Haywood, Bernhard, Diuguid on Their First Porsche Prototypes

Photo: Porsche

Porsche driving legends Hurley Haywood and Timo Bernhard, along with Penske Racing President Jonathan Diuguid have reflected on their first Porsche prototype experiences ahead of this weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, which marks the official start of the 75th anniversary of Porsche Motorsport and 60 years of Team Penske.

Haywood, who is tied with Scott Pruett with the all-time number of overall wins in the Florida endurance classic, took his first Daytona 24 hour victory in 1973, at the wheel of a un-homologated Porsche 911 Carrera RSR.

It was the first of five outright wins for Haywood, who still stands today as one of the most successful drivers in Daytona history.

Photo: Porsche

“In 1973 Roger Penske and Peter Gregg had 911 RS’s given to them by the factory to race,” recalled Haywood. “Basically those cars had to qualify as non-homologated cars. It ran as prototypes.

“Theoretically, we were driving a prototype, even through it was a 911.

“We won the race against some pretty fast prototypes but we had really good reliability.

“After Sebring that year, Peter moved me over to the 917/10, so that was really the first legitimate prototype that I had driven. It was a car that had 1,200 horsepower and a lot of aerodynamics and it was quite tricky and quite a handful to drive.

“As we went through the prototypes, the next stage I drove was the 936, which was a wonderful car. The last rendition of that car was in 1981 with the Porsche Indy engine in it; that was a real sweetheart.

“From there we evolved into the 956 and the 962. From a racer’s standpoint, those cars had so much grip, they were like a dream come true.

“Those were the three prototypes that I was most familiar with. They were all great cars and we had great success with them.”

Photo: Brian Cleary/BCPix.com

Bernhard, who was part of The Racer’s Group’s Rolex 24 overall victory in a Porsche 911 GT3-RS in 2003, got his first prototype experience two years later in a Porsche-powered Fabcar Daytona Prototype.

“Hurley was in the car [with me] with JC France, Romain Dumas and Mike Rockenfeller,” said Bernhard. “We were five drivers on that car.

“I have to admit that the car didn’t handle that well. We didn’t finish the race. But that was my first taste of a Porsche prototype.

“Up until then I was in GT and had been a GT champion in the ALMS. This Daytona in 2005 was my first experience in a prototype.

“What kicked off later that year was the RS Spyder program.

“I remember very much that I got a call one day in August of 2005 from Roland Kussmaul and he said, ‘Ok, there’s a beautiful RS Spyder in the Weissach proving ground and we need a driver to do some gearbox testing.’

“He said, ‘How fast can you [get here?].’ I said, ‘Normally it’s two hours but if the car is waiting I can make it in 90 minutes.’ I was hammering down to Weissach and got my first experience in the RS Spyder and I fell in love with this beautiful LMP2 car.

“That’s where this program kicked off and that’s when Penske Racing came into my life.”

Bernhard and longtime co-driver Romain Dumas ended up winning back-to-back American Le Mans Series LMP2 titles in 2007-08 in the Penske Porsche RS Spyder program, where coincidently, Diuguid got his start in as a team engineer.

Now at the command of Penske’s IndyCar and Porsche 963 programs, Diuguid  (pictured far left, by rear wing) remembers the first on-track test with the RS Spyder fondly.

Photo: Porsche Museum

“My career in prototypes started a few months after Timo’s,” he said. “I think my first time was in Jerez. I didn’t make it to the Weissach test but went to the first track test, which was extremely hot.

“It’s come full circle here in 20 years. We were quite successful together with the RS Spyder and that’s transitioned into the Porsche 963.

“It’s the third Porsche-powered prototype that I’ve worked on. Obviously with the Porsche RS Spyder in the mid-2000s and then the DP car, which Timo and I will forget for a year in 2009!

“Then back with the 963. All of them were extremely exciting developments and working with a manufacturer like Porsche where racing is in their culture and DNA.

“It’s always really exciting and it’s amazing to be successful with them almost over two decades.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John