Gurney never won a world championship or enjoyed a high public profile, but he was widely regarded by his peers as an all-time great driver who made a significant contribution to the sport.

Like so many of his era Gurney was a very versatile driver who was successful across a broad spectrum of motor sport disciplines including Formula 1, Indy Car, Can Am sports cars, NASCAR, Trans-Am touring cars and World Endurance Championship races.

As a teenager Gurney became involved in the California hot rod culture and at age 19, raced a self-built car to a speed of 222 km/h on the Bonneville Salt Flats before turning to drag racing and sports car racing.

By 1959 Gurney earned a spot with the Ferrari grand prix team scoring a second, a third and a fourth from four starts, but then he moved onto other teams including BRM, Porsche, Lotus, Brabham, McLaren and his own Eagle GP car.

Between 1959 and 1970 Gurney contested 86 grand prix races, winning on four occasions with his first win in 1962 at the wheel of the Porsche 804 at Rouen in France.

It was the only Formula One win ever for Porsche as a race car manufacturer although they recorded many wins in later years as an engine supplier.

In 1964 Gurney gave the Brabham team their first F1 grand prix victory by winning the French GP in the BT7 and followed that by winning the Mexican GP.

Gurney then formed his own GP team, Anglo American Racers in 1966, with the introduction of the beautiful Eagle car fitted with the Weslake 3.0 litre V12 engine.

Despite many retirements the Eagle won the Belgium GP at Spa in 1967 making Gurney the only driver in history to score maiden GP victories for three different manufacturers; Porsche, Brabham and Eagle.

Many believe that Gurney’s quest to run his own team from 1966 may in fact have cost him the opportunity of becoming world champion on the basis that he was quicker than Brabham and Gurney’s replacement Denny Hulme.

Brabham went on to win the title in 1966 and Hulme in 1967 when the cars upstaged the opposition with the 3.0 litre Repco V8 engine built in Australia.

In 1967 Gurney teamed up with four-time Indianapolis 500 winner AJ Foyt to win the 24-hour Le Mans race in a Ford GT40 (the 40 refers to the car’s height in inches), and then surprised everyone by spraying the champagne on the podium, beginning a lasting tradition.

The car was so low and Gurney so tall (six foot four inches) the car’s designers put a bubble in the roof to accommodate Gurney’s helmet; this became known as the Gurney bubble.

This was not the only innovation attributed to Gurney who made GP history at the German GP in 1968 by wearing a full-face helmet for the first time, but it soon became the norm.

When aerodynamic efficiency was in its infancy Gurney created a raised section on the rear edge of the rear wing which improved downforce without significantly increasing drag.

It became known as the Gurney flap and to this day is a standard fitment to race cars with wings including V8 Supercars.

Between 1962 and 1970 Gurney also raced in the NASCAR Cup series recording five wins, all of which were at the Riverside road course where he was virtually unbeatable.

Starting in 1962 Gurney raced in the Indianapolis 500 nine times, finishing every one, recording two seconds in 1968 and1969 and third in 1970, before retiring from competitive driving at the end of the year.

From there his race car team, now All American Racers, went on to many wins including the Indianapolis 500 three times with Bobby Unser (twice) and Gordon Johncock as well as endurance races including the Sebring 12-hours and the Daytona 24-hour.

In his new role as a race car constructor and team owner Gurney achieved outstanding success in several series including the American IMSA GTP class in which his Toyota Eagles won 17 races in a row in 1992 and 1993, securing the driver’s and constructor’s championship.

The AAR team won 78 races and eight championships while Gurney’s Eagle race car customers won three Indianapolis 500 races and three championships.

Many tributes have been paid to Gurney over the years but perhaps the most significant was one that came, indirectly, from the late great Jim Clark, a three-time world champion, who was killed in 1968.

At his funeral Clark’s father took Gurney aside and said. “You were the one driver that Jim feared the most”.

He may not have won a world championship but there is no question he was a true champion.