This is the last part of these Q&A with Hurley Haywood, a true icon of motorsports.

For your latest Grand-Am win your partner was Joao Barbosa, who took his first overall Rolex Series. What could you say about Joao as a driver and as a man?

“Well, that’s easy. Barbosa started driving for Brumos about 4 years ago and he is just a great guy. He is a real gentleman, and as far as a driver goes, I think he is probably the fastest driver we have in the Grand-Am Series right now. It is just remarkable, what he can do with the car, yet at the same time he treats the car with kid gloves. He brings the car back in one piece and he is easy on the equipment, yet he is just brutally fast. He is the perfect co-driver, especially for a guy like me. I just am amazed at the lap times that he can put down, so he takes a lot of the pressure off of me and carries the weight on his shoulders,. Next year as we go into the 2010 season, the Brumos #59 car will be driven full-time by Darren Law and David Donohue, and Barbosa will be joined by Terry Borcheller in a car that will be run separately. So that is going to be a good combination, and it will be a good lineup again for the Daytona 24.”

Your favorite sportscar as a driver and as a fan?

“Of course, that has to be Porsche. I have driven basically nothing but Porsches my entire racing career, which now spans over forty years. I’ve been really lucky to be able to drive Porsches for most of those years. The only time I wasn’t in a Porsche was when I was injured. I broke my leg very badly in an accident up in Canada and was basically out for a two year stint. During those two years I drove for Jaguar because I didn’t have to push the clutch in – it had a Hewland gearbox. I went over to them with Porsche’s blessing and then, when I got back, I returned to Porsche so that was lucky. As it turned out, I was able to race for those two years despite having my leg in a cast, so it was all for the best in the long run.”

You have been racing now for forty years, whom do you consider as the best Sportscar drivers?

“That’s tough, as there are just so many guys that are spectacular in sportscars. Some of the ones that I had a good relationship and hands-on driving experience with include Hans Stuck, Derek Bell, Brian Redman and Jacky Ickx. Tom Kristensen is one I’ve never really driven with, but he’s very impressive and has a huge winning streak at Le Mans. Jorg Bergmeister, who drives for the Porsche factory team, is really very fast – and a hell of a nice guy, as is Patrick Long, one of his co-drivers. I have to add Brumos teammates Joao Barbosa, of course, as well as David Donohue. In David’s case, I drove with his father, Mark, not as a teammate, but I drove many times against him and he was certainly somebody that was special. It is really amazing to be able to have his son David racing on our team, because that relationship goes back such a long time. Yannick Dalmas, who drove with me in 1994, is another great driver. He is very intense but very easy to get along with and had a great motivation to win. As I said earlier, I’ve been blessed with having great guys to drive with for my 40+ year career. The list goes on and on, but those are a few of the ones that I had more of a friendship with, more than just a one-off kind of race.”

How do you imagine the future of motorsports?

“That is a really good question because I think in the 40 years I have been in motorsports, it has evolved quite impressively. From the standpoint of car performance, from the standpoint of safety, all the aspects that make for good racing have been addressed over that time frame. I think it’s unfortunate that there are so many different divisions of sportscar racing right now and each sanctioning body has its own version of what they think sportscar racing should be.

I’m on the side of Grand-Am and I think that our formula is very strong. I live in the US, so while it’s different than living in Europe, the premise is the same – you have to make sportscar racing affordable to independent teams as well as factory teams. Factory teams should not dominate a form of racing because they are able and willing to spend more money than a private owner. At the same time, you need factory participation in the series, but you need to be able to bring a good set of rules forward so everybody follows the same guidelines. Money should not dictate the outcome from a technical standpoint, where ‘he who has the most gold rules’. You have to make it so the lowest denominator has at least a fighting chance, if he does everything right, to win the race. Grand-Am has done a good job with both their prototype and their GT divisions in making everybody fairly equal with a lot of different variables as far as engines or chassis manufacturers.

I just hope that the ACO and the Le Mans organizers will get back to a less technical type of racing that doesn’t cost millions and millions of dollars to campaign a team. Economics are different from five years ago or ten years ago and money is difficult to find. Companies are holding back their support, as they don’t want their image to be tarnished by spending money recklessly, so everybody has to do their part in making racing affordable and, at the same time, fun to watch. NASCAR does this well, and the Grand-Am Series is owned by NASCAR so I think there is a lot of influence the NASCAR side gives to our form of racing and that’s a good mix.”

You have a long-time history with Porsche & Brumos Racing – what can you say about that?

“My association with Brumos goes back to 1967, and my entire professional career has been built around Brumos. I have raced a Brumos car almost every year for 40 years now. Sometimes I wasn’t racing full-time for Brumos, but I drove a Brumos car at least one time during the season then, so it’s a very strong relationship. We’re a Mercedes-Benz, Lexus and Porsche dealership, and I started working in an executive role for the company in 1978. I have good knowledge of the workings of the company from the sales point of view, and I also continue that relationship on the racing side. My association with Porsche also runs deep. I currently work both for the marketing and PR Dept of PCNA as an ambassador of sorts. It’s really a nice mix and I’m just lucky to have the opportunity to work for Porsche and for Brumos for such a long time.”

Your Daytona record – 5 wins in the 24 Hours – has not been beaten yet. How can you explain that?

“I think the key to being successful in any long distance race lies in having a great team to drive for and also in having really good co-drivers. In all of my wins, not only at Daytona, but also at Le Mans and Sebring, I have driven for great teams, well-funded teams, factory teams, and I was always supported on the driving side by guys that were just really very good. When you mix all those factors together, you come up with a recipe that’s going to be hard to beat. I think that’s why I have been so successful in those types of races.”

Will you still be racing next year, in the Rolex 24, for instance?

“Yes, but next year is my last year. I’m going to officially retire from the racing scene after the 2010 Daytona Rolex 24 race. I want to see if I can win Daytona just one more time. I’d like to be able to put six overall wins in the column. I don’t think anybody would be able to beat that – not in my lifetime, anyway. I just want to give it one more try before I hang up my helmet.”

We do thank once again Hurley Haywood, a true gentleman on and off the tracks, for his answers and we thank too Patti, Christian, Martin, Wayne, Louis and Mike for their help and for their gorgeous photographs.

Claude Foubert