Hayden Beatty, one of NCR’s founding fathers, has died…plus, memories of Hayden and pics of his cars

Hayden Beatty at the NCR Awards Banquet in January 2020.

Hayden Beatty was one of North Carolina Region’s founding fathers. In 1955, 16 members of the Sports Car Club of North Carolina petitioned the SCCA to become the North Carolina Region and Hayden was one of those. Perhaps his member number, 932, would be the give-away for his long involvement in the Club, but it wouldn’t begin to hint at his long and varied involvement in sports car racing in North Carolina.

Hayden graduated from UNC in 1952. But he’d already been tooling around campus in a 1930 Austin America coupe, a car so tiny he got in trouble with the campus cops for driving it on the sidewalk! About the time he graduated, he obtained a 1948 MG TC and joined the Sports Car Club of North Carolina, which was based in Burlington. That local club was pretty active, with rallies and hill climbs at Pilot Mountain, where Hayden served as a Starter as well as a competitor. His TC gave way to a TD, and then to a ’57 TR3. He even had a shop in Haw River in the late 50’s and early 60’s which specialized in truing and repairing wire wheels.

The North Carolina Sports Car Club continued as a separate entity for awhile, even after the North Carolina Region was formed. And Hayden was in the thick of them both. He served as RE of North Carolina Region in 1964-65, when there were about 250 members, and he worked Pit and Grid at the races at VIR and Spartanburg. He raced a 1960 Hillman with a roll-bar there, on recapped tires! Eventually he became an SCCA National Chief Steward.

Sadly, family and career obligations caused him to retire from the Club for awhile, many years in fact. But then he re-upped again about 2007 or so and started coming out to the races at VIR. Not one to sit on the side-lines, Hayden saw that we were in dire need of help in the paddock, especially before our Double National Races (now the VIR Spring Sprints Majors), so he volunteered to come out to the track a few days early and help lay out paddock spaces, especially for the big rigs, and then direct competitors to them. That earned him an Outstanding Service award as Paddock Marshall in 2009. And when we finally realized that this was the same Hayden Beatty who helped start the North Carolina Region, he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award, our highest honor, in 2010. He will be dearly missed.

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Memories of Hayden

Many members of NCR have fond memories of Hayden Beatty. If you would like to have yours posted here, please email your text and pictures to Bruce Dover at [email protected].

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~Natasha R. Euliss-Uftring & John E. Uftring, NCR55

My Dad (far right, blue shirt) & I (far left white shirt) in the ’57 TR3 Smallmouth in approximately 1981, with Butch McKenzie in the background.

The ’57 TR3 Smallmouth in one of John & I’s garages with a bit too much dust on it. Frame off restoration in progress.

Hayden’s cars

Hayden in his 1947 MGTC around 1950. Notice the right-hand drive and 19″ wire wheels. Also, it was BRG. Now THAT’S a sports car!

Hayden and wife Margaret in their 1951 MGTD around 1956.

1957 Triumph TR3. Photo taken in front of their house being built in 1959. Picture of same car below taken in 1958.

 

1960 Hillman. This is the car in which Hayden took his SCCA Driver’s School in 1964. See license and other paperwork below.

1969 Triumph GT6+

Hayden in his beloved 1973 MGB. Photo taken around 2000. Notice the chrome bumpers!