Why did Shelby sell his shares of AAR to Gurney?

[bitzman]

From what I've read, Shelby and Gurney were partners in All American Racers, a racing firm founded around the mid-60's and still in business today. But Shelby bailed out of the firm, maybe around 1970. I think at one time AAR was so successful in Indy racing that 2/3rds of the grid featured chassis by them. I am not familiar with Indy, so my question is: did Shelby bail out too soon? Was he there during the glory years of AAR? In mentions of the American Eagle GP car with which Gurney won a GP race, it seems Gurney is mention 99.9% of the time and Shelby just barely though I believe he still was a partner in the firm at the time of that achievement.

My pet theory is that, by 1970, Shelby was disgusted with the car business (Ford more or less having outflanked him by bringing out the Boss Mustangs and making Shelby Mustangs obsolete). and sold out of a lot of businesses so he could go off to Africa. But if anyone has an opinion on whether he sold out of AAR before they reached their peak, I'd like to hear it.

[DeLa1Rob]

In the October issue of Octane magazine, Carroll writes about his involvement with AAR. He says he never had the time to devote to the enterprise and that he sold his interest in 1970.

They had success while Shelby was still a part owner. In 1968, Bobby Unser won the Indianapolis 500 driving an AAR Eagle.

robin

[bitzman]

I never saw any pictures of Shelby taking bows at any victories of AAR cars, which is why I wonder, if he was half owner, why he stayed out of the limelight of AAR at a time when they were doing good.
Also isn't it surprising that when Shelby went to build an Indy 4WD turbine car, he didn't build it at AAR (it was in '68) when he still owned part of AAR.
Maybe Dan Gurney has a strong personality as well as Shelby and when it came to mentions of his firm, he wanted to be in the limelight, and the only one in the limelight, though that initial press release photo, where Shelby and Gurney are both standing alongside an AAR car makes you think it was going to be 50/50 involvement and receiving plaudits when they did good. I guess I will have to look at the latest Gurney biography to see if it sheds any light (these coffee table books cost at least $50 and sometimes only have one or two lines of info that's pertinent to my question...it's a good thing Autobooks/Aerobooks in Burbank lets shop visitors peruse as many books as they want.