wannabe wrote:I also liked ( Nobodys Fool )

This article was cut and posted here from another web site. It is a great story and credit goes to the original author..

In 1995, when racing in the Daytona 24 Hours event, Newman thoughts before climbing into the "Nobody's Fool" Ford for his night stint was on his wife and her performance that night in the opening of a Broadway play.

Newman was not the first actor to race cars and while some have lightly dabbled in the sport, Newman did not. Being active in racing, as a driver and team owner, was taken very seriously by Newman. Born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, the actor found the world of racing to give him the "competitive edge" he desired. Newman truly enjoyed his career as a racing driver. "I love racing," he said. "I enjoy the challenge and the fact that the person racing against me could care less who I am."

When he turned 70, he formed a partnership with Jack Roush to compete at Daytona in '95. His teammates were his long-time friend Mike Brockman, Trans-Am champion Tommy Kendall and NASCAR star Mark Martin. It was a race to remember and as a team member for the 24 hour race, I cannot pinpoint my favorite memory of the weekend. During the team's pre-race meeting, Roush informed the four drivers to carry extra hats or cash in the car in case they had to pull off and needed the corner workers help to get them back into the racing action. Newman piped up with "I might even give them an autograph"! He was known for not ever giving out autographs.

Roush also informed them to call in if they felt that they had a problem at any time in continuing their stint. The goal was to finish and if anyone needed an early driver change, no problem. During his night stint, Newman did call in but it turned out he was concerned about keeping up the pace. Every time he was in the car, Newman ran consistent times. Once the team radioed him his lap times, all was okay. Newman came in later for fuel and tires and went back out, doing a double stint. He was a true racer.

The Nobody's Fool team earned the victory they sought in the GTS class at Daytona that year. Newman was 70 years and 10 days on that historic Sunday (February 5th).

"Paul Newman - a real American


God Speed Paul..

Even my 5-year-old son loves him as the voice of "Doc", the Hudson Hornet, in the Pixar movie, Cars. "I'm gonna throw him in jail tell he rots... No, check that. I'm gonna throw him in jail 'til the jail rots on top of him, and then I'm gonna build a new jail..." hehehe

Thanks for all the good times, Mr. Newman. Go West.

Been a long time ago, but I used to race formula super V. Paul Newman was at West Palm for a race and I asked for his autograph. I was informed he didn't sign autographs. He overheard me asking that I wanted his autograph as a racer, anyway I got my autograph. He was a damn fine racer and a real class act.
His Team was called PLN racing and the T-shirt had a carciture (sp?) of him sitting in a toilet facing backwards with the steering wheel on the water closet.
I think this was in the late 70's

a64pilot wrote:Been a long time ago, but I used to race formula super V. Paul Newman was at West Palm for a race and I asked for his autograph. I was informed he didn't sign autographs. He overheard me asking that I wanted his autograph as a racer, anyway I got my autograph. He was a damn fine racer and a real class act.
His Team was called PLN racing and the T-shirt had a carciture (sp?) of him sitting in a toilet facing backwards with the steering wheel on the water closet.
I think this was in the late 70's

Small world,, I too was involved in auto racing and was at west palm in the in the late 70's and alot of the eighties, and Robling Road in Savanah, Sebring, and of course Road Atlanta for the run offs. Those were fun times.!! That was before Moroso bought it and changed the name. During testing weekends they would allow a few of us to land on the drag strip. At one time I had a connection at P&W and used the big runway across the highway once. The legal guys at P&W quickly stopped that. Racers seem to gravitate to aviation and I meet motor heads al the time at the airport. As for PLN. He was probably the most focused racer I have even witnessed. That guy would get " into the zone" and the rest of the field would lapped traffic..

Cheers.
Ben

I remember it so clearly. What a nice guy! In 1968 I flew my Stinson 108-2 from Seattle to Riverside, CA for the races. My buddy was a well-known, very successful driver and mechanic. So I told him I'd fly him down so he could be some kind of official. I didn't know anybody and my friend was busy so I was just wandering around and, as I was, I came upon this guy standing all alone with a bottle of beer in his hand. Nobody near him. So I went up to him and said, "Hi".He said, "Who are you?". I said, "a 35-year-old nobody." He laughed and was very gracious. We chatted for about 10 minutes and, then, believe it or not, Art Scholl walked up to us with a 5 gallon bucket in his hand and asked where he could get some water. Art was performing in a mini airshow associated with the race. Paul Newman knew the answer and off they went. A no BS regular guy.

Ah, Roebling Road in Falkville, probably my most favorite track of all time, but on a Motorcycle, not a car. Specifically a Suzuki GS500 being raced in Sportsman class, WERA.
Remember gravity cavity at Road Atlanta? Well it's been gone for a number of years.
Aviating and racing for some reason go hand and hand, especially motorcycles.
Formula Super Vee was awfully fun, and way out of my league price wise.
I keep wanting to race Formula Vee if such a thing still exists.

It took a few weeks but TCM is running a Paul Mewman Marathon today.
Enjoy! Cool Hand Luke, Hud, Somebody up there likes me.

They were running a Paul Newman filmfest at a little theater in the Mill district in Tempe last night. Pretty cool.

Mauleaviator wrote:It took a few weeks but TCM is running a Paul Mewman Marathon today.
Enjoy! Cool Hand Luke, Hud, Somebody up there likes me.