The Belgian Grand Prix 60 years ago: Dan Gurney makes a stop without entering the pits

Dan Gurney was one of the world’s finest all-round racing drivers. In 1967, he achieved something no other racing driver has ever repeated – victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans (as a Ford works driver, alongside A.J. Foyt, on 10–11 June); and then, a week later, on 18 June, victory at the Belgian Grand Prix in his own racing car, the timelessly elegant Eagle T1G.

A year earlier, Gurney – also in the Ardennes – made a mark on the Formula 1 World Championship that cannot be replicated in this way.

Gurney, who passed away in California in 2018, recounted the following anecdote about the 1966 Belgian Grand Prix.

“I’d been feeling rather thirsty on the mountain and valley circuit before the start of the Grand Prix. And as I was afraid of becoming dehydrated during the race, I poured a fair amount of water down my throat. The problem was that, after a while, my bladder started to make itself felt…”

Essentially, the American should have done what is still done in racing cars today – answered the call of Mother Nature and simply let it out.

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Gurney: “That’s what I wanted to do, but it just wasn’t possible. Yet you can’t fool the body. I had to do something. So I pulled over at a rather secluded spot to relieve myself. ‘Rather secluded’ means: apart from a few people at a farm, there was no one to be seen far and wide. A cow was mooing somewhere.”

Gurney placed a stone under the rear wheel of his Eagle, let the engine idle away – and felt a great sense of relief.

Just to remind you: we’re talking about the era before the introduction of seven-point harnesses, so drivers could jump out of their cars whenever they liked.

After a quick toilet break, Gurney got back in and still managed to finish seventh.