Juan Montoya's convincing win at Milwaukee June 4 marked a milestone for Toyota some thought would never happen. At least it seemed that way back in 1996 and 1997, when the early generation TRD powerplants powering Dan Gurney and Cal Wells' cars exploded with alarming regularity or otherwise made up the tail end of the field more often than not.

These days, even Wells' operation enjoys battling for — and earning — podium finishes. But what about Gurney, who brought Toyota and All American Racers' dominant IMSA GTP operation into CART and stayed the course for four long seasons? With the two parties finally splitting during the off-season and no sufficient sponsorship in place, Gurney quietly pulled the plug on the team's Champ Car operation in January.

But AAR remains very much alive, with Gurney focusing his attention on youngest son Alex's Toyota Atlantic effort, among other endeavors outside of CART. We recently took a tour of the team's legendary headquarters in Santa Ana, CA, where a downsized but ever-enthusiastic staff keeps Gurney's many wheels in motion.

The AAR complex occupies several industrial buildings spanning a full city block. Behind the nondescript white walls and security bars on the front office door, the average passerby would hardly recognize this as a bona fide nerve center of American motorsports history. But just a few moments spent gazing at the hundreds of historic photos lining the corridor walls leading to the race shop makes it evident what kind of impact Gurney has had over the past four decades both domestically and abroad.

Nowadays, instead of slaving over Eagles or Reynards, the crew takes care of Alex's Swift 008.a's, carrying the number 48 and blue and white paint scheme his father made famous in F1 and USAC Champ Cars throughout the 1960's. "We have a small team, and his older brother Justin is the team manager," explains Gurney. "This will be Alex's second season; we have engines from Hasselgren, and we've got two new cars."

Compared to the CART teams of 1996-99, "it's a smaller version of the same thing, but we have far fewer people, and we're having to watch every penny and use good judgement. But operationally, it's somewhat similar. I think in the end, it probably costs about 1/8th, maybe 1/7th of what an Indy program costs (for the whole year)."

AAR returned to the CART battles after a decade away, having scored three IMSA GTP and GTO titles (including a final streak of 17 consecutive GTP wins in 1992-93) with Toyota power in the interim. Following the demise of the GTP class in 1994 (due in large part to Toyota and AAR's utter dominance), the Japanese automaker began its two-year quest of switching gears towards entering CART. AAR started the collective effort with Juan Fangio II and P.J. Jones testing prototype Toyota powerplants in year-old Lola chassis, in anticipation of reviving the Eagle marquee in time for the program's 1996 launch.

Gurney faced the unenviable task of simultaneously developing the Toyota engine, the Eagle chassis and the increasingly unloved Goodyear tires; all had potential by themselves but made for a frustratingly uncompetitive combination no one could master. But he emphasizes, "while it is convenient for some non-AAR supporters to cast aspersions on the various Eagle chassis AAR has designed, built and raced during this return, it is historically correct to point out that prior to the 2000 season, a Toyota-powered Champ Car had never won a race or finished on the podium regardless of what chassis was utilized. Even today, after three very convincing Toyota-powered wins, none utilized the Goodyear tires, to which AAR had remained loyal."

Only since late last season have teams been able to reap the benefits of Toyota's baptism by fire. Gurney notes, "the earliest version of the latest Toyota engine was first used by Scott Pruett to win an astounding pole position at the last race of 1999 at Fontana. This new engine was and is much more capable than anything AAR had ever seen or used. AAR never had an engine of that type/model/version in an Eagle or any of their cars before their divorce from Toyota.

"In summing up AAR's performances in 1997, 1998 and 1999, one should keep these facts in mind."

At the end of 1999, Gurney lost longtime sponsor Castrol, while Toyota jumped ship for the greener pastures of Chip Ganassi's 4-peat championship team; meanwhile, Goodyear left Indycar racing entirely. Over the winter, Gurney put together a package which would have seen Bryan Herta driving a Reynard-Ford, but the necessary sponsorship never materialized.

"The reverberations of our pulling out of CART, which followed our termination with Toyota - we were with that group for 17 years. It was a big, big adjustment," he admits. "So that, plus the fact that we couldn't find the wherewithal to do a further CART effort - why, all of a sudden we've escaped, which is a very strange feeling.

"We're getting like a 500 pound monkey off our back. That part is good. I don't like the idea of having to lay off very worthwhile employees that have been with us a long time. That's extremely difficult, but it's also part of reality. We're approaching the end of that, but we still have quite a few people here - maybe more than we can afford, unless we get additional business, and we've tried not to cut the thing completely so that if did see a worthwhile project come along, we can just hit the deck running."

AAR plans on consolidating its shop space, freeing up underutilized room for leasing to outside parties. As part of this downsizing, Gurney began auctioning off some of his vast supply of collectibles and memorabilia in April on racesearch.com. These range from inexpensive items (with opening bids of under $20) like a 1996 Reynard wheel nut to the complete 1999 Eagle 997 chassis that Robby Gordon ended his CART career in last October at Fontana.

If Alex's damaged bodywork from Homestead has not already appeared on the auction list, you can expect it sooner or later. "We had a Thursday practice, and it was the first time we were on the track," older brother and team manager Justin Gurney says. "Everyone else had already been there for a day; we'd just gotten our car, so we couldn't make it there (early). When we got on track, we were fast right away, so we were really happy about that. We had an engine problem — an alternator belt came off, and we lost a lot of track time after that.

"Qualifying — we were 4th for the first race, and we were happy about that. And then in the race, before making one lap, we got hit by another guy and got taken out, so that was really tough. When it came time to qualify for the next race, we had a fuel pressure problem, and we qualified 8th, and we knew we could've gone much a lot faster. In the race, we had electrical problems, so we just want to put that whole weekend behind us."

The team then tackled its home race at Long Beach. "We also went in never being on the track before. But several other teams — this is what I hear; I'm not positive about the details - they had a media day where they got three 25-minute sessions a week before the races. They had three sessions, flat out. So we went there, and we had six minutes of practice before qualifying, so that was tough, and we were 13th the first day and 5th on the grid on the next day. Then in the race, we had another problem."

Since then, the team has continually improved, most notably with a 5th place finish at Milwaukee and 7th at Montreal. At Cleveland, Alex scored his first career pole and ran 2nd for most of the day until another mechanical failure knocked him out with 10 laps remaining. Then, at Trois-Rivieres, Alex scored his first podium finish and enjoyed the champagne ritual his father made synonymous with racing at Le Mans. At Road America he finished 5th after starting from the back of the field.

"We know we're right there at the front," Justin adds. "We still have a little bit of catching up to do. DTSP and PPI are a little bit ahead of everybody... but we'll definitely be there. I don't feel we have a LOT of catching up to do, because we've been fast right out of the box, but yeah, a little bit."

The senior Gurney concurs. "We've got our sights set like everyone else does to win races and come up with a championship; make enough points to do it however we get there...I expect Alex to do very, very well. I think he has real talent - he takes after his mother more than his dad! He's a lot faster than I was. I expect big things from him."

Does this mean the son of a Metropolitan Opera singer now serves as stage dad to Alex? "Well, I try to leave it as a little tongue-in-cheek, but he puts enough pressure on himself. I feel that he's been though a very difficult and yet worthwhile entry process, so he appreciates how things are going now. He's got Kenny Anderson as his race engineer. We're just trying to do what you need to do - we're trying to win, and we feel it's an important part of his career right now.

"He'd like to be, a couple of years down the road, in the position to be racing there in the F1 race at Indianapolis."

With that goal in mind, what lies in the long-term future of the AAR Atlantic team? "That's a tough question," Justin says. "I don't know if he'd want to do another season of Atlantics, but that's not out of the question. Then if he can turn that into CART, yeah...I guess that depends on what he thinks!"

So what else sits on Gurney's plate this year? "Well, we're soliciting outside projects. We're doing some aviation-related things that haven't been consummated and I can't talk about - it may not come to anything. We're looking at other work for our wind tunnel, and we're looking for different work across the board for our composites engineering and composites manufacturing. We're doing some fabrication work right now and some composites work for Riley & Scott - (the IRL program) and the sportscar program - I think it's both.

"We also have a project that's been getting put on the back burner for a long, long time and is very close and dear to my heart, and that's our (Alligator) motorcycle project," says the longtime bike afficianado. "I want to build a semi-sportbike, only it'll be a single street-legal - it's a streetbike - weighing under 300 pounds and having a maximum speed of over 150, if we can do it, and have one or two other sort of unique elements to it."

But what about a nice vacation, like everyone else plunging into retirement?

"No," Gurney laughs. "You know, I just don't feel like doing that, so we're going for it!"

With the recent turmoil at CART's head office, many have suggested Gurney — the author of the famous "White Paper" which led to the formation of CART in 1979 — should become the permanent CEO. But he politely declines. "Well, even though we're not involved with CART, I'm still having difficulty finding enough time to do the few things that I want to do. So taking on additional responsibilities is a very, very remote possibility. If someone were to call me and just say, ‘look, we've got a question or two; we'd like to get your opinion on that,' I'm always ready for that. I'll give out the free advice. But no, I wouldn't want to take on an official position."

With the sudden absence of both Gurney and the late Tony Bettenhausen from the ranks of CART owners, the series now steps further away from its historical ties to the waning years of the front-engined roadsters and the birth of the rear-engined "funny cars." That, coupled with the rapidly shrinking ranks of domestic talent in the CART ranks, worries many observers. Does Gurney agree with the growing sentiment that Champ Car racing stands at risk of losing its traditional, American, often oval-centric fan base? "Well, I think that that has always been true, even when it was ascending and doing very well, and any outfit that is in a competitive business is facing that to one degree or another. If we see a reduction in the hometown guys out there going for it, why, that has its effects. So the answer is yeah, I think it's a danger. No doubt about it."

Justin agrees. "I think that the American companies need to get behind their drivers to sponsor them, like Tagliani and Players. If the American companies did that, I think it would work. Definitely , I'd like to see more Americans in there. So I'm rooting for Gidley. And Herta. And Michael. And Vasser!"

Even with such a busy schedule, Gurney still has occasion where he can look back with satisfaction over a lifetime of success. In May prior to the Winston Cup race at Fontana, he received the latest in a string of awards — this time being the inaugural Shav Glick Award, named after the longtime L.A. Times motorsports scribe and honoring fellow Californians' contributions to the sport. "Shav has watched this business from his perspective for a long time, and it must have been a very difficult choice," Gurney says. "That means a great deal to me. I'm humbled by it, and I appreciate it a lot."

The fans who came out to see him that day remembered how Gurney handled a Wood Brothers stock car at Riverside just as masterfully as he did his Eagle-Weslake F1 car at Spa or his Ford Mark IV sports car at Le Mans — even if it meant just reading about it in history books instead of living it firsthand. Fortunately, Gurney still looks forward to a good number of years in which he can add to those books.

"We're alive and kicking, and we're still swinging for the fences."