WORDS & PHOTOS HAL CROCKER
“You have to be pretty good to beat me!” In 1968, this statement of hubris from Peter Gregg launched the career of America’s winningest road-racer,
Harris Hurley Haywood.
Haywood, with movie-star looks, had just won an autocross in his street
Corvette, beating local Porsche dealer and professional racecar driver Gregg
in his full-bore, factory-backed Porsche. Gregg was using the event to do a
pre-race shakedown of his car; what he discovered that day would make motorsports history.
Gregg had much panache and a rather artifice personality. He was an artisan, but you never were quite sure of what. He tested and evaluated all that he
came in contact with and quickly discarded what he had no use for. He carried
preppie to the extreme, from the handkerchief that he wore ar