Hurley Haywood documentary arrives on-demand this month

The past couple of years have brought us some excellent racing documentaries with

McLaren

,

Ferrari: Race to Immortality,

and the

Netflix Formula 1 doc

among the standouts. Coming later this month could be another, called “

Hurley

,” about American

sports car

racer Hurley Haywood. His racing resume includes two titles at the 12 Hours of

Sebring

, five Rolex 24 at Daytona wins, and three overall wins at

Le Mans

.

Haywood was already trouncing competition

at 20 years old in 1968 when he got drafted and sent to Vietnam. He did a tour in 1970, returned to the United States and won the IMSA GT Championship in 1971 and 1972.

Haywood began working on his autobiography in 2014. Two years later, director Derek

Dodge launched a Kickstarter campaign

to direct a movie about Haywood, an all-American guy graced with such good looks and charm that Penthouse magazine sponsored him. Actor-turned-racing-driver Patrick Dempsey, who’d raced for the same Brumos

Porsche

team Haywood had raced for and helped run, came on as executive producer.

The resulting film is as much about Haywood’s career as it is about the secret that Haywood kept during that career, that he is gay. He opened up about it first in the autobiography

Hurley: From the Beginning

, released last year. The documentary will be the first time Haywood’s talked about his personal life on camera, his frankness encouraged by an

encounter he’d had with an interviewer

a few years ago.

The trailer looks good, and why wouldn’t it? Here’s a guy who raced almost all of the essential

Porsches

that helped create modern idolatry of the German carmaker, and helped build the legendary Brumos Porsche brand. And pans of the 962 down the

Mulsanne

Straight are always worth it. The movie begins streaming on demand March 26.