Here we are during practice for the Monaco Grand Prix which took place on May 7, 1967. Seen in the pits is Dan Gurney in his All American Racers Eagle-Weslake with its Weslake Engineering-built 3 liter V12 motor. This motor had been designed to Gurney’s order by Aubrey Woods who had worked for BRM and would do so again after his Weslake period. Standing to the right of this photograph is the famous bearded British journalist Denis Jenkinson who had ridden with Stirling Moss to victory in the 1955 Mille Miglia.
At Monaco that unique and lovely Eagle nose was replaced with a Monaco mod for better cooling and also to prevent collapse of the nose in an accident in the early laps, especially on the first lap at Gazometer, when the cars would be running very close to each other.
The then qualifying anomalies of Monaco often resulted in excluding some of the faster cars by giving appearance guarantees to certain drivers based on their competitive histories and/or their car constructor’s prominence. In the 1967 qualifying results Pedro Rodriguez, with a Maserati-supported Cooper-Maserati entered by Cooper, was guaranteed a starting slot even though he was slower than the three drivers who failed to qualify, one of whom was Richie Ginther in the second Eagle-Weslake. Gurney, who also had to qualify in order to start, ended up seventh on the grid.
In the race itself Gurney had a short run as his fuel pump gave up after four laps with its drive belt coming off. At the finish Denis Hulme took the checker with his Brabham-Repco BT20, his boss Jack Brabham having suffered a massive blow-up on the first lap.
Photos by Peter Coltrin ©The Klemantaski Collection – http://www.klemcoll.com
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