Endurance-Info is very honoured today. Hurley Haywood, an icon as regards to motorsports and endurance racing, has agrred to answer a few questions. Hurley Haywood has one of the most amazing records. While Jacky Ickx, then Tom Kristensen, habe been called “Mr Le Mans”, Hurley Haywood may be called “Mr Daytona” for he has five win in the 24 Hours of Daytona : 1973, 1975, 1977, 1979 and 1991, an unbeaten record till now. He is ahead of some other famous drivers : Peter Gregg, Rolf Stommelen, Bob Wollek and Pedro Rodriguez, four-times winners in Florida.

He has also three wins in Le Mans : 1977, 1983 and 1994. He first raced in Le Mans in 1977, claiming the win as he was a rookie and his last race in La Sarthe was in 1994, winning at Le Mans for his last experience. Hurley Haywood claimed his eight wins in a 24 hour event behind the wheel of a Porsche, as he always had close links with the German manufacturer. Haywood was the first driver ever to win Daytona and Le Mans in the same year.

Hurley Haywood’s eight 24 hours wins :

Le Mans

1977 : Porsche 936/77 : Hurley Haywood/Jacky Ickx/Jürgen Barth
1983 : Porsche 956 : Hurley Haywood/Al Holbert/Vern Schuppan
1994 : Dauer-Porsche 962 LM : Hurley Haywood/Yannick Dalmas/Mauro Baldi

Daytona

1973 : Porsche 911 Carrera : Hurley Haywood/Peter Gregg
1975 : Porsche 911 Carrera RSR : Hurley Haywood/Peter Gregg
1977 : Porsche Carrera RSR : Hurley Haywood/John Graves/Dave Helmick
1979 : Porsche 935 Turbo : Hurley Haywood/Ted Field/Danny Ongais
1991 : Porsche 962C : Hurley Haywood/John Winter/Frank Jelinski/Bob Wollek/Henri Pescarolo

Hurley Haywood has been the partner of nearly all the most famous sportscars drivers : Peter Gregg -the pairing was tough to beat in the 70s in the USA-, Jacky Ickx, Yannick Dalmas, Bob Wollek, Henri Pescarolo, and many others. Rather oddly, for his first win in a 24-hour event in 1973; he defeated with his Porsche Carrera RSR (ahead of François Migault/Milt Minter’s Ferrari 365 Daytona) all the prototypes which had to retire, including Cevert/Beltoise/Pescarolo’s Matra MS670, the Gulf-Mirages, or the Chevrons and the Lolas, while for his last win in the same type of race, taking profit of a loophole in the rules to win the race with a quite special GT1, the famous Dauer-Porsche LM; partnered by Yannick Dalmas and Mauro Baldi.

He was successful too in the 12 Hours of Sebring. He won the event twice, first of all in 1973, with the Daytona-Sebring double, alongside Peter Gregg and Dave Helmick, then in 1981, behind the wheel of a Porsche 935 K3, with Al Holbert and Bruce Leven. Hurley Haywood was the first ever champion in the IMSA Series in 1971 and he claimed also the title in 1972. He has been the Trans-Am champion in 1988, with an Audi Quattro 200 and he even raced once in the Indy 500 in 1980 when he eventually finished 18th.

Where as these victories belong to the sportscars racing history, Hurley Haywood is still writing it because he finished in third place in the 2009 Rolex 24 and he won alongside João Barbosa the Finale of the 2009 Rolex Series on the Homestead-Miami Speedway, behind the wheel of the #59 Brumos Racing Porsche Riley.

Hurley, how did you come to motorsports?

“I had a very fast Corvette when I was in college down here in Florida, so I had begun taking it to a local autocross course. One weekend Peter Gregg was at that course with his racecar, testing something new he was going to try the next weekend for a race he was in. I really didn’t know who Peter Gregg was, so to make a long story short, when he and I tied for the fastest time that day, we had a runoff. When I beat him, he came to me afterwards and said “You’ve got to be pretty good to beat me!” We became friends after that and I started going with him to races and working on his crew.

In the meantime, I had talked my father into helping me support my racing career on a trial basis. We agreed on a two year window and he said if I was not successful to continue on that level after that time, I had to stop and do something more reasonable. Luckily, I was able to capitalize on it and continue, and the rest is history. I mostly just got lucky and was in the right place at the right time.”

You are a 3 time winner at Le Mans, could you say some words about each win? Which one do you prefer?

“1977 was the first win. I drove there with Jacky Ickx, who was brought on after his car had a problem and was retired, and Jurgen Barth. That was a pretty amazing win, and it was my first time at Le Mans. I had won at Daytona three times before that race, but Le Mans is just a special race and such a special place. It was also the first time I drove with the Porsche factory team so that was a pretty cool deal. There are not many people that can say the first time they raced at Le Mans, they won there, so I joined a pretty elite class as a result.

My second win was in 1983 with Al Holbert and Vern Schuppan, and that was very special because both of them were good friends. We battled for the entire 24 hours and our car blew up on the last lap and was slowing down. Al Holbert was driving the last stint and just managed to creep around with our sister car driven by Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell almost catching us. I think we only won by 20 or 30 seconds, so it was a very close win.

The third time was 1994 in one of the 962 Dauer Porsche cars, and that was also special – Norbert Singer found a loophole in the rule book and basically, we took a 962 and closed off it off to make it a flat bottom. The car was a lot of fun to drive, very fast down the straightaways. It reminded me of driving the 936 which was my overall favorite car to drive, so we had a good time and we won that race. So, those were the three wins I had at Le Mans. It’s hard to say which one would be a favorite – I think of the three, I would say the 1983 win was the favorite, just because the guys I was driving with, Holbert and Schuppan, were great friends. It was also one of those races where you had to battle right up to the last hour so we were sitting on pins and needles the whole time. That made it especially rewarding to win that one.”

We do thank Hurley Haywood for his kindness and the quality of his words. We’d like to thank you Patti Tantilo and the Brumos Racing, and Martin Krejci of the website www.racingsportscars.com  as well for their help. Specials thanks also to Patti, Christian Vignon, Louis Galanos, Wayne Ellwood and Mike Birch for their photographs. 

To be continued…

Claude Foubert