Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Evening With A Legend: Hurley Haywood

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Evening With A Legend: Hurley Haywood · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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Evening With a Legend is a series of presentations exclusive to
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legends of the famous 24 hours of Lama giving us an opportunity
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to bring a piece of LAMA to you.
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By sharing stories and highlights of the big event, you get a chance
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to become part of the Legend of Lama with guests from different
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eras of over 100 years of racing.
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Tonight we have an opportunity to bring a piece of LAMA to you sharing in the
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Legend of Lama with guests from different eras of over 100 years of racing.
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And as your host, I'm delighted to introduce Hurley Haywood,
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a name synonymous with endurance racing excellence.
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Over the course of 13 attempts at the legendary 24 hours of Lama Hurley
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cemented his legacy as one of the greatest sports car drivers of all time.
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From his debut in 1977 to his final start in 1994.
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Hurley was more than just a driver.
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He was a force to be reckoned with, whether battling through the night
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or sharing the cockpit with icons like Jackie Icks and Al Holbert.
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His impact on endurance racing is undeniable.
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With three overall victories and five podium finishes all
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behind the wheel of a Porsche.
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His story is one of relentless determination, precision, and
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uncanny ability to push both man and machine to their limits.
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We'll break down his lamont's career, the highs, the lows, and
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what made Hurley Haywood a legend in the world of Lama and beyond.
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With that, I'm your host crew chief Eric from the Motoring Podcast Network.
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Welcoming everyone to this evening with a legend.
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Hurley, welcome to the show.
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Thank you for having me.
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You have the most attempts so far of any guest on an evening with a legend 13 total
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three wins, five podiums between 77 and 94, and since we can't cover them all,
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let's quickly talk about your journey up to Lama and how the deal was put together
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and talk about some of the highlights.
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Joe Hopin, who was in charge of both Audi and racing here in
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the United States, called me up.
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One afternoon and said, how would you like to go to Lamont?
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And I said, fantastic.
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You know, sign me up.
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He arranged with Portia to have me drive on the factory team.
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Was that the first time you had raced in Europe?
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Yes, that was the first time I'd raced in Europe.
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Now you gotta remember.
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The only really reference I had to Lamar was the movie Lamar, you know,
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read about it in, in magazines.
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And I never really thought out what the city of Lamar was like.
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So when I flew over, I flew into Charles Dega, rent a a car, and drove to Lamar.
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Well, I was shocked.
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Lamont is a huge city, very industrial.
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I was completely lost.
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I didn't speak very good French.
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I was just kind of driving around trying to find something that I could
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recognize and nighttime fell and I was driving down this little alley.
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There was a guy with a Porsche jacket on and I said, can you
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help me find where Porsche is?
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So he looked in the window and he says, ah.
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He says, here, Haywood, we've been wondering where you are.
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And, and it turns out that this guy was Klaus Bischoff, who
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was my crew chief for the car.
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And he says, you gotta come into the bar and meet the guys that
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are gonna be working on your cars.
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You know, I'd been up for like 36 hours.
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So I was kind of a walking zombie to make it simple.
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He said, we're not gonna try to tell you how to get to your hotel, we'll
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take you to the cathedral or the.
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Tech inspection was the next day.
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You can sleep in the back seat and Porsche guys will find you.
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I'll tell 'em that you're there.
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So that's exactly what happened.
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And that morning there was a loud knock on the windshield and it
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happened to be Manford Dianca who was head of the racing program.
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And he said, where?
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Where the hell have you been?
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So that was my introduction to Porsche.
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Nowadays, you know, a newbie has to go through a whole regimen
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of testing, whether it's on a simulator, the rule book.
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Lights, you know, different caution lights, what that
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means to controlled areas.
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If there's a incident, they don't close the whole track, but they close
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the area that where the accident is.
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That being said, I really had no idea of what the track looked like.
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You know, the practice starts at like six o'clock at night
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and runs to about midnight.
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They said, okay, now is your turn.
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And it was pitch black and they said, we'll send Jackie X out and you can follow
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him and he'll show you the way around.
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That was two laps and then I was on my own, you know, the
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average speed at that point.
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Was 165 miles an hour.
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That's pretty fast.
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So there's a lot of very fast straightaways and straight
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is over 200 miles an hour.
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So I really had my hands full, but it kind of all worked out and the team was really
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very gracious and, and very helpful, and they walked me through the protocols, but.
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It was something that I was absolutely, completely unprepared for.
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What happened after we won the race, I mean, there was tens of thousands of
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people just swarmed onto the pit lane, and the next day when I got to the
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airport, there was a mob of people there.
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So it was sort of surreal in, in its presentation.
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It was really shocking, but.
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I got used to it and I enjoyed it.
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So let's unpack that first race.
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One of the questions that came up from a lot of the folks that are sitting
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in the audience, they wanted to know how it compared to racing at Daytona,
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and I know they're really night and day, but endurance racing as a whole.
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How was Lama in comparison to the 24 hours of Daytona?
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Well, I'm often asked that question.
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Daytona is my home track.
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I'm 55 miles away from the speedway from.
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The races are so different and you know, I'm often asked what do I
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think is the harder race to win?
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And I've always said Daytona was harder because one, the nighttime is 12 hours.
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They have a vast sort of arena of driver talent, some very professional guys,
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and some real amateur people, so you never know who you're coming up to.
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That makes it difficult.
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Lamont, they have very strict rules and it's sort of the
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caliber of teams and drivers.
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At the time I was racing there was much higher than in the United States.
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That's has changed dramatically over the years and to our present
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situation where it's probably equal.
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But Lamar is such a iconic race and personally, I. Racing
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at Daytona is more difficult.
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I asked Norbert Singer what he thought was more difficult and he
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said, well, from a race strategy and from what happens in the race car,
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I think they're both pretty equal.
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What makes IMSA better or Daytona better is if you make a mistake,
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they bring you into the pits and they say, don't do that again.
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And if you do it again, you're gonna be in serious trouble.
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Where at Lamont, it's sometimes several minutes of discussion what
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you've done and making up that on a track is difficult to do.
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So he said, I think Lamont is more difficult.
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So you got a first impression of the track.
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You got a first impression of your Porsche teammates and the team, but you made a
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first impression on the French as well.
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I hear Maybe this is legend, maybe this is a little myth busting here, but
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there's a story about a rubber band Rolex.
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Roland Putin, who was the president of Rolex in the United States, called
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me up and said, congratulations.
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That was wonderful.
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You did a great job over there.
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You had your arms raised up in the air, and I noticed that you
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didn't have a have a Rolex on.
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I said, well, I didn't take my Rolexes over there because I
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didn't want to get them stolen.
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I didn't, you know, so I went out and bought a Timex iron man.
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He said, okay, that makes sense.
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So that next Christmas, Rolex had invited me up to New York for a luncheon.
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When dessert came, a box came with a Rolex in it with a rubber band on it.
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And he said, this is the least flashy watch that we can produce.
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Well, in hindsight, it was probably the watch that got
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the most amount of comments.
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'cause where did you get that Rolex?
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Where did you get that rubber band?
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And so recently I became an an official ambassador of Rolex back in 1991.
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It was a handshake.
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That was all we needed.
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They were completely honest and they were, you know, really
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good to me and over the years.
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And Luca said, it's time that we signed you up with a, a bonafide contract.
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And I said, that's great.
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Contract was one page.
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Basically the situation was that when you go in public.
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Please wear a Rolex.
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That was about it.
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So they're a great company to work for.
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Talking about your 77 season again in the Porsche, 9 36, Harley Clarkson wrote about
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his vantage point in competing against you with his team, and he said there were
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tons of challenges with the car, and yet you and Jackie and Jurgen Barth still
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managed to bring the car home for a win.
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So what was that like?
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You know, they gave me the honor of starting the race.
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That's a pretty heavy weight on your shoulders when you are
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starting a race like that with no experience as far as the start goes.
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So we take off and the throttles fixed wide open in the first corner.
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I managed to get out of the way of everybody get it slowed
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down with the throttle stuck.
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You couldn't push the clutch down 'cause you would over rev the motor.
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The first thing that came to my mind, well hit the ignition switch.
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Well, I did that and.
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I was in the grass and it was hard to sort of bump start the car again.
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I had to take off the rear bonnet.
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We had actually practiced taking off the rear bonnet to get to the
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engine, which was a mammoth thing.
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I mean, probably weighed what that hood weighed, but I managed to get it off,
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found out what the problem was, got the throttle fixed, and got back in and
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started up and went back to the pits.
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I think we lost maybe two or three laps during that episode.
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I went back to the pits.
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They fixed it and everything was great.
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Jackie's car had a, had a mechanical problem and they moved Jackie
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over with Jurgen and myself.
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And Jackie is a absolute master at night and in the rain.
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'cause it always rains at some point during that race.
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And then when it rains, it doesn't rain on the whole track, it
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rains in portions on the track.
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So Jackie fought during the night.
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Jurgen and myself sort of was a backup.
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It all kind of worked out.
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Porsche really has a, a wonderful ability to put sort of like
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personalities together in the car.
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We're all secure with being racing drivers.
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We're not out there to prove who the fastest guy is.
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We're there to win the race and everybody does the job that they're supposed to do.
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And that's been the case on all the cars I've ever driven
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for Porsche with teammates.
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It just was really special to win that race.
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Well, I'm glad you brought up teammates 'cause we're gonna
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jump ahead of here a little bit.
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1978 and 82, you podium, you come back in 1983 for your second win in
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the Porsche 9 56 and Mark Hal wrote, what was it like driving with Al
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Holbert and Vern Schoen as teammates?
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How did your driving styles differ?
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How did your strengths work with each other or against each other?
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I knew Al long before we raced together at le, and he is a great
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driver and a great friend and.
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The same feeling for the cars along with Vern.
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The three of us together made a really potent team and the, the 9
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56 was a difficult car to drive.
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The geometry in the car was, you know, a lot of effort went into the
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steering and IMS a would not allow that car to race in, in the states.
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They said, well, you know, you gotta get the driver's feet behind the front axle
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thinking that Porsche would never do that.
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Well, that was how the 9 62 was developed and they long gated the wheel base, and
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that made all the difference in the world.
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That thing was just a sweetheart to drive, and it was kind of
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like a driver's dream come true.
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It had so much down force that the cornering speeds were like.
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On a railroad track, so it, it was really nice to drive that car.
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Up until this point, you had the chance to race with some of
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the best drivers in the world.
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As your teammates, can you share some memorable experiences with your
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teammates that really stand out?
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Can't even count how many drivers I've driven with, but guys I've driven with
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in the long distance races, we all kind of had the same mission motivating
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us, and that was to win the race.
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We weren't there to set the fastest time.
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We were there to do zero mistakes.
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Bring the car back in one piece, and we all kind of contributed to that
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thinking, and we would sit down after our practice sessions and kind of say,
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well, you know, what are we gonna do?
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We don't wanna get into a wheel to wheel fight with somebody, because
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that's when mistakes happen.
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It was kind of a feeling that we had.
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We were not sandbagging, we were not being easy with the car.
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We were being easy with the car, but not to the point of being slow with the car.
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That's kind of a very delicate balance where you're trying
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to be really quick, but save.
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You know, back then we didn't have sequential shifting.
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We didn't have power steering, we didn't have any of that stuff.
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It was all done by the driver and it was very easy to exhaust yourself.
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'cause those cars were pretty hot inside.
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We had to be careful with that.
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And in a two hour stint, I would lose five pounds of sweat.
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And getting that liquid back into your system was sometimes a real problem.
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One time I brought my doctor over, you know, he said, well, the easy
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fix for that is hydration with a iv.
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Porsche.
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Saw how quickly I recovered with that, and they said, okay, it makes sense.
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Now that's not allowed because people are afraid that there'd
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be doping stuff in the mixture.
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But back then, uh.
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It was a very efficient way to get back up to speed.
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Later in the 83 season, you had a pretty bad accident at Mosport,
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which kind of took you out of the Lama scene for the next couple
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years, and that brings us to 1986.
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You are in the record books twice in the same year on the same team,
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and that's the Silk Cut Jaguars.
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How did that happen?
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How did that work out that you were running two cars over 24 hours?
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Tom Walkinshaw decided that they wanted to bring some very
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experienced drivers in long distance.
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So they got Brian Redmond and myself to come.
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And before that happened, uh, I had broken my leg back in 1983, Bob Tuus called up Al
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Holbert and he said, I'm thinking about.
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Hiring Hurley because you know, he can't push the clutch down on a Porsche, but
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we have a gearbox and he only has to push the clutch to get in and out of the pits.
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Al said to Bob, he said, if you can hire Hurley, do it today
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because he's one of the best.
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And that's exactly what happened.
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So I raised for the Jaguar team, the Trulia team group,
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44 for two and a half years.
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And then when that program stopped and it moved over to Walkinshaw, Walkinshaw
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decided that he wanted Brian Redman and myself to come help his team win the race.
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We were told basically to keep our mouth shut and.
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Drive as fast as we could go.
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'cause he wanted to be on television at the start of the race.
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And so eventually all three cars had mechanical problems and we would
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move from one car to the other car.
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And so I don't wanna get into the particular, but it was kind of an amusing
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round table of guys that were going from one car to another car and then that car
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would break and move to the third car.
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So.
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A, uh, difficult situation to be in.
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And this was during a time when the driver stints weren't
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as limited as they are today.
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You had minimum driving times, but you didn't have maximum driving times.
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So are you able to jump between the two cars?
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Yeah.
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Correct.
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Correct.
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So what was it like driving the Jags compared to the Porsches
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you had run in the past?
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Uh, they're gonna hate me when I say this, but it really, it was like a truck.
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It was very loud, very guttural.
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I mean, it was not a difficult car to drive, but it just,
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it was like hot rod City.
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You know?
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The thing sounded really great.
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Definitely almost, and it was sort of not as sophisticated as the group 44 car was.
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Group 44 car had that 12 cylinder.
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It was a beautiful sounding engine.
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Lee Dyer was the one that designed it.
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And you know, it was a really nice car.
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And then when we, when we went back to back to drive the Walkinshaw car,
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it was just dramatically different.
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I'm not saying it was worse or better, but it was just very different.
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So you've mentioned Bob Tuli in Group 44 a couple times here,
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and that brings us to 1987.
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One of my favorite years of racing in general.
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At the same time that you were still racing at Lamar doing endurance
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racing, you started with Bob and the Audi program in Trans Am bringing
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the Quattros to road racing.
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So what was it like jumping between the Audis and the nine 60 twos and at that
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time did you prefer one over the other?
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Well, let me back up a little bit.
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When Bob Tulio lost the Jaguar deal, at the same time Audi was thinking about
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coming into race in the United States.
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And they wanted to sort of promote the Audi program.
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And Joe Hopin was of course the guy that sort of negotiated
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all the rules and everything.
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He called me up and he said, well, what do you think we should do?
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What team do you think we should get?
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And I said, well get Tulio.
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He's got all the equipment, he's got the shop, he's got the transporters.
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They're all spotless.
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Totally in that Audi sort of way of thinking.
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So that's what happened and he got the deal and everybody went over to
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English Scott to talk about the program and you know, work out the details.
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But that was one of the greatest cars.
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Everybody laughed, said, what are you doing with driving to basically sedan.
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And they stopped laughing after our first race because we were just so superior to
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everything else on the, on the racetrack.
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And then TransAm kicked us out of TransAm 'cause the cars were so
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good that we moved over to imsa.
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The cars were not really made to do long distance races, so we didn't do
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day detail and we didn't do se bbr.
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But then, you know, I think shook.
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Won almost every race.
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And I was second in all those races.
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So that thing was unbelievable.
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700 horsepower, huge tires on the front end rear, and it was
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really a pretty cool car to drive.
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And the reason I bring it up is that I. That wouldn't be the last time you
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drove with Hansuk and Walter Rural.
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And if we jump forward a little bit and then we'll do, we will dance back.
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You actually ran in 1993 with Hans and Walter at Lamont in a nine 11 turbo.
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Was that part of this whole group 44 contract?
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How did that come to be?
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No, it didn't have anything to do with the contract with Group 44.
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It was like a prototype.
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Nine 11 that we raced at Daytona and Sebring.
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I think it was really fast.
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It was really a great car.
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And then we were also gonna race that car at Lamont with Stook, myself and Walter.
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That was the race, if my memory's correct, was the race that Walter retired after.
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You know, so that was the end of that program.
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That was a really cool car, really fast.
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Did you guys choose to drive together or was that pre-ordained?
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It was pre-ordained.
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They wanted an American, which was me and Walter of course, and Hans.
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Were great friends and, and fantastic drivers and very fast.
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So we were kicking ass in Daytona and then we had a, I think Danny
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Sullivan drove with us at Daytona.
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There was four guys at the, on the team at Daytona.
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A mechanical failure.
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We were out of the race.
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We were leading at the time.
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Now, as we jump back into the early nineties, you've returned
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to Lamont many times again behind the wheel of Porsche nine 60 twos.
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And we're gonna talk specifically about 1994.
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That's lucky.
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Number 13, your final win at Lamont in LMP one with a 9 62 LM at the age of 46.
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Well, you know, the car that we ran in 94 was a dower car,
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and the dower car was a 9 62.
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That was.
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Made for the street.
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Norbert Singer found a loophole in the, in the rules that all we had
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to do to make that car legal was to eliminate the ground effects.
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And we did a lot of testing in the wind tunnel.
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We did a lot of testing on tracks.
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We went to, I think Paul Ricard or Manny Core and did 24 hour test with that car.
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So it was a really a, a nice car to drive.
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It was very fast on a straightaway 'cause it didn't have a lot of down force.
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So that was really cool.
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And so we went testing.
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I can't remember.
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It was, I think it was Manny Cor that we were testing that, and I
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was scheduled to drive with Stok and Terry boots, I think, and myself.
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And then me, Baldy and Yannick Damo were gonna drive with Danny Sullivan after
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the test, Yannick and Marrow went to the factory and had a seat designed for them.
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They were the same size as I was.
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So when, uh, Sullivan got to the track on race day on race practice,
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he couldn't get in their seat.
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He was too big.
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So they said, oh, we'll fix that.
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We'll just move Hurley over and he can drive with those guys, and
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Sullivan can drive with shooken boots.
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And so that's how that happened.
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And that was literally one of the very few races that I've ever had a seat.
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That fit me properly.
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Usually I was just sort of hanging on because the seats were always big and
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they would always have to put in a big clumsy insert, and you've never really
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felt comfortable with those cars.
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But that time the seat was perfect.
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We would do driver changes and we wouldn't have to adjust the belts at all.
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So that was really special.
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And it showed when we won, I mean, it was really great car.
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Did you wanna run again after 94 or were you after 13 tries you were done.
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After 94, Porsche changed over to production cars, GT cars.
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I had made a promise to myself because of the speed difference between the
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prototypes and the GT cars that I would not ever drive a GT car at Lamont.
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Different.
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I said no.
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And Porsche didn't really have a prototype to race except the GT one.
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I can't remember what they called it, but it was a great car.
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But I was kind of out of the loop at that point, so I can't
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remember even who drove that car.
23:04
Well, I'm gonna pull a question from the crowd here, and this can apply
23:07
to any Porsche you've ever driven.
23:09
Scott writes, which Porsche variant was the most fun to drive?
23:12
Not necessarily the fastest, but the one you enjoyed the most?
23:15
The 9, 3 6.
23:17
That was the car that I won Lamar with the first time.
23:20
It had a, a really beautiful engine.
23:22
The car was beautiful to look at.
23:24
Had the big shovel above your head.
23:26
Because it didn't have ground effects, it moved around a lot.
23:30
It's kind like driving a really powerful nine 11.
23:33
You could adjust with your throttle what the rear of the car was doing,
23:37
but not in an uncontrolled manner.
23:39
It was just a really pleasant car to drive, and I like open cars.
23:44
You talked a little bit about the challenges of driving at LAMA
23:47
and weather is something that comes up all the time and then
23:49
mechanical sympathy is another one.
23:51
You know, being cognizant of the car and the other drivers and you
23:54
know, you need to make it to the end.
23:55
You can't win LAMA on turn one.
23:57
A lot of the legends that come on the show, we actually talked
24:00
to them about how the experience of LAMA changed them as a driver.
24:03
And you mentioned at the beginning of the conversation that LAMA was the
24:06
first time you had raced in Europe.
24:08
And again, first impressions or lasting impressions.
24:10
So how do you feel that.
24:11
Lama change you, maybe your driving style.
24:14
What did you bring home from every time you raced at lama?
24:17
Well, you gotta remember that prior to 1977, I had won
24:23
three Daytona 24 hour races.
24:25
So the 24 hour format was not something that was alien to me.
24:29
The same principles that hold true for being successful at Daytona hold
24:35
true for being successful at Lamont.
24:37
So my driving style, the way I thought, the way I trained
24:41
didn't really change that much.
24:42
The only thing that really changed was we had great food, so.
24:46
So when you look at Lama's changes and its evolution, you started in the pre
24:52
chicane days, and then in 1990 through 1994, you drove in the new format.
24:57
How was that for you?
24:58
Did you have to really relearn the track or was it always about the same?
25:02
The speed difference between No, chicanes and the Chicanes was almost the same.
25:08
It was well over 200 miles an hour between the chicanes, but because of
25:13
the chicanes, the physical exertion.
25:16
Of those two entities was pretty severe.
25:19
The breaking was massive.
25:21
You really had to come in on the brakes, and I think that that was
25:26
in itself something that really.
25:28
Took a toll on drivers and cars.
25:31
I much preferred the no chicanes, but the tire manufacturers just were not
25:38
comfortable with that sustained speed with their product, and I think that
25:42
they were pretty instrumental in getting the track to put the chicanes in.
25:46
Same thing at Daytona with the bus stop at Daytona would enter turn three at over 200
25:52
miles an hour on the banking with a lot of downforce and a lot of force on the tires.
25:57
So they went to the speedway and said, we need to put a chicane in there to slow the
26:01
cars down on the entries into UH, three.
26:04
So that I think worked well for them as one of the most successful
26:08
American drivers at lama.
26:09
What do you think LAMA means for motorsport in the United States, and
26:13
as LAMA has evolved, how do you feel about the global recognition of lama?
26:18
Well, I think cars now, both on the US side and on the European side.
26:24
Are very similar to each other.
26:26
They have a little bit different rule package, but I think the end result
26:31
is really good for racing because in my day we would win these long
26:36
distance races by lapse by miles.
26:40
And now at Daytona and at Lamar, you have multiple cars that are
26:44
on the same lap after 24 hours.
26:46
So I think that that is something that's good.
26:49
I. To be dominant.
26:51
I like to win those races by large margins, but I think from the fan
26:56
standpoint, it's better that you have multiple cars on the same lap
27:01
in both prototype and in gt, and that just makes for a good show.
27:05
So there's a lot of young drivers that are coming up through the system now that
27:09
have LAMA as one of their crown jewels.
27:12
And so looking back over all your entries at LAMA and even over your career, what
27:17
advice would you give to young aspiring drivers who dream of competing at the
27:21
24 and following in your footsteps?
27:23
I think this new generation of drivers is amazing.
27:27
Their maturity behind the wheel, how they deal with all the pressures are.
27:32
Mind-boggling really.
27:33
I, you know, I looked at kind of what I was like in that era.
27:37
It's just a completely different mindset of these young kids,
27:41
and they're super fast.
27:43
They don't make mistakes.
27:44
They understand the engineering of the cars.
27:46
Peter, Greg once told me, he said, you know, you, you are hired as a driver.
27:51
Don't try to be an engineer.
27:53
Articulate what the car is doing.
27:55
And then let the engineers figure out what to do.
27:58
And I think that that is the case on many of the young drivers
28:01
that are in the sport right now.
28:03
They're very articulate.
28:04
They know what they're doing, and they're only gonna get better with time.
28:09
So I think the future of racing, the next generation of superstars is gonna
28:14
come from the current crop, both the European and on the American side.
28:18
So having returned to Lama many times, you've seen a lot of change,
28:21
as we talked about with the change of the course configuration itself.
28:24
What are some of the best new things that had come to Lamas
28:27
since you had started there?
28:28
In 77, the pits were like, you would make a pit stop and there would be.
28:33
Literally hundreds of people that you would have to dodge through to get into
28:37
your pit slot to make the pit stop.
28:40
It was just so overwhelming with the crowd of people that was allowed into the pits.
28:45
So that's when they built the new pits and the new boxes above the pits.
28:50
That was really special and that made it much, much safer and.
28:54
Much more enjoyable.
28:55
We got a couple of crowd questions here.
28:57
Terry Johnson writes, with all the modern day advancement in telemetry
29:00
communication and all the cockpit gadgets for the driver, do you see your
29:05
era as more pure in terms of racing?
29:07
Absolutely.
29:08
You know, I'm not a big fan of electronics controlling the cars.
29:13
I like to be in control of what is going on with the car.
29:16
And if I want something, you know, I'll radio into the pits and I'll
29:19
say, okay, the car's understeering.
29:21
What are gonna do?
29:22
Now all of that is already known with telemetry.
29:27
They're not necessarily relying on what the driver says.
29:31
They know what, what he's gonna say.
29:33
We didn't have sequential shifting.
29:35
We didn't have a BS brakes, we didn't have power steering, we
29:38
didn't have air conditioned cockpits.
29:40
I'm not saying it's any easier now.
29:42
I think with the introduction of all the commands from the pits to the drivers
29:46
on what to do to save energy, the formula for fuel usage and electricity
29:52
has to be dissipated at the same time.
29:54
So if you come into the pits and they see that.
29:57
The battery's been zero.
30:00
You're penalized.
30:01
That's why it's so important to listen to the engineers.
30:05
They're telling you you're using too much fuel, you're using too much battery.
30:08
Dial back a little bit.
30:10
It's a constant thing, so it's not just one lap to doing to
30:14
do it in almost every lap.
30:15
So I don't think I could drive a race car with having somebody
30:18
talking to me all the time.
30:20
So along with that, Greg Caruso writes, what's the biggest difference
30:23
you see in today's endurance racing compared to when you were racing?
30:26
Is it safety?
30:27
Is it something you already mentioned, or is it something else?
30:30
It's all of those things.
30:31
Because the cars are so strong and so safe, it sort of gives the drivers
30:37
this secure feeling that if something goes wrong, I'm not gonna hurt myself.
30:41
In my generation, people got hurt in race cars, people got killed in race cars.
30:46
I think that that tempered the way we looked at things and how we
30:51
analyze what kind of risks are we gonna take Now in a 24 hour race,
30:56
it's 24 segments of 100% performance.
31:00
And there's no regard for being careful with the car.
31:04
You can throw it around, you can bump into somebody and you're
31:07
not gonna damage the body work.
31:08
They're very strong cars and the safety equipment is phenomenal.
31:13
Helmet technology and race suit technology is, is really good.
31:17
Bladder control on the fuel tanks is good, so it is a much
31:22
secure and safer environment.
31:24
And that makes the racing better and safer.
31:28
You wanna be as safe as you possibly can, but because it's safe, there is
31:32
sort of that feeling that I'm invincible and that's a bad thing to feel.
31:37
I think Tom Stout asks any advice on visiting Lama as a spectator?
31:41
I. Go with somebody that knows the ropes.
31:44
Take a friend or, or somebody that's been there before.
31:46
It's overwhelming how large it's, unless you know the systems, it's
31:51
really difficult to navigate.
31:53
There's a lot of different program that have space in
31:56
their formula that you go over.
31:58
The airlines are.
31:59
Paid for the hotel, the food, the restaurants, the tickets for the race,
32:04
where you're gonna watch the race from.
32:06
Those are really important because there is a language barrier.
32:10
Unless you know the person that lives in the United States speaks fluent French.
32:14
It can be a real nightmare.
32:16
So I'm gonna slide in another member question here.
32:18
Leon Carson writes, and I'm sure you get this all the time, of all
32:21
the tracks you've driven, what track do you enjoy driving on the most?
32:24
I love Watkins Glen.
32:26
Watkins Glen is, you know, that's what was the first
32:28
racetrack I ever won a race with.
32:31
Peter, Greg, myself, won the GT portion in 1969.
32:35
I was sitting on cloud nine.
32:38
A couple weeks after the race was over, I got my draft notice and I was on an
32:42
airplane flying to Vietnam in November.
32:44
So that sort of cut my racing career till 1971.
32:48
Peter, Greg said, don't worry, you have a job when you get back.
32:51
And I rotated outta the army in, in 71 and we won the first race at uh, VIR.
32:57
So that was great of Peter to be patient.
33:00
Watkins Glen, definitely at the top of my list, making my heart smile
33:03
there, Hurley, I appreciate that.
33:04
Good.
33:05
Now that the LAMA Classic is back, any plans to return to Lama?
33:09
And if you were gonna go back, would you race any of your previous
33:12
cars or maybe something else?
33:13
Something you competed against.
33:15
I would not want to race the cars.
33:18
We have a lot, a lot of cars in our collection here in Jacksonville
33:22
at the Burma collection.
33:24
We exercise those cars, we demonstrate those cars, but we don't race those cars.
33:29
When I hung up my helmet in 2012, I just said, you know, competitive racing is
33:35
just not in the bucket list at this.
33:38
Do you still enjoy watching races like Lamont, the 24 hours of Daytona?
33:41
Does it still get you, like revved up like you would wanna be on track?
33:44
I'm on the sort of the management part of different teams.
33:49
They ask my advice and you know, I'm busy being an an ambassador for Porsche
33:53
and being an ambassador for Rolex.
33:56
So this last year we had a lot of Rolex people come to the race dealers.
34:00
I was with them sort of explaining what was going on, and I enjoy doing that.
34:05
And you know, the insight that you give to these customers that are really
34:08
not too used to racing is invaluable.
34:11
And I think Rolex is the brand in practically every
34:15
major sport in existence.
34:17
And Motorsport is very lucky to have them as a sponsor, a supporter quality that.
34:25
Is involved in building a watch is the same as building a race car.
34:30
You have to be absolutely 100% precise.
34:33
The popularity of LAMA continues to grow, and this year there were some
34:37
big announcements As we proceed into the next couple of seasons, Ford is
34:40
coming back, Aston is coming back.
34:42
You've got all sorts of other brands coming to Lamont and talking about coming
34:46
to Lamont, and it almost reminds me.
34:48
Of the heyday of your time racing at Lamont, where the LMP field was
34:52
absolutely huge and the competition was strong as it ever was.
34:55
So it makes me wonder if you could go back to Lamont today and you could get
34:59
behind the wheel of a car, is the obvious choice the 9 63 or is there something
35:03
else that you'd be interested in?
35:05
Taking a lap around the track in it would be hard to beat the 9 63.
35:09
That thing is.
35:10
Awesome.
35:11
Nick Tandy is a, is a friend, and he said it's really beautiful to drive that car.
35:15
So if I went back to Lamo and if I was gonna drive
35:18
something, it would be the 9 63.
35:20
No more questions from the crowd at this time.
35:22
So what I'm gonna do is pass the torch to David Lowe, A-C-O-U-S-A
35:27
President for some parting thoughts.
35:29
Harley, on behalf of the a CO and uh, the members of the A-C-O-U-S-A.
35:34
Thank you so much for your time this evening for an
35:36
incredible, incredible interview.
35:38
And again, thank you for visiting us at our meetup at Daytona.
35:41
It was also a pleasure to meet you there.
35:43
All the best.
35:44
I enjoyed that.
35:45
And, uh, please give my best to all the a CO people.
35:49
Thank you, sir. Yep.
35:51
From his three unforgettable wins to the podium finishes that defined
35:55
an era, Hurley's legacy with Porsche and with the 24 hours of
35:59
Lama is nothing short of legendary.
36:01
His determination, skill, and unyielding spirit have inspired generations of racers
36:06
and its clear why he's considered one of the all time greats in endurance racing.
36:10
Whether you're a Porsche fan, a motorsports enthusiast, or someone
36:13
who simply loves a great story of perseverance, Hurley Haywood's
36:17
journey at Lama is one for the ages.
36:19
And with that, we hope you enjoyed this presentation and
36:22
look forward to more evening with a legend throughout the season.
36:25
And on behalf of everyone here and those listening at home, thank you
36:29
Hurley for sharing your stories with us.
36:31
Well, thank you Eric.
36:32
You did a good job with the questions and I enjoyed the interview.
36:36
I want to have you back for some Audi talk.
36:38
All right.
36:38
All right.
36:51
This episode has been brought to you by the Automobile Club
36:54
of the West and the A-C-O-U-S-A.
36:57
From the awe-inspiring speed demons that have graced the track to
37:00
the courageous drivers who have pushed the limits of endurance.
37:03
The 24 hours of LAMA is an automotive spectacle like no other for over
37:07
a century, the 24 hours LAMA has urged manufacturers to innovate for
37:10
the benefit of future motorists.
37:12
It's a celebration of the relentless pursuit of speed and excellence
37:16
in the world of motorsports.
37:17
To learn more about or to become a member of the A-C-O-U-S-A look no further than
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www laman do org, click on English in the upper right corner and then click
37:27
on the ACO members tab for club offers.
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Once you've become a member, you can follow all the action on the Facebook
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Evening with the legend meetups.
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