Following high school, Dan moved with his parents to Riverside, California, where Dan developed his driving skills by weaving through Southern California orange groves. Dan has had 3 very successful careers as racing driver, racecar manufacturer, inventor and long term team owner.

His racing career, which started with a Triumph TR2 in 1955, spanned 15 years. During that time he became the top road racing star in America, as well as one of the most popular F1 Grand Prix drivers ever. Gurney etched himself a place in racing lore with exciting battles against drivers like Stirling Moss, Jimmy Clark, John Surtees, Jack Brabham, Graham Hill, Phil Hill and many others on the classic road courses of the Nurburgring, the Targa Florio and Monte Carlo. He remains the only US citizen to win a Grand Prix in a car of his own construction in the 100 year history of F1 racing.

By the time he retired from active driving in 1970, Gurney had raced in 312 events in 20 countries with 51 different makes of cars winning 51 races and finishing on the podium an additional 47 times! This versatile and winning record made Dan the first driver ever to win races in the four major categories of motorsports: Grand Prix, Indy Car, NASCAR and Sports Car.
While his second and third career as a race car manufacturer of the Eagles as well as team owner of AAR started while he was still actively driving, it went into full gear upon his retirement in 1970. Eagles bought by customers raced on the Indy circuit and Formula A/5000 circuit with great success, capturing numerous victories, most notably the Indy 500 twice with Bobby Unser in1968 and Gordon Johncock in 1973, plus 3 Championships in Indy Cars and Formula A.