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In fifteen entries at Le Mans he recorded three wins and two podiums (third in 1978 and 1982). He won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in his first participation in 1977 in unusual circumstances. After the abandonment of the Porsche 936 he shared with Henri Pescarolo, Jacky Ickx then  joined  the surviving other car of Jürgen Barth and Hurley Haywood ... and the trio won the race, despite a final scare. After losing a cylinder, Barth crossed the finish line with a dead engine due to the holed piston, but with sufficient advantage (11 laps!) over the Mirage-Ford GR8 of Jean-Pierre Jarier and Vern Schuppan.

In 1983, Haywood and Schuppan in association with Al Holbert were in a Porsche 956. They were successful despite the loss of a door and oil pressure ... and the last difficult problems for Holbert, who was spewing a plume of white smoke out of his left side exhaust. After the chequered flag, the car would not have made one more lap as the engine blew! In 1994, his third Le Mans victory, Hurley Haywood only took the lead at the very end of the race. Following a gear linkage problem on the leading Toyota 94CV (of Eddie Irvine, Mauro Martini and Jeff Krosnoff), the Dauer-Porsche 962C LM GT he shared with the American/ Italian Mauro Baldi and Frenchman Yannick Dalmas, took the lead an hour and a half from the chequered flag and went on to win.

Hurley Haywood won the 24 Hours of Le Mans over three different decades. Since then, only two drivers have succeeded him, Allan McNish (1998-2008-2013) and the current record winner Tom Kristensen with a victory in the 90s (1997), seven in the 2000s (2000-2001-2002 -2003-2004-2005-2008) and the last in 2013, at  the 90th anniversary edition of the 24 Hours.

Jean-Philippe Doret / ACO

Photo: CIRCUIT OF THE  24 HOURS, (Le Mans, Sarthe), June 19th, 1983. It is not without some concern that Hurley Haywood and Vern Schuppan saw their teammate Al Holbert finish the race with this plume of white smoke!