{"id":460799,"date":"2006-05-01T18:00:52","date_gmt":"2006-05-02T01:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=73065"},"modified":"2024-10-29T20:55:33","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T20:55:33","slug":"dan-gerber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/dan-gerber\/","title":{"rendered":"Dan Gerber"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='memberful-global-teaser-content'>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>Dan Gerber started racing in midwest SCCA events in an Austin-Healey in 1961, while in 1962 he also started racing a Ferrari Testa Rossa. In 1963, he began racing Cobras and Shelby GT350s with support, and from time to time as a member, of the Shelby American Team. During his career, Gerber also competed in the Trans-Am, World Manufacturers\u2019 Championship, USRRC and in the SCCA\/CASC Fall Series of unlimited sports car racing, the ancestor of the later Can-Am series. Driving a Ford-powered McKee Peregrin racer he raced against Lotus 19s, Chaparrals and the first McLaren sports racing cars. After a horrendous accident in 1966, he left racing for a long while to concentrate on the world of letters where he both taught and still writes professionally. Gerber is the author of 13 books of poetry, novels, short stories, and non-fiction. He has also won numerous awards for his works. Gerber now resides in Santa Ynez, California, where he continues to write and to race in vintage events, principally in a sister of the Cobra he drove in the USRRC races for Shelby in 1965. The Cobra is even still decorated with the \u201cPrune Mush\u201d logo painted on, as a prank, in the dead of night by Augie Pabst. John Wright caught up with Gerber at the 2005 Monterey Historics to learn more about his short but interesting career.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em><strong>Dan, describe the circumstances, which led you into racing your Austin Healey. Was that car the first sports car you ever owned?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n        .memberful-global-teaser-content p:last-child{\n            -webkit-mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n            mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n        }\n    <\/style>\n<div class='memberful-global-marketing-content'>\n<div class=\"a07online-global-marketing-content-wrapper\">\n<h2 class=\"a07online-global-marketing-title\">No Subscription? You&#8217;re missing out<\/h2>\n<p class=\"a07online-global-marketing-content\">Any Text Here<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"a07online-global-marketing-prompt\" href=\"https:\/\/supercars.memberful.com\/checkout?plan=86696\">Get Started<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"a07online-global-marketing-signin\">\n<h4 class=\"a07online-global-marketing-signin\">Already a Member? <a href=\"https:\/\/supercars.memberful.com\/account\">Sign in to your account here<\/a>.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dan Gerber started racing in midwest SCCA events in an Austin-Healey in 1961, while in 1962 he also started racing a Ferrari Testa Rossa. In 1963, he began racing Cobras and Shelby GT350s with support, and from time to time as a member, of the Shelby American Team. During his career, Gerber also competed in the Trans-Am, World Manufacturers\u2019 Championship, USRRC and in the SCCA\/CASC Fall Series of unlimited sports car racing, the ancestor of the later Can-Am series. Driving [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":257,"featured_media":699512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11272,18114],"tags":[18322,18435,16462,1307,1308],"class_list":["post-460799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-members-only","category-people","tag-2000s-all","tag-people","tag-interview","tag-shelby","tag-shelby-cobra"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Dan Gerber<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"John Wright speaks with the former Cobra racer about his decade long career behind the wheel and his subsequent life as an author and poet.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/dan-gerber\/\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/dan-gerber\/2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dan Gerber\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"John Wright speaks with the former Cobra racer about his decade long career behind the wheel and his subsequent life as an author and poet.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/dan-gerber\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Supercars.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Supercars.net\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-05-02T01:00:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-10-29T20:55:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/05\/INT200605-p2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"632\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John R. Wright\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John R. Wright\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"14 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/dan-gerber\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/dan-gerber\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"John R. 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From there, other publications published interviews John was doing at vintage events and things took off from there. Today, John goes to vintage events around the country, including Mosport, Road America, Watkins Glen and the Laguna Seca tracks. He and his racing friends meet and talk about how fast they were\u2026 or not.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/john-r-wright\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dan Gerber","description":"John Wright speaks with the former Cobra racer about his decade long career behind the wheel and his subsequent life as an author and poet.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/dan-gerber\/","next":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/dan-gerber\/2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dan Gerber","og_description":"John Wright speaks with the former Cobra racer about his decade long career behind the wheel and his subsequent life as an author and poet.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/dan-gerber\/","og_site_name":"Supercars.net","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Supercars.net\/","article_published_time":"2006-05-02T01:00:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-10-29T20:55:33+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1080,"height":632,"url":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/05\/INT200605-p2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"John R. 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