A Swap for the Ages
A.J. Foyt's surprise substitute stints helped win the 1983 24 Hours of Daytona--and make the Swap Shop No. 6 Porsche 935 famous.
In a weekend full of memorable moments, Bob Wollek's mid-race mini-diatribe for the TV cameras may have topped the list.
"He doesn't know the car, he doesn't know the rain," Wollek complained to legendary driver-turned-broadcaster David Hobbs. "He doesn't know anything."
The target of Wollek's ire was the man who'd just replaced him behind the wheel of the race-leading No. 6 Porsche 935: Anthony Joseph Foyt, Jr.
A.J. Foyt would prove Wollek wrong--and play a starring role in one of the more colorful 24 Hours of Daytona winner stories ever authored.
Wollek and teammate Claude Ballot-Léna, both seasoned international sportscar racers, were sharing drive time with car owner and entrepreneur Preston Henn. Best known for founding Florida’s Swap Shop & Thunderbird drive-in and flea market, Henn channeled some of his earnings into racing—and put his company’s name on the side of his car.
Wollek left no doubt the Swap Shop entry came to win, topping the 81-entry field in qualifying.
Rolling off 11 spots farther back on the grid after qualifying some eight seconds slower was the Aston Martin Racing No. 11 Nimrod.
Sponsor: Pepsi, just like that weekend’s race.
Drivers: Two-time defending NASCAR Winston Cup Champion Darrell Waltrip (whose 1983 NASCAR ride would carry Pepsi sponsorship), and Argentine Formula II champion Guillermo Maldonado, and Foyt.
Soon after 3:30 p.m Saturday afternoon--green flag time--the Swap Shop Porsche's problems began. Turbocharger issues put the No. 6 back in 47th place after the first hour, a dozen or so laps behind the leader. But Team Swap Shop battled on--all the way to the front of the field.
Meanwhile, the No. 11 Nimrod’s engine called it a day before midnight, seemingly giving Foyt a head start back home to Texas.
But with a real shot to win the Daytona 24 hours, Henn—thinking like a car owner—had other ideas. If he sat out the rest of the race and swapped in Foyt alongside Wollek and Ballot-Lena, they might roll out of Daytona with the winner’s trophy.
So Henn approached Foyt, who liked the idea.
But there was one problem: Foyt had never driven a Porsche. Henn solved that by finding a dormant 935 in the garage area. Foyt would recall later it was a team spare, while other reports credit Bob Akin’s Porsche 935, an early race retiree, for helping the Texan out.
Once Foyt felt comfortable in the car, he had but one request: he wanted to drive in daylight.
Not long after sunrise, Wollek pulled into the pits, ready for a teammate to take his place and defend the lead he helped build. But much to the Frenchman’s surprise, it was Foyt—sporting his unmistakable red helmet with “A.J.” emblazoned on the side— waiting to climb in.
Henn, it seems, hadn’t told his drivers about the mid-race strategy shift. Wollek, quickly processing what was transpiring, tried to pull the door closed and speed off. But teammates “physically pulled him from the car,” according to “IMSA 1969-1989,” Mitch Bishop and Mark Raffauf’s book on the series’ first two decades.
Foyt was off, and the rain Wollek would soon complain about on live TV turned out to be a boon. It triggered an extended full-course caution period that helped Foyt get even more comfortable in his new ride.
Once the race was back to green, Foyt padded the team’s lead, and the No. 6 never looked back. Some seven hours later, Wollek would complete the Swap Shop Porsche’s 618th and final lap of the race—six laps more than the runner-up.
The car was back at Daytona for the 2023 race, and it had company. Upstart AO Racing made its debut in a Porsche 911 carrying a throwback livery that paid tribute to the original Swap Shop machine.
Even better, one of AO’s drivers, PJ Hyett, owns the Swap Shop No. 6, having purchased it from the Henn family. As if the links aren’t strong enough, another AO driver, is the son of the original Swap Shop team’s crew chief, Kevin Jeannette. (Some credit Kevin Jeanette with walking Foyt through the Porsche’s particulars before the Texan jumped into the No. 6.)
As for Foyt and Wollek? They quickly put the initial discomfort—and eventually, a whole lot of race cars—behind them. After contributing to second- and third-place runs at Daytona and Sebring in 1984, the pair teamed up and helped their car owner win both races in 1985.
The owner? Preston Henn, of course.
References:
It was a team spare — https://racer.com/2016/12/23/rear-view-foyt-waltrip-race-an-aston-martin/
Other reports credit — https://racer.com/2015/08/27/throwback-thursday-legend-a-j-foyt-s-solid-sports-car-racing-credentials/
Wanted to drive during daylight hours —“It was all Henn’s Foyt,” by Sylvia Wilkinson, Autoweek, Feb. 21, 1983, p 24-26.
Henn, it seems, hadn’t told his drivers…Physically pulled him from the car — https://www.racingarchives.org/blogpost/a-j-foyt-delivers-in-the-rain-at-daytona-in-1983-2/
Even better…Some credit — https://us.motorsport.com/imsa/news/ao-racing-marks-imsa-debut-with-tribute-livery/10421948/