Dan Gurney’s ’61 Impala Comes to Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion

Monterey Car Week is still months away, but plans are already coming together for 2025’s events.

This year, Justin Gurney will be on-site with his dad’s 1961 Impala racer — a car that the elder Gurney originally raced at Silverstone against smaller displacement competitors in the British Saloon Car Championship 63 years ago.

Gurney recently found the car and bought it — and reunited it with its original 409-ci V8.

The car made exactly one appearance at the Silverstone race, which it was leading until a wheel broke on the second to last lap. The car was then banned and Gurney promptly sold it.

“My dad loved this car and always talked about it,” explained Justin Gurney, president and CEO of the famed All American Racers. “There’s a photo of him driving it in our office’s hallway and a large mural in the shop.

“Dad wasn’t very happy with the ban prior to the second race and tried to argue his case, but in the end realized he couldn’t fight city hall and sold it on the spot.”

This August, the car, now restored, will be on-site at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion as a pace car.

“I’m not going to race the car, but to participate as the pace car in the Dan Gurney Saloon Car Trophy races. It’s going to be both exciting and sentimental,” he explained. “When unmuffled like it will be, the deep guttural 409 big block engine should turn quite a few heads to say the least.”

“We are thrilled to invite Justin to the Rolex Reunion and have him bring this historic Impala that meant so much to his dad,” said Bruce Canepa, chair of the Rolex Reunion Advisory Council and vice president of Friends of Laguna Seca. “Everyone will enjoy seeing and hearing this long-lost car fittingly serve as the pace car for the Saloon car race. Making memories like this are what the Rolex Reunion is all about.”

The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion takes place from August 13-16, 2025 at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.

Learn more here.