Dan Gurney To Receive Peter Bryant Award
The award is named for the late race car designer Peter Bryant, who designed and engineered many well-known racing machines, among them the cutting-edge Ti22 and UOP Shadow Can-Am cars, as well as the Shelby Series 1 road cars. Beginning as a young racing mechanic in his native England, Bryant went on to become an innovative engineer/designer.
Among Gurney’s myriad accomplishments: oversight of the design and construction of the Formula 1 Weslake Eagle and then driving it to become the first American to win a Grand Prix in a car with his own name on it; talking Ford into working with Colin Chapman to install a modified Ford Fairlane engine in a upgraded Lotus 33 chassis for the Indianapolis 500; taking Toyota to victory in the 24 Hours of Daytona; and building the Eagle Indy car that Jerry Grant broke the 200 mile-per-hour barrier with at Ontario Motor Speedway in 1972.
At a Riverside Raceway reunion event in 2010 (on the first anniversary of Bryant's passing) the "Peter Bryant Challenger Award" was unveiled and presented to former McLaren mechanic/Formula 1 Driver/race car constructor Howden Ganley by Bryant's widow Lois.
The ceremony honoring Gurney will take place at a special dinner at the Monterey Plaza Hotel held as part of the historic races and concours, and celebrating the 50th anniversary of the iconic Can-Am racing series.
Due to prior commitments, Gurney will not be able to attend the Can-Am dinner. Accepting for him will be Vintage Racecar Associate Editor, historian, and the author of "Dan Gurney's Racing Eagles" John Zimmermann.
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