Justin Gurney: On His Father’s Impact and His Personal Collection of Racecars

I have kept several cars that were built by All American Racers as well as a few that were driven by my dad in my personal collection. I have a ‘99 Gurney Eagle IndyCar, the last Eagle that we built. It was driven by Robby Gordon in several races in the ‘99 IndyCar season. I also have a ‘68 IndyCar that my dad drove and we built as well. He got second at the Indy 500 in this car in that year. He also won the Riverside IndyCar race and he won Mosport IndyCar race in that car in ‘68. The Cobra down here is a replica of his ‘63 Sebring 12 Hour car. Shelby and Superformance build that for his birthday when he turned 85. It's an exact replica of his Sebring race car. Our most famous car is probably my dad's Formula One car from Spa ‘67, the Grand Prix of Belgium. That’s the car that probably means the most to us. Unfortunately, I don't own that car anymore, though I wish I did. I have another ‘67 Eagle from when he was in the middle of the front row in Indio in ‘67 that is not here today. Those are two of my favorite ones.

There’s something about racecar people. There’s this attitude of “you do whatever it takes to make the race”.

I never did much racing myself, I wasn't fast enough so I didn't pursue it. My younger brother Alex is a two time champion, so he is the fast guy. I was a slow guy. I still watch every race. I love every kind of racing: two wheels, four wheels, you name it. Everything we do at AAR, even though we’re not making cars, is still informed by my dad’s legacy. There’s something about racecar people. There’s this attitude of “you do whatever it takes to make the race”. So there's no such thing as “hours” in a job like that. It's just whatever it takes to make it to the race track. It’s impossible to summarize the lessons I learned from my dad, I could talk about that for days. But if I had to distill it down to two things, it would be: learn from your mistakes and never give up.