I think many people have heroes as they grow up. Some may be fictional, some maybe real, some maybe gods….but for me, they always seemed to be race car drivers. Looking back, one of my hero's was Paul Newman. I had a signed poster of him in his Barbour Le Mans Porsche from 1979 on my wall. I wonder what ever happened to that poster? I wasn't very interested in films as a kid, but Butch Cassidy was an exception.
As you will have heard, 'PLN' lost his battle with the dreaded Cancer this past weekend. He was a young 83. Paul had crammed a hell of a lot into one lifetime. A massively successful Oscar winning actor, producer and director he turned race car driver in the 70's, finishing 2nd at Le Mans, in a Barbour Porsche 935 (like we featured earlier this month) back in 1979.
He raced various Porsche. Datsun, Corvette and Grand-Am racers into the millennium. He was 3 SCCA National titles and a Daytona 24 Hour class winner. Just a couple of months ago, he took the opportunity to drive his old Corvette race car around Lime Rock Park on a test day.
He was also well know for his charity work with the Hole in the Wall Camps, fundraising via Newman'sOwn and a drug rehabilitation centre, started after his son died of a drug overdose. He also part-owned the successful Newman-Hass-Lanigan race team, which helped the likes of Nigel Mansell, Mario and Michael Andretti, Paul Tracy and Sebastien Bourdais to American Open wheel success. He was also instrumental in building bridges between Champ Car and IRL recently. He loved cars.
Fitting that one of his last films, was as the voice of Doc Hudson in 'Cars' the movie.
PLN will be sorely mifund-raisingNewman's Ownssed. A true legend and hero.
Images: (in order) Speedvision/Speed TV, ESPN, Gunner Jeanette Racing, Atsmatzen, Mark Windecker, ESPN
-Andy Blackmore
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Great write up! God Speed Paul.
I will always remember the man as a great ambassador of motorsport as well as Reggie Dunlop in my favorite movie SlapShot.
He will be missed very much.
Simply an amazing professional.
Mr Newman is , for me , the ultimate proof that a true motorsport addict can be a "good man " too.
We should ever keep in mind that this beautifull cars who turn our heads tto madness , are handcrafted and driven by.....mens , real mens.
Raw monsters without mens inside will stand as empty pieces of metal and plastic .
It's good to see here a bit of humanity , that bring the essential " human touch ".
Thanks for honoring here the memory of a modern hero.
I had the fortunate chance to watch Paul run up at Limerock with his GT1 Vette, it was an amazing site to see. I was up there with a freinds SCCA crew, and we actually had to run in the same race with Paul, despite being in a different class (American Sedan).
Never did I once take for granted where I was, or the living legend that I was watching. He owned that track and watching him race, there was not one person who thought otherwise. I'm glad that I had that opportunity a few times
RIP Paul Newman.
it's hard not to admire Paul Newman for putting his money to work in such productive ways, such as his Newman's Own line--high quality stuff and the proceeds go to good causes... very smart.
Once, when he was 70-75 years old he went with his wife in a racetrack and he wanted to participate in the race. His wife told that this was crazy and that he may have a heart attack. At the end of the race wich he won , his wife told him:you were born to race in your hole life