Porsche 911 carrera 2.8 RSR – H. Haywood et P. Gregg – Stand – 24h of Daytona 1973. Limited edition

Porsche 911 carrera 2.8 rsr

The first 24 Hour event in 1966 was won by Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby driving a Ford Mk. II. Motor Sport reported: “For their first 24-hour race the basic organization was good, but the various officials in many cases were out of touch, childish and lacked the professional touch which one now finds at Watkins Glen.”

1966 also saw Suzy Dietrich enter the 24 Hours event, driving a Sunbeam Alpine with Janet Guthrie and Donna Mae Mims. The trio finished 32nd and, along with another women’s team in the race, became the first women’s teams to finish an international-standard 24-hour race.[5]

Hurley Haywood is among the most illustrious racecar drivers ever to grace a track. The legend has won just about everything one can: five 24 Hours of Daytona, three 24 Hours of Le Mans, two 12 Hours of Sebring, two IMSA GT championships, and one Trans-Am championship.

Haywood’s accomplishments are so vast, it’s easy to get tired reading them halfway through. Atop his personal list of favorite achievements: his first 24 Hours of Daytona win, back in 1973, a few years after he served a tour of duty in Vietnam.

This year, at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, Haywood was reunited with his winning wheels, a Porsche 911 RSR—the first ever RSR, actually—and got to race it around the circuit in a historic demonstration before the main event. While Haywood was all smiles after his stint in his old chariot, he told Robb Report things didn’t go as swimmingly some decades ago during the actual race.

“Porsche shipped two of these cars: one to myself and Peter [Gregg, Haywood’s codriver], and one to Roger Penske’s shop,” Haywood explained. “We both got identical cars. Peter, in typical fashion, disassembled the whole car to check everything, and found that the flywheel was loose.

He called Roger and told him that but Roger brushed him off, thinking Peter was messing with him. The race gets under way and sure enough, Roger’s flywheel comes undone, and that takes the second car out of the race.”

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