As much as Roger Penske and Pat Patrick are given credit for creating CART, the man who provided the intellectual spirit and moral high ground for the concept of CART was Dan Gurney source: champcarworldseries.com One of America's greatest drivers in the sixties Gurney arguably stands with Mario Andretti as one of the most diversely successful drivers of all-time. Dan started All American Racers in 1965, five years before he retired from driving, and started building his own Eagle Formula 1 and Champ cars in 1966. AAR immediately established itself as one of the world's most respected race teams and car builders. From 1972-'75 AAR's Eagle-Offies were the cars to beat after Bobby Unser broke the track record at Indianapolis by a whopping seventeen mph and Unser and Jerry Grant became the first men to lap a closed course at over 200 mph at the old Ontario Motor Speedway in September of '72. Dan's superb record as a driver, team owner and car builder and his unequivocal reputation as a fair and honest man gave the idea of CART serious credibility. Gurney is also a thoughtful and literate man, a great reader and student of history, qualities not normally ascribed to the likes of Penske or Patrick. Entirely on his own therefore, Dan in 1978 wrote his 'white paper' in which he laid out the theory of the organization and coined the acronym CART. Near the beginning of his 'white paper' Gurney made a telling observation that unfortunately remained true throughout CART's twenty-five year history. "I realized that we are so intent upon racing each other, that we do not stop to look and analyze our situation," he wrote. "In frustration I decided that things must get worse before we will all wake up. Our sport has the potential to be financially rewarding and healthy from a business standpoint for all participants. Many of the car owners and team directors are excellent and very successful businessman in their own lives outside of racing. We as businessmen should be ashamed of ourselves for being involved in a prestigious sport such as Championship racing with all its potential while it is as weak and disorganized (sick) as it presently is. It is truly strange that with all these 'heavyweights' involved, we still do not have our act together. "Divide and conquer" still seems to be working doesn't it?" The complete article at champcarworldseries.com
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