake V12 engine designed by Aubrey Woods and built in Great Britain by Weslake.

At the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix Gurney achieved the first "all-American" victory in a Grand Prix since Jimmy Murphy´s triumph with Duesenberg at the 1921 French Grand Prix. Excluding the Indianapolis 500, this is the only win for a USA-built car as well as one of only two wins of an American-licensed constructor (along with the triumph of Penske at the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix) in Formula One.^[2][5]

USAC & CART Champ Car

During the USAC years, the Eagle chassis was very successful in the late 1960s and 1970s. Eagles won 51 Champ Car races, including the 1968 and 1975 Indy 500's won by Bobby Unser and the 1973 race won by Gordon Johncock. During this two-decade period, Bobby Unser, who drove Eagle cars for most of his teams, joined AAR as the sole driver, winning the 1975 Indianapolis 500. Unser also claimed 22 wins and 52 podiums with Eagle cars. After Unser's departure from the team for Team Penske, All American Racers started to lose their edge in IndyCar competition. Mike Mosley won a few races for the team before being dismissed at the end of 1982. By 1984, AAR merged with Mike Curb's team to form Curb-All American Racers. After a two-year partnership with Curb, Gurney and Curb parted ways, and this marked the beginning of the end of AAR's time in IndyCar.^{[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]}

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.^[15]

CART/USAC drivers

• Alex Barron (1998–1999)
• Raul Boesel (1999)
• Geoff Brabham (1981)
• Mike Chandler (1982, 1984)
• Kevin Cogan (1984–1985)
• Juan Manuel Fangio II (1996–1997)
• Pete Halsmer (1984)
• P. J. Jones (1996–1998)
• Jan Lammers (1986)
• Bobby Unser (1972–1978, USAC)
• Andrea Montermini (1999)
• Rocky Moran (1981)
• Mike Mosley (1979–1981)
• Ed Pimm (1984–1985)
• Gualter Salles (1999)
• Tom Sneva (1985)
• Vincenzo Sospiri (1998)

Eagle MK-V

The Eagle MK-V was the third to last Eagle CART, and the first original chassis following post-1986 inactivity. It was entered exclusively by Eagle and only for the 1996 season, because it was unsuccessful, even though it had 2 races in which it scored points, and a further 2 other races where it finished 1 place down from points. The drivers were Juan Manuel Fangio II and P. J. Jones. The Mk-V would be the first CART chassis developed by Eagle after being inactive after the 1986 CART Series. This new car, called the Mk-V would be a unique chassis, but would be structurally similar to the Reynard 94I. The CART would be almost completely untested before the season, and during the season would prove to be extremely bad in the corners.^[16][17]

Eagle 987

The Eagle 987 was the second to last chassis built by All American Racers.^[18] The car was raced only by Eagle, and was driven by Vincenzo Sospiri and Alex Barron. The car was entirely unsuccessful, and would be replaced by the Eagle 997 for the 1999 CART Championship.

IMSA GT

Gurney's team was contracted by Toyota in 1983 to enter the IMSA GT Championship with specially-modified Toyota Celicas.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[19][20]

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.^[21] A homologation special production edition was offered in 1970.^[22]

Racing results

Complete Formula One World Championship results

Anglo American Racers

Non-works entries

(key)

Complete Formula One Non-Championship results

(key)

Complete CART PPG Indy Car World Series results

Notes

1. ^ Results scored in a McLaren-Ford did not count towards Eagle-Weslake's points total.

References

1. ^ "Eagle". StatsF1. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
2. ^ "Saga of Audacity: Eagle F1". Archived October 22, 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved August 10, 2012.
3. ^ Competition Press & Autoweek, March 26, 1966, Page 3.
4. ^ Competition Press & Autoweek, April 23, 1966, Page 6.
5. ^ 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. Though American-owned, the British-based Shadow achieved a victory at the 1977 Austrian Grand Prix having raced with a British licence.
6. ^ "REWIND: Miller on Dan Gurney's Indy-winning Eagles". August 27, 2021.
7. ^ "RETRO: The wild tale of 1982's Eagle Aviation Flyer IndyCar". May 26, 2022.
8. ^ "1969 Eagle Weslake Ford 'Santa Ana' Indy Car | S167 | Indy 2022"
9. ^ "1968 Eagle Indy Car". Archived from the original on March 2, 2023. Retrieved June 5, 2022.
10. ^ "1982 AAR Eagle Indy Car"
11. ^ "1972 AAR Eagle 7200 Indycar"
12. ^ "Eagle 1969 Indy car-by-car histories". September 24, 2022.
13. ^ "Eagle 1966 Indy car-by-car histories". February 5, 2023.
14. ^ "Eagle 1972 Indy car-by-car histories". January 27, 2023.
15. ^ "Eagle 987 Champ Car | Dan Gurney's All American Racers"
16. ^ "1996 Dan Gurney AAR Eagle Indy Car | The Woodland Auto Display". www.woodlandautodisplay.com. Retrieved 2025-05-06.
17. ^ "1996 AAR Eagle Mk V Champ Car Roller". www.race-cars.com. 2022-09-01. Retrieved 2025-05-06.
18. ^ "Eagle 987 Champ Car | Dan Gurney's All American Racers". Retrieved 2024-12-15.
19. ^ Toyota Eagle MkIII Archived July 25, 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Mulsanne's Corner
20. ^ Eagle MkIII GTP Archived February 18, 2013 at the Wayback Machine, quoted from RACER magazine
21. ^ "Trans Am - The Early Years of American Sedan Racing". Car Craft. February 2009. Archived September 22, 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved January 25, 2013.
22. ^ "AAR 'Cuda". Mopar Muscle Cars. January 27, 2011. Archived January 27, 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved January 25, 2013.

External links

• Official Website