Tony Mcguiness

San Diego, USA @tonymcguinessgt3rs

Regular readers will know I spent nine months last year interviewing legendary Porsche race driver Hurley Haywood. It is one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

It’s interesting when you interview someone as famous as Hurley. Truth be told I was quite nervous. Hurley has obviously faced questions from the press for years, but other than his book, Hurley from the Beginning, no one besides me had sat down with him to do a long, extended series of interviews.

Before I began my first interview with him I read his incredible book, but I also conducted extensive research on his career. It was important for me to know as much as I possibly could about his racing life and also be able to discover things that people might not know about his astonishing career.

I knew I had limited time for each discussion, so I diligently prepared for each interview. I created a series of questions that would allow us to chat about his childhood, his early racing days when he beat Peter Gregg in an Autocross race, his time serving with the US Army during the Vietnam War and all the way through his career with Porsche.

Hurley is very thoughtful, caring and funny. He has an amazing memory. At times during our talks, whether it was a 917, a 936 or a 956/962, I felt I was in the car with him as we relived some of his victories at Le Mans and Daytona.

Hurley made me feel very at ease, which was terrific. Many people have said he is one of the nicest guys around, and without doubt it is true.

After my final sit-down with Hurley I took all the interviews from each issue of Total 911 and created a full-size presentation booklet. I used the issue which contained his first as the cover.

I sent Hurley a presentation copy for his personal collection and asked him to sign one for me, which now sits alongside the Porsche memorabilia in my office. Interviewing one of the greatest ever endurance race drivers was truly ‘Living the Legend’.