Californian Dan Gurney was the first race driver to win 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 coming home victorious in the 24 Hours of Le Mans together with A.J. Foyt, he spontaneously sprayed champagne while celebrating on the podium. Apart from starting this iconic motorsports tradition, he also was the first to put a simple right-angle extension on the upper trailing edge of the rear wing. This device, appropriately 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.

In 1965 Gurney drove the Brabham BT11 Coventry-Climax to 4th pace in the World Championship, a disappointment after winning two GPs in 1964.

Courtesy of von Lothar Spurzem [CC-BY-SA-2.0-de], via Wikimedia Commons.