by Jake Grubb
On a nippy morning in Long Beach California in late winter of 1975, Dan Gurney and Bobby Unser readied themselves to take a ride in a particular car, at a very special place. The car: a 1975 Jorgensen Gurney Eagle 755 Formula 5000. Their purpose: to take turns testing the car on a unique new racetrack, the street course that would shortly become the official home track for the soon-to-be-inaugurated “Long Beach Grand Prix.” Each driver, after disciplining himself with a somewhat peppy pace lap, was soon seen and heard thundering down the Shoreline Drive semi-straightaway and pounding through the right-left turns and elevation changes of a creatively designed temporary street course that Gurney himself had co-designed in preparation for a Grand Prix that would soon gain worldwide attention and would sustain for 50+ years and counting.
The reason why Dan Gurney selected this particular car from among his many types of racecars was because he knew a little secret. As an early developer and investor of what was then merely a concept unofficially named “The Long Beach Grand Prix,” Dan knew that the first big racing event at “The Roar at the Shore” (as it would later be nicknamed) would consist of a championship-caliber field of Formula 5000 cars, at that time the fastest open-wheel formula road-race cars in North America, which were closely rivaling International Formula 1. In fact, Gurney’s AAR [All American Racers] had been foremost in the development and growth of Formula 5000, and had been developing and fielding cars for this relatively new formula for the previous eight years. His then-latest-iteration 1975 Gurney Formula 5000 car, sponsored by Jorgenson Steel, was the newest-generation AAR F5000 car and was then driven Bobby Unser of Indianapolis 500 fame. Six months later, at the first-ever Long Beach Grand Prix, that very car would compete in one of the most compelling and competitive Formula 5000 events ever staged, among a star-studded field of many of the finest race drivers from the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The Gurney 755 Formula 5000 would do exceedingly well in the inaugural Long Beach Grand Prix (“LBGP”), piloted by young Australian driver Vern Schuppan and finishing in second place behind now-legendary British driver Brian Redman in his pacesetting Lola T-330.
Today, the original Gurney Eagle F5000 755, now owned by driver/collector Tom Malloy and driven by Ethan Shippert, is slated to compete in the 50th anniversary Long Beach Grand Prix, amidst a red-hot field of Formula 5000, Formula 1 and Indy Cars that have raced at the Long Beach Grand Prix over the past five decades!
The Jorgenson Gurney Eagle 755 Formula 5000
Development of Gurney Eagle Formula 5000 racecars spanned an 8-year wavy arc, birthing in 1967 and culminating in 1975 with the extraordinary Jorgensen Gurney Eagle 755. Despite its checkered record, this Gurney 755 notched many impressive finishes, beginning with the driving phenomenon James Hunt in 1974 and later continuing with the legendary Bobby Unser. The car was Gurney’s best-of-breed Formula 5000 creation during the late 1960s-mid-1970s halcyon era of American V8 formula car racing.
Early volcanic shivers of a Gurney Formula 5000 racecar first erupted in 1967, when the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) incubated a “professional” class for open-wheel racecars, dubbed “Formula A.” The initial idea was to offer an annual series of five races, open to Formula 3, Formula 2 and 3-litre Formula 1 cars, with a purse of $5,000 for each of the five annual races. Along the way, the notion of fitting lower cost, more readily available Chevrolet V8 engines into the cars so as to achieve higher horsepower for lower dollars seemed a way to boost excitement in the series and launch it to a new level of participation and fan interest. The idea worked, and effective in 1968 the name for this newly defined race series became “Formula 5000,” shorthand for open wheel Formula cars with 5-litre American V8 engines.
At that point in time, campaigning a Dan Gurney AAR Eagle F5000 car was the surest way to become competitive in the then-fledgling Formula 5000 race series, a fact demonstrated by drivers in Gurney Mk V Eagle cars winning the championships in both the inaugural and second-year Formula 5000 seasons – 1968 and 1969. By the early 1970s, however, toughening competition fueled by rising purses and series popularity saw rivals such as Britain’s Lola and McLaren fielding advanced cars with marquis drivers, who were winning races. To stay ahead of the game, Dan Gurney elected to develop an all-new Formula 5000 car in his southern California All American Racers [AAR] facility. Borrowing its fundamentals from the highly successful Gurney USAC Indy cars, with influences from then-modern Formula 1 precepts, the new Gurney car was guide-lined within Formula 5000 chassis rules and named the “73A.” Protracted track testing by veteran racers and Dan Gurney himself showed great promise and a few flaws, such as engine overheating caused from inconclusive aerodynamic features and suspension design issues. Although the initial 1974 season with the 73A yielded several successes and respectable finishes, the car struggled against top competitors, with a handful of hard-earned 2nd and 3rd place results delivered from first rate drivers Brett Lunger and Elliott Forbes-Robinson. Dan Gurney and his AAR team would redouble efforts and continue development.
A follow-on generation of the F5000 73A accelerated during the late stages of the 1974 race season, and was designated the “755.” Nearly one hundred pounds lighter weight than the 73A and with a more streamlined shape, the aerodynamic styling of the 755 was sleeker, featuring a minimized amount of frontal area, with a tower design encompassing a wrap-around of the driver and large cleanly shaped air scoop for routing air flow to the engine’s intake trumpets via efficient internal and external aerodynamics. The 755 was debuted late in the 1974 race season for two events, at Laguna Seca raceway in Monterey, California, and at Riverside Raceway in southern California, each with rising Formula 1 star James Hunt at the wheel. Both events showed the 755 to be formidable, with James Hunt qualifying an aggressive 3rd and finishing 2nd at Laguna Seca, and a strong showing at Riverside until “Hunt the Shunt” tried to use the 755 to “reshape” the Turn 9 sweeper wall at high speed on the 38th lap. Both car and driver were okay and the 755’s presence was felt in that key race. This was followed the next year by a 2nd place finish in America’s “Roar at the Shore,” the inaugural Long Beach Grand Prix in southern California that displayed a world class field of star drivers and Formula 5000 cars to an audience of 60,000+ spectators. The extraordinary “LBGP” event (as it came to be called) opened the 1975 racing season to an aggressive schedule of Formula 5000 races across the US with mixed results for a further-refined Jorgensen Gurney Eagle 755. At the much-awaited inaugural Long Beach Grand Prix, Vern Schuppan soldiered through an action-packed and attrition-filled event to an impressive 2nd place behind series dominator Brian Redman in his Lola T-332. Despite the promising result for the Jorgensen Gurney Eagle 755 in 1975’s highly successful Long Beach Grand Prix (Dan Gurney, as mentioned, was one of the event’s co-founders) – the AAR effort was financially and operationally taxed from its Formula 5000 adventures by the end of the season. The company would regroup, but was never fully able to bring the 755 to its full zenith. In the meantime, the firebrand Formula 5000 series was cancelled after 1976, owing to a convergence of unforeseen factors, initially caused by the mid-1970s oil crisis that stunted American-iron big-engine motor sports in the USA for the next decade. Yet today, the latest generation Jorgensen Gurney Eagle 755 Formula 5000 car is performing better still than in 1975, campaigned actively at select USA vintage feature races. In keeping with the accomplishments of James Hunt and Vern Schuppan in 1974-75, the 755 set fastest Formula 5000 lap time in the 2014 inaugural Indianapolis Brickyard Vintage Invitational, with Tom Malloy piloting this rare one-of-kind racecar from a dynamic and special era. Following that, after Malloy’s Formula 5000 win at Road America in July 2014, Tom commented to Dan Gurney himself (before Dan’s untimely passing); “Still running – still winning!” To that, Dan responded; “That Eagle is a lot of car on a circuit like Road America…WELL DONE!!”
Engine Type: V8, naturally aspirated, gasoline
Horsepower: 400 bhp @ 6,000 rpm
Torque: 290 foot-lbs @ 4,200 rpm
Displacement: 4949 cc | 302 cu E 4.9 liter
Bore/Stroke: 4.0” bore x 3.0” stroke
Construction: 1967 – 1969 with 4 Barrel Carb
Transmission: Hewland DG 300
For the vintage racing feature of the 2025 Long Beach Grand Prix 50th Anniversary, this first-ever LBGP racecar will be facing an extremely formidable roster of cars, hand-picked examples of Formula 5000, Formula 1 and Indy Cars that competed at Long Beach Grand Prix events over an historical time period of 1975 into the 2000s. These racing masterworks will be competing against each other in the same race! The 2025 Long Beach Grand Prix weekend, newly owned by Penske Enterprises, promises to be a matchless kaleidoscope of living racing history.
