The "Eagle" marque was used by Dan Gurney's AAR team to denote their racing cars, the "HF" comes from the initials of the designers' surnames, Hopkins and Fujimori, and 89 from the two-digit year of its initial competition.

[6] The team concentrated its efforts on the #98 car; AAR would not enter the HF89 until the Lime Rock GTP race.

By 1990, the Eagle HF89 replaced the 88C, and chalked up its first win at the 1990 IMSA Topeka GTP event, with Juan Manuel Fangio II driving.

[7] The team followed up with three more wins: Sears Point, as well as temporary street course races at San Antonio and Del Mar.

[3] While the team experienced some success in 1989 and 1990 with the HF89 and HF90 evolution, the chassis had a very small margin for setup error - in the words of driver Juan Manuel Fangio II, "When were in the window, the car was good in every way, but out of the window, the car was not right at all.