Walter Hayes.(passed away on 12/26/00)(Brief Article)(Obituary)

Walter Hayes, the great catalyst of the Ford Motor Co.'s involvement in motorsports, died in Britain on Dec. 26 at the age of 76.

Hayes, a pipe smoker for many years, had been battling lung cancer for some months.

Hayes was the man who found the financing for the Cosworth DFV Formu-la One engine, the most successful grand prix engine in history. He made motorsports a key ingredient of Ford of Europe's growth in the 1960s and '70s,

and he was the person who managed to convince Henry Ford II, in 1980, that the company should return to racing in the United States after an 11-year absence.

He was also one of the founders of Formula Ford, which is still going strong around the world. Hayes also made Ford of Britain a key player in international rallying. He was one of the directors of Ford Advanced Vehicles, which built the GT40s for the Le Mans program, and Hayes was instrumental in talk-ing the company into supporting this kind

of long-distance racing in the 1960s.

Hayes had been an editor of the Daily Mail, one of the United Kingdom's leading newspapers, when he was recruited by Ford of Britain in 1961 to be its director of public relations. He was the first man to work at Ford of Britain with a true ``outsider'' view, and with his communications skills he rose rapidly, becoming a vice president before the next year was out.