The three-time Le Mans champion was pictured with blondes and sponsored by Penthouse. But he lived a very different life away from the track
When Hurley Haywood emerged in the racing scene 50 years ago he looked like someone out of central casting. He had the trim frame, the sandy locks, the sapphire eyes. He was the total package, a Paul Newman type who would go on to win titles and Le Mans and race in the Indy 500.
But unlike Newman, who took up racing late in life as preparation for the lead in the 1969 classic Winning and willed himself into a first-rate wheelman, Haywood was a natural. He showed as much while dusting the field in premier endurance races at Le Mans and Daytona. All the while, images of Haywood celebrating victory with a smiling blonde on his arm pervaded, and Penthouse even signed on as a sponsor. Haywood looked like he was living his dream. But to hear him recall that period in his life now, it sounds more like a nightmare. “I was afraid,” he tells the Guardian. “I didn’t want it to get out.”
Continue reading...from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2HBlikJ
