DAYTONA BEACH — All five of Hurley Haywood’s victories in the Rolex 24 at Daytona came in in a Porsche. Last Sunday’s 24-hour race at the Daytona International Speedway was also conquered in a Porsche.
That’s where the similarities end.
The interior of Haywood’s Porsche Carrera RSR in 1973, 1975 and 1977 and Porsche 935/79 in 1979 and Porsche 962 C in 1991 were basic with a seat, steering wheel, gas pedal, clutch, brake pedal and turbocharger dial.
Mechanics, not machines, made engines. Car bodies were fitted and hung by hand. Their cars were fast but delicate. If they got pushed too hard, they pushed back.
Haywood knew how to use restraint and be fast — all simultaneously. By staying off the curbs, out of the infield grass, avoiding contact with other cars and pushing the engine, Haywood spent more time on the track while others were on pit road.
“The car that usually wins is the one that spends the least time on pit road,” the St. Augustine resident said.
Haywood and Peter Gregg won the 1973 race by 22 laps — more than 78 miles. Haywood and Gregg returned in 1975 to win by 15 laps; Haywood joined John Graves and Dave Helmick to win by two laps in 1977; and he worked with Danny Ongais and Ted Field in 1979 to win by a remarkable 49 laps. The victory in 1979 was so overwhelming that the car had a partially blown head gasket and a seized turbocharger. Ongais parked the black Porsche on the track apron 100 yards short of the finish line for the final seven minutes. When he saw the checkered flag at the 24-hour mark, the car spewed white smoke and chugged across the line for the victory. The second-place Ferrari 365 GTB/4 for John Morton and Tony Adamowicz still lost by 174.44 miles.
Haywood’s last 24-hour victory in 1991 included co-drivers Frank Jelinksi, Bob Wollek, Henri Pescarolo and Louis Krages (a.k.a “John Winter”). The car completed 18 laps more than the second-place car.
Decades ago, a car’s success depended more on a driver. Now it’s based as much on technology, strategy and driving, Haywood said.
Haywood has a record-tying five 24-hour wins at Daytona. He also has three 24-Hour of LeMans victories and two at the 12 Hours of Sebring.
Those types of cars — and blowout finishes — are gone. They’ve been replaced with banks of computer screens, engineers, carbon fiber and composite bodies pressed by robotic machines to be lightweight, strong and meet exact expectations.
“The configuration has not changed, but the conditions have changed,” the 76-year-old legendary driver said at last weekend’s twice-around-the-clock race.
“The new generation of drivers, manufacturers look at the guys that are really good at video games, because the video games give you so much information that you have. You have to adapt to that information. You have to do it very quickly if you want to win that video game.
“Same thing with the race car. You've got a lot of information coming to you, and you have to adapt to what that information is telling you to do.”
A Penske Racing Porsche 963 driven by Filipe Nasr, Nicky Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor led a race-best 307 of 781 laps. Nasr had to make three passes for the lead in the final two hours, including one with 21 minutes remaining against the No. 6 Penske team car driven by Matt Campbell. Following the last pass, Nasr drove away to a 1.335-second victory against the Acura ARX-06 driven by Tom Blomqvist after Campbell’s faded to a third-place finish.
The top three cars were on the lead lap. Previous to last Sunday’s finish, at least four cars have been on the lead lap at the checkered flag in the previous five years.
Haywood and Scott Pruett are the only drivers to win five 24-hour races at the Daytona International Speedway. Haywood also has three victories at the 24 Hours of LeMans and two at the 12 Hours of Sebring.
“The cars will do a lot more than they did back in the day that I was racing, and the end result is it makes better racing,” he said. “So, when you finish a 24-hour race and you have [five] cars on the lead lap, the sanctioning body is doing something right. Because the cars are so strong, you can be very aggressive on the racetrack. If we were doing that when I was driving, the chances of damaging our car would be pretty great. Now they don't have to worry about that so much, because the cars are really strong. The engines are strong.”
At the same time, Haywood said the evolution of the prototypes has led to more competitive racing, which has expanded IMSA’s fanbase. This weekend’s crowd around the 3.56-mile circuit that utilizes portions of the superspeedway’s high banks and a twisting course filled the rest of the track’s infield.
When they raced, Haywood said the crew had tires and gas on pit road. They slept in a sleeping bag in the car trailer and snacked on McDonald’s hamburgers.
Today’s teams have engineers monitoring computers in the car. Teams also have a nutritionist; most have a masseuse on standby and utilize a hyperbaric chamber to keep drivers at their peaks.
“I think all that information adds to the level of stress and commitment to the driver,” Haywood said. “He must race competitively against equally performing cars while also dealing with radio communication. To me, that's a distraction. I was focused 100% on driving. I didn't have to worry about all the other things. I had a standing rule to not talk to me on the radio unless I asked a question or was on fire.”
Haywood admitted he would always be one of the biggest sports car racing fans. He observes technology, speed and competitiveness with appreciation and awe. He knew cars were sure to change. So were the drivers.
He also knows the passion to win never changes.
