Sep 27, 2008 -
Racer, actor Paul Newman dies at 83
He was a racer who supported his racing habit by acting. That's how he wanted to be remembered. Racer/actor Paul Leonard Newman, who managed to succeed in both fields, died Friday, Sept. 23, after a long battle with cancer. He was 83.
Newman came to racing late in life, driving his first race car in his 40s. Bob Bondurant trained him to drive for the 1969 movie Winning at the then-brand-new Bondurant School, which at the time was using Datsun 510s and roadsters at Orange County International Raceway in California. Newman was the fourth student at the school. Costar Robert Wagner was the fifth.
"I asked him why he wanted to go to my school and he said, 'I had two other movies I could make quite a bit of money in, but I wanted to see if I could drive a race car.' " Bondurant said.
Newman fell in love with racing from the start. "The first thing that I ever found I had any grace in," he once said.
After that, Newman raced the rest of his life. Many of his first rides were in Datsuns prepared by Bob Sharp, who was an accomplished racer himself and who became a Datsun dealer in 1969. One of Newman's earliest rides was a Bob Sharp Datsun 510. He piloted BSR Zs, too.
Newman's first race win came in a Lotus Elan in Thompson, Conn., in 1972. He co-drove a Porsche 935 at Le Mans in 1979 with Dick Barbour and Rolf Stommelen to first place in the IMSA class and second overall.
Newman raced sports cars in endurance events, which meant he had a lot of co-drivers over the years. Among them was Sam Posey.
"Paul was guided in much of what he did by the attitude, 'Why not?' " recalled Posey, who remained a friend throughout Newman's life. "He embraced projects that called for a leap of faith. Become a racing driver, starting in your mid-40s and putting your acting career at risk? Why not? Turn a few cases of salad dressing made in your basement into a commercial-food empire--and then use the profits to create camps for sick children? Why not? If this sounds naïve, it wasn't. He calculated the odds. In real life, he never asked, 'Who are those guys?' He knew."
From the mid-'70s to the early '90s, Newman drove for the Bob Sharp Racing team, racing mainly Datsuns and Nissans. He won four SCCA national titles: D-production in 1976, C-production in '79 and GT-1 in 1985-86. He raced in Trans-Am and the Baja 1000.
As a team owner, he joined Carl Haas in 1983 to form Newman-Haas racing, which went on to win 97 races and seven championships.
Newman never seemed to tire of the other side of the sport, though, staying behind the wheel long after most reasonable men had given up even playing golf. At 70, he co-drove a Mustang to victory in the GTS class of the 24 Hours of Daytona, the oldest driver to win a major sanctioned race. A decade later, he was still at it.
"My last recollection of him was a few years back when Panoz was just finishing the front-engined LMP racer," said designer Peter Brock. "The Panoz crew had the new car out at Road Atlanta for test with a couple of notable shoes who were looking for the ride. Since PL was there, he was offered the chance to test the car. He hadn't been in a race car for over a year and in truth looked pretty frail. The shoes had just put up some pretty impressive times, so the bar was set. PL got in and within five or six laps had matched 'em! He got out and quietly thanked the crew for the opportunity and left. Just amazing."
Recalled Posey: "He drove less frequently in the last few years. But his car was a brutish Corvette which had his age as its number. I remember when it was No. 81 and he was racing at Lime Rock. It was raining and the track had standing water at several places. Any sensible 81-year-old would have put the thing on the trailer, but Paul got out there, out-braked the field into turn one, got into a slide at about 120 mph, corrected deftly and shot through into the lead, which he never lost."
On Saturday, Indianapolis Motor Speedway CEO and Indy Racing League founder Tony George said: "On behalf of my mother Mari Human George and the entire Hulman-George family at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar Series, our thoughts and prayers are with the family, friends and loved ones of Paul Newman. To all his fans world-wide and those close to him in our racing community, we share a deep sense of loss, but cherish the many fond memories we will forever carry with us."
