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Gulf Racing and their impressive legacy in motor racing history

Editor06.06.2020

Gulf Oil's involvement in motorsport dates back to the 1938 Indy 500 where the name appeared on George Barringer's rear-engine “Gulf-Miller” four-wheel drive race car.

But the brand's first iconic livery, the orange Gulf insignia on pale-blue, broke cover for the first time with the Gulf-JW Automotive team which, between 1967 and 1975, transformed every Ford GT40, Porsche 917 and Mirage race cars in its colours into legends.

Gulf backed cars achieved victory at the Le Mans in 1968, 1969 and 1975 as well as taking World Championship Sportscar honours. Their feat in the sixties immortalised by the movie "Le Mans" with Steve McQueen playing the tole of Michael Delaney and with it a Gulf style icon was born.

Legendary drivers such as Jacky Ickx, Jackie Oliver, Pedro Leo Kinnunen, Pedro Rodríguez, Richard Attwood, Herbert Mueller, Peter Revson, David Hobbs, Brian Redman and Lucien Bianchi all combined to rack up victories relentlessly over that period.

Winning Le Mans in 1968 with Rodriguez and Bianchi and a year later with Ickx and Oliver was a highlight that emphatically put the Gulf Porsche combo on the map, entrenching the pairing in the mainstream forever. Six years later Ickx and Bell took victory at the 1975 Le Mans in a Gulf-liveried Mirage-GR8.

At the time, in the seventies, the oil company with racing in its fumes also backed McLaren on several fronts including Can Am, Indycar and Formula 1. The brand was soon a household name beyond the arenas of motorsport.

In the late seventies and eighties Gulf Racing went off the motorsport radar, but returned in the nineties with the successful McLaren F1GTR sportscar and endurance racing programme, winning the Global GT Championship title in 1996 with the Ray Bellm and James Weaver.

Since then Gulf presence has been active in all spheres of GT and sportscar racing, the legendary venues such as Le Mans, Sebring, Daytona, Spa-Francorchamps, Monza, Suzuka their battle grounds. Along the way, championship accolades have followed in just about every class including wins at Le Mans and titles at the highest level of World Endurance Championship racing.

In 2008, Gulf partnered Aston Martin with their LMP1 campaign, a year later followed a season packed with success including two Le Mans Series race wins, an unbroken run of Le Mans Series podium finishes, including a 1-2-3 clean sweep at the Nürburgring and three Le Mans Series titles, teams, manufacturers and drivers!

Five years later, In 2013, a year after their return to top level racing, Aston Martin Racing secured the World Endurance Championship, in both the GTE Pro and GTE categories with Gulf liveried Vantages.

The Gulf Racing brand has stood the test of time and will always be one that people identify with success in motorsport which also spawned a stylish range of leisurewear that pays homage to an inspiring and lasting legacy in the sport.

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