  daniel sexton gurney (born april 13, 1931) is a retired american racing driver, race car constructor, and team owner. the son of a metropolitan opera star,all american racers bio he was born in port jefferson, new york, but moved to california as a teenager. he has been a driver, a car manufacturer, and a team owner at racing's highest levels since 1958. gurney also won races in the indy car, nascar, can-am, and trans-am series. gurney was the first driver to win races in sports cars (1958), formula one (1962), nascar (1963), and indy car (1967) (the other two being mario andretti and juan pablo montoya). in 1967, after winning the 24 hours of le mans together with a.j. foyt, he spontaneously sprayed champagne while celebrating on the podium. apart from starting this tradition, he also was the first to put a simple right-angle extension on the upper trailing edge of the rear wing. this device, called a gurney flap, increases downforce and, if well designed, imposes only a relatively small increase in aerodynamic drag. at the 1968 german grand prix he became the first driver ever to use a full face helmet in grand prix racing.http://www.allamericanracers.com/gurney_grand-prix/eagle_f1-photo.html ==early life== dan gurney's father, jack gurney, was a graduate of harvard business school with a masters degree. he was discovered to have a beautiful voice and changed his career path to become a prominent singer with the metropolitan opera in new york who retired in 1947 and moved the family to riverside, california when dan was a teenager. dan's three uncles were each mit engineers. his grandfather was f.w. gurney who was responsible for the invention of the gurney ball bearing. after moving to california, young dan quickly became caught up in the california hot rod culture. at age 19, he built and raced a car that went 138 miles per hour (mph) (222 kilometres per hour [km/h]) at the bonneville salt flats. he then became an
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