At the end of the two-year Jaguar program with Group 44, Haywood
stayed with Tullius, who was now running Audi’s North America racing program. Once again success, this time the 1988 Trans-Am title. The end of the
Audi Trans-Am program in 1989 also marked the end of Group 44 as an active player in big-time professional racing. Tullius was starting to feel the years
and did not need the politics or pressure, so he elected to walk away and go
build a base camp in Sebring, Florida, where he still plays with his airplanes
and cats.
This also marked the end of Haywood straying from the Porsche marque
when road racing. Reinhold Joest’s Porsche 962 delivered Haywood to the
Daytona 24 Hours winner’s circle in 1991 for his fifth win of the classic race.
This win moved him once again to the top of the all-time winners list and set
the stage for another good year. In June, Haywood set fastest rookie lap in the
Indy 500. In November, he capped off the year by winning the IMSA Supercar Championship and the manufacturers championship for Porsche.
Haywood would get his 10th win of the triad of classics in June of 1994
at Le Mans in a Dauer Porsche 962. This would be the last win of a major race
for the 962, the winningest sports racing car ever built.
At the 2006 24 Hours of Daytona, a young journalist whom I had met
earlier in the press cafeteria asked me who the driver talking to Paul Tracy
and Tommy Kendall was. When I told him it was Hurley Haywood, he was
surprised.
“That’s Hurley Haywood? It can’t be,” the rookie journalist said to me.
“I assure you that it is,” I told him.
“He’s still racing? He was one of my heroes when I was a kid. How old is
he? He’s got to be an old man.”
From a distance, Haywood has the look and demeanor of a young man.
One would not think of him as a member of the older generation. It is only
when you get close and can see the gray in his hair and the lines behind the
sunglasses that you get a clue.
In Haywood’s case, looks are truly deceiving. Unless you know him you
would not detect his chronological age. He keeps a schedule that would exhaust most young men. Though he has cut back, he is still active as a professional race driver. On most weekdays, you’ll find him at the Brumos dealership,
where he is a principal, exercising his college major, business administration.
When not there, chances are he is off engaged in an activity related to Porsche.
Aware of his promotional and public relations value, Porsche utilizes Haywood a good number of days in a number of roles from Chief Driving Instructor at the Porsche Sport Driving School (Issue 208) to guest speaker at gala
events. Whatever the situation, Haywood is Porsche’s man for all seasons in
North America.
On weekends, Haywood is most likley in one of three places: A Grand
Am race at the wheel of a Brumos Daytona protype, at a vintage motorsport
event racing one of the cars from Brumos’ collection of vintage racecars or
aboard one of his boats.
“We have been fortunate to buy back most of the significant racecars I
have driven over the years,” Haywood says. “We even found my 914 down in
Mexico and now we have it restored.”
Haywood, like many of us, misses the old days when professional racing
was so much more fun. The closest we can now get to the old-days is at vintage
events where people are still having fun. Gone are the days when drivers would
sit on the pit wall between sessions and engage in good-natured banter. Today,
they retreat to a large mobile vehicle that serves a number of functions from a
high-tech communications command center to a residence on wheels.
14 CarGuyMagazine.com
I made my way to victory circle shortly before the end
of that race back in 2006. My young journalist friend who
had quizzed me earlier met me with a big smile.
“Hurley led the race. I was hoping that he would
win,” he said.
“Yeah, so was I,” I told him. “Just wasn’t meant to be.”
Haywood has been in the hunt the last four years and
ended up third this year. Not bad for an “old man.” When
I recently asked him how many more 24 Hours of Daytona he had left in him, he smiled and said: “I’m not going
to close that door. I love that race and I want to drive it
as long as I feel that I am in a situation and part of a team
that can win it.”
Hurley Haywood has five Daytona wins. What are
the odds on number six?
Above: Today, Haywood exercises his business acumen
as a principal at the Brumos Porsche dealership when he’s
not gunning for his sixth 24 Hours of Daytona win.