DAYTONA BEACH — Hurley Haywood drove to Winn-Dixie one morning in 1968 not knowing what to expect. The 20-year-old Jacksonville University student had a passion for racing, and was nearly “unbeatable” in his 427 Corvette.
“It was a killer car,” he remembered. “I would enter in autocross races all the time, and that weekend (renowned road-racer) Peter Gregg was there. He brought his Porsche and full crew to test for the next race. We ended up tying for the fasting time, and then had a runoff and I beat him.
“He came up and introduced himself after and said I had to be pretty good to beat him. He said, ‘When you turn 21, I’ll help you order a car from Porsche and we'll start you off.'”
That same year, the legendary Vic Elford, now 82, helped drive the No. 54 Porsche 907LM to Victory Lane in the 24-Hour race at Daytona. It was the German brand’s first overall win in the prestigious race.
It certainly wouldn’t be the last.
In the fifty years since that breakthrough victory, Porsche has a total of 22 overall wins at Daytona and 78 class wins — both records. Haywood is responsible for five of those overall victories (1973, ’75, ‘77, ’79, ’91). Elford, meanwhile, has a pair of Le Mans overall wins (1967, ’73) to go along with his famous Daytona triumph.
Both are in town this weekend to help celebrate the 50th anniversary.
“It’s gone by quickly, I can’t believe I’m that old,” said Elfort, who drove his first Porsche 911 in 1967. “I didn’t even know where Daytona was until I got here. I don’t know where I’d be if I hadn’t joined Porsche. I suppose I’d gone somewhere else, sort of ambled along, maybe won some races. But not in the wonderful way I have since I joined Porsche.”
Haywood’s first Rolex 24 win came in 1973, and he followed that up with three more overall victories before the decade ended. In 1977 he became the first driver to win the Rolex and Le Mans in the same year, and, in 2012, he came out of retirement to drive in the 50th anniversary of the Rolex, finishing third in the No. 59 Brumos Porsche.
“Porsche has always been my partner, without them I wouldn’t have won nearly the races I did,” Haywood said. “No other manufacturer has the reputation of winning these long distance races like Porsche does.”
That held up once again last season, when Porsche scored its 78th class win in the GTD class. This year, Patrick Long — whose been with the manufacturer since 2004 — will look to add to the legacy in the No. 58 Wright Motorsports machine. Long has a pair of class wins in Le Mans (2004, ’07), and won his first Rolex in 2009 in the GT class.
“What’s so special (about Porsche) is, you’re an extension — a small extension — of the history and heritage of successes,” he said. “You really never leave the history of the company; it’s always in the front of your mind. You feel like you’re a little blip on that timeline, and that’s special.”