Chuck Gurney Jr. - Third in a series, this kid is just beginning and has shown he can live up to the family record as a top-shelf dirt car and pavement driver.

Chuck Curney - Second generation driver and west coast champion from the BCRA and Northern Auto Racing Club including weekly series at tracks such as Baylands Raceway Park. He was also a USAC Silver Crown Champion and ran supermodifieds.

March 2005 - MSPA Hall of Fame: Chuck Gurney

Chuck Gurney was born into a racing family in Oakland, California. As a youngster he would watch his Dad, Gene Gurney, race for the Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA).

By the age of five, he was racing quarter midgets, winning numerous championships in six years. he was the kid to beat.

In Gurney's teenage years he moved to Albuquerque, NM where he got involved in the sprint car circles working on a crew with Don Maxwell, Jerry Miller, and Buddy Taylor.

Chuck returned to the Bay Area in 1969, where for the first time, he strapped into a Northern Auto Racing Club (NARC) Sprint Car at the fame Calistoga Speedway.

The following year he started racing with BCRA and just a year later he won his first main event.

By 1973 Gurney was winning races in both Sprint Cars and Midgets with United States Auto Club (USAC), NARC, and California Racing Association (CRA).

In 1974 Gurney moved to Indiana where he started racing on the USAC National trail. For the next five years Chuck ran full time in the Midgets, Sprints and Silver Crown cars. Over the years he would claim 34 USAC National victories. Chuck demonstrated he was one of the most multi talented drivers in the country by racing in Midgets, Sprint Cars, Stock Cars, Supermodifieds, Silver Crown Cars, and Indy Cars. He also showed his versatility by winning on both pavement and dirt, short tracks and mile ovals.

Gurney returned to California in the early 1980s and hooked up with Bob Consani and immediately became a force to reckon with up and down the West Coast.

Chuck would be a dominant figure in the open wheel circles during the 1980s. He would claim 33 NARC feature wins and one NARC championship which came in 1983. He also had a whole lot of wins in local shows such as Baylands Raceway Park. In 1985 he claimed a National Championship in the ultra powerful USAC supermodifieds. In 1989 he was back on the National trail winning the USAC Silver Crown title. In his spare time he went down to Southern California and won 9 main events on the tough CRA circuit.

Some of Gurney's more Notable wins are, 5-time Copper World Classic champion, three in the midgets, and twice in the sprint cars, the 1989 Belleville Midget Nationals, and the 1988 and 1989 Turkey Night Grand Prix at the legendary Ascot Speedway.

By the 1990s Chuck was racing mostly on the big tracks in the prestigious USAC Silver Crown Cars. His 14 Silver Crown victories is second on the all time list.

In 2004 Chuck was inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Iowa.

Nowadays Chuck can be found at race tracks supporting his son, Chuck Gurney, Jr., who nearly won a Sprint Car title of his own last year.

This is the sixth time since 1973 that Chuck has been honored by the MSPA.

June 2004 - National Sprint Car Hall of Fame

Chuck Gurney was inducted into the fifteenth National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in Knoxville, IA along with the greats of Chuck Amati, Sherman Campbell, keith Kauffman, Bryan Saulpaugh, Bob Slater, Billy Wilkerson, Jim Culbert, Ralph Morgan, "Boston" Loue Seymour, Walter E. Bull, Bruce Craig, R. Keith Hall, and Don Peabody.

Gene Gurney was the Bay Cities Racing Association stalwart indoor-outdoor midget racer, who ran with that honorable outfit circa 1952-1965, died at age 70 in May 1999.