Sports car and Porsche Racing legend Hurley Haywood was the Newsmaker of the Week on my season-debut The Race Reporters Wednesday night on PowerUpChannel.com. Hurley says he'll retire from driving after this weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona, where he'll be in the Brumos Porsche. Larry Edsall and Jonathan Ingram were on for the journalists roundtable and then Bobby Bennett helped us understand the upcoming NHRA season.
Hurley remembered the awesome -- and fearsome -- Porsche 917 Can-Am car:
"Peter (Gregg) bought the 917 in 1972 and campaigned it in the Can-Am. He didn't really like it so he asked me if I would like to buy it, and if I did, he would campaign it for me. So, I said, 'OK.' Back then, I think I was too stupid and too naive to understand how unbelievably dangerous that car was. It had 1,200 horsepower. It was a short-wheelbase car and very difficult to drive. But I did pretty well in it. Mark Donohue was very instrumental in bringing me up-to-speed on what to do and what not to do. It was a fairly successful effort. I still have that car; it's in our collection at Brumos. When I look at that car, and drive it at special events, I'm in awe at how raw that car was. A monster, really. You sat between two 50-gallon tanks of gasoline; that in itself today would be totally unacceptable . . . That whole era of Can-Am enticed the imagination of builders and fans alike. It was beautiful, but not an easy car to drive. As Brian Redman once said, 'Everytime I finished a race, I was just glad I was alive.'"
Listen to the entire show using this link:
http://www.voiceamerica.com/voiceamerica/vepisode.aspx?aid=43926
Here's a link to a news story I wrote this week on CompetitionPlus.com: http://www.competitionplus.com/index.php/drag-racing/news/13117-tasca-developing-nitro-version-of-tasca-cobra-jet
Upcoming The Race Reporters guests:
(Show is live Wednesdays at 7 p.m. ET, downloadable, and available on-demand at no cost. Click on TRR page logo in upper right-hand column.)
February 3 -- Newsmaker: Bob Tasca III. Panelists: Jim Pedley, Jeff Burk. Plus, Dave Rodman.
February 10 -- Newsmaker: Jamie McMurray. Panelists: Lee Spencer, Reid Spencer. Plus, Phil Burgess.
February 17 -- Newsmaker: Larry Dixon. Panelists: Alan Reinhart, Stan Creekmore.
February 24 -- Newsmaker: Brad Keselowski. Panelists: Mark Armijo, John Sturbin.
[ more Monday . . . ]
