Hurley Haywood and Peter Sachs have been honored by the Road Racing Drivers Club at the annual RRDC banquet preceding the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Haywood was recognized with the club’s Phil Hill Award, while Sachs was presented with the RRDC’s Bob Akin Award, both in recognition of their longtime participation in and service to the sport.
Haywood is, of course, one of the USA’s most successful long-distance racers, with five victories in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, three at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and two at the 12 Hours of Sebring. He also claimed two IMSA GT crowns and the 1988 SCCA Trans-Am championship. Sachs contested SCCA, IMSA and vintage races for four decades, and in his retirement now manages the Klemantaski Collection, a historic motorsports photo archive.
“When (RRDC President) Bobby (Rahal) called me up and told me I was going to get the Phil Hill award, I was really shocked,” said Haywood. “Any time you are mentioned in the same sentence with Phil Hill it’s very special. Phil Hill was an icon in this sport. He won Le Mans three times, was a Formula One champion. He was just a class act. If all of us mimicked what Phil Hill was all about, we’d all have a wonderful life. So, thank you very much.”
“I am overcome by this,” commented Sachs. “One summer about 56 years ago I went to see some friends in the Midwest and we drove up to this place called Elkhart Lake to see the SCCA June Sprints. I got into the Cunningham garage and there was a helmet on the bench and I asked, ‘What’s that?’ ‘That’s Mr. Hansgen’s helmet, don’t touch it,’ one of the mechanics replied. I was not about to touch Walt Hansgen’s helmet, but on the front of it was this symbol that a lot of us are wearing on our lapels tonight. ‘What’s that emblem on the front of his helmet?’ I asked. And he said, ‘That’s the Road Racing Drivers Club, and only the best drivers in the country can join that.’ I said to myself, ‘Gee, I love motor racing, and if I could do some of this, I thought maybe some day, somehow, I could be part of that organization.’ To receive this award tonight, in the name of my friend Bob Akin, is more important to me than you can imagine.”
