Dick Guldstrand

The Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport , with Dick Guldstrand and Dick Thompson at the 1966 12 Hours of Sebring were at the start

Richard "Dick" Guldstrand (born December 1, 1927 in Santa Monica ; † September 2, 2015 ) was an American entrepreneur and racing car driver , known as "Mr. Corvette ”.

Racing career

Dick Guldstrand did not fulfill his parents' wish to pursue a career as a lawyer . Instead, he trained as an electrical engineer in college . At the beginning of the 1950s, he began with motorsport. For years he competed in dirt track races and converted a Corvette C1 into a racing car. He equipped the Chevrolet with manifold injection and a 4-speed manual gearbox and with it drove many victories in California .

With financial support from a Chevrolet dealer from Hermosa Beach , he switched to the circuit and won national sports car races in the early 1960s with a Corvette Sting Ray provided by the dealer . From 1963 to 1965 he won the South Pacific SCCA Sports Car Championship three times in a row .

In 1966 , he won the class for GT cars over 3 liters of displacement at the Daytona 24-hour race and finished twelfth in the overall standings. In 1967 , Zora Arkus-Duntov hired him as a partner of Bob Bondurant for a start in the Le Mans 24-hour race . The team had to make do with modest human and technical resources. Since there was no racing transporter on site, Guldstrand and Bondurant had to drive the Corvette from Paris Orly Airport over country roads to the track. The race ended prematurely after 167 laps due to an engine failure.

His last season as a professional racing driver was in 1970, when he drove Trans-Am and Can-Am races , for once not in a Corvette but in a Lola T70 .

Entrepreneur

In 1968, Dick Guldstrand opened Guldstrand Engineering in Culver City , a company primarily involved in converting Corvette and Camaro models for racing. In 1985 he played a leading role as a test pilot in the development of the Corvette C4 with the L83 engine with Crossfire injection system.

In 1990 he launched his own vehicle, the Guldstrand Grand Sport 90 , based on Corvette technology.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1967	Dana Chevrolet Inc.	Chevrolet Corvette	Bob Bondurant	failure	Engine failure

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1966	Roger Penske	Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport	Dick Thompson		failure	accident
1968	American International	Lola T70 Mk.III GT	Lothar Motschenbacher	Ed Leslie	failure	Clutch damage

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th
1966	Roger Penske	Chevrolet Corvette	DAY	SEB	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	MUG	CCE	HOK	SIM	ONLY	ZEL
			12	DNF
1967	Dana Chevrolet	Chevrolet Corvette	DAY	SEB	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	HOK	MUG	BRH	CCE	ZEL	OVI	ONLY
									DNF
1968	American International	Chevrolet Corvette Lola T70	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	ONLY	SPA	WAT	ZEL	LEM
			29	DNF
1969	Best Photo Serv	Chevrolet Camaro	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	WAT	ZEL
			DNF

literature

• Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissèdre, Alain Bienvenu: 24 heures du Mans, 1923–1992. Éditions d'Art, Besançon 1992, ISBN 2-909413-06-3 .

Web links

Commons : Dick Guldstrand  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• On the death of Dick Guldstrand
• Dick Guldstrand at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} On the death of Dick Guldstrand (English)
2. ↑ 1966 Daytona 24 Hours
3. ^ Dick Guldstrand in Le Mans in 1967
4. ^ Guldstrand Engineering
5. ↑ Information about the Guldstrand Grand Sport 90
6. ↑ Guldstrand Grand Sport 90