Skip Hudson, later a noted road racer, was a lifelong friend from Riverside. He hung out at Ruby's Drive-In on Market Street in that city. Hudson's friend, Wallace Ruby, owned the place. Hudson had a '29 Ford roadster with a hot flathead built by Ramon Torres, a local engine expert. Skip, Dan, Ramon, and a guy named Teddy Bear took the car to Bonneville in 1950. Gurney brought along his sedan, which became the Bonneville Express when his mother and sister painted those words on its trunk.
Gurney has an SCTA timing plate, framed in his office near his desk, showing he made a pass at 130.43 mph on the Salt that year. It was in Hudson's car with the Torres engine. He also went 129 mph with his own engine in the car. It was Gurney's first trip to Bonneville. His heroes were there. They were way ahead of him and his friends.
The Riverside guys are about to leave for Bonneville in August 1950. From left, Ted Bear, Ray Torres, Dan Gurney, and Skip Hudson. Gurney's car is the Bonneville Express on the right, a lightened 1937 Ford sedan. Torres attended the first Bonneville Speed Week in 1949. Gurney's mother and sister lettered the Ford's trunk to celebrate the trip.
"Fran Hernandez had a '32 highboy and it ran 160-with nitro. We didn't know how to do it-and he did. It was like a spaceship. It was the same with the Pierson brothers' coupe. The thing was just phenomenal," Gurney said. "So, I mean, these guys were so out of reach for us. We were just a bunch of hicks from Riverside, and all we had was lots of enthusiasm."
History has shown conclusively that Gurney wasn't "just a hick." He possessed exceptional skills behind the wheel. This was already evident in 1950. "Skip had a '40 Ford two-door sedan and we went to a sports car hill climb out near Agoura, California, and asked if we could run it. And then Skip and I flipped a coin to see who was going to drive. I ended up winning the toss. I made one run. Turned out it was the second-fastest time against all those sports cars. But they wouldn't let us make a second run."
"I didn't do a perfect job on the start," Gurney continued. "I tell you, if I'd had one more run, we could have maybe taken the [top time]." He knew he was good, even then. One wonders whether the sports car guys ever figured out who they threw out of their event.
Gurney also raced at C.J. "Pappy" Hart's drag strip in Santa Ana, California. "A friend of mine from Los Gatos had the record there for two weeks," he recalled. "His name was Ralph Lindy. I think the speed was only 128, but that's as fast as they were going in those days." Gurney remembered the prominence of Chet Herbert's twin-engine motorcycle, The Beast, at Santa Ana in 1950.
Gurney drove his friend Don McLean's '27 Model T at the strip on occasion. He also drove it on the street, which led to a minor disaster. He was leaving a traffic signal on Magnolia Avenue in Riverside and looked over to see if his friends were at a gas station near the corner. "When I looked back, a car had stopped right in front of me, and I nailed it." It had a trailer hitch that went right through the radiator. "I had about $150 to my name, and it cost me $75 to fix that," he said.
McLean later became a U2 Pilot, flying missions over China, Gurney said.
Skip Hudson's 1929 Model T, circa 1950. He got it in trade from his friend Ray Torres in Riverside, CA. Hudson met Dan Gurney at Riverside High School.
At about this time there was talk between Gurney and Chuck Potvin about running the first blown Chrysler Hemi at the drags, but the Korean War intervened. If it hadn't, would Gurney have become another Prudhomme or Garlits? One can only speculate.
He volunteered for the Army in 1952 during the Korean conflict. He was in Baker Battery of the 78th AAA Battalion in Suwan, Korea, for 18 months. He became a corporal and a gun mechanic for all weapons from 90mm on down. A cease-fire came three months after Gurney got there.
When he returned from Korea in the fall of 1954, he went in a different direction-following a dream to go road racing.
In 1958, Luigi Chinetti-the U.S. Ferrari importer, and a two-time Le Mans winner-invited Gurney to drive in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Gurney drove a Ferrari Testa Rossa with Bruce Kessler. The car dropped out of the race after seven hours due to a serious accident involving Kessler.
Gurney was on his way to realizing his dream-racing on the road courses of the world, in factory rides with Ferrari, BRM, Porsche, Brabham, and other sports car and Formula One teams, including his own All American Racers, which thrives today.
Dan Gurney with an early-model Alligator motorcycle at the Cars 'n' Coffee gathering in January 2007. Event organizer John Clinard of Ford is to the right in the background, enjoying the scene. The Alligator is Gurney's latest project at All American Racers. | 
The Alligator on the track at the 2003 Goodwood Festival of Speed, with Dan Gurney in the saddle. | |