Paul Newman’s Takes A Final Lap at Lime Rock
Well, this was sad, but known news. Paul Newman, who has been privately suffering from lung cancer for the past few months has taken a final lap at Lime Rock Park, a place where he has had many racing successes.
I’ve casually known Mr. Newman for a while now, bumping into him on occasion in Champ Car paddocks when I was working for various racing entities. He was always nice, always seemed to have a moment for the dual race/movie fans that would come up for an autograph every 90 seconds, and was, by and large, just another concerned team owner that wanted his guys to do well that Sunday.
I remember when he started racing, back in the 60s, and a lot of peoples’ general reaction was, ‘Not another one of these movie stars!’ Racing suffers the occasional blight of famous people deciding to give it a go. The first I can remember was Dicky Smothers, of The Smothers Brothers. He was painfully mediocre.
Newman put everyone’s fear to rest as quickly as he could drive.
Guy was serious, guy was fast. It was quickly apparent that he wasn’t in your way, you were in HIS way. And he was competitive for a long time. I still think Newman holds the record for being the oldest person to with the Daytona 24 Hours.
So, as the cancer advances, and the measurements come down to months, it’s good that he had one last go at, and that some of us had a chance to watch.
August 28 2008 01:29 pm | Car News
