Paul Newman Race driver

Paul Newman is one of my all time favourite actors. You sometimes here people say “They just don’t make ’em like that anymore” this definitely applies to Paul Newman.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is still one of my favourite movies(even despite that bizarre bicycle scene)

But Paul Newman was so much more then just an actor aside from entrepreneur, philanthropist he was also an accomplished race driver.

From the 1970s onward, Newman became a driver for the Bob Sharp Racing Team, and was even inducted into the Sports Car Club of America Hall of Fame.

Despite being colorblind, Newman won several national championships as a driver in Sports Car Club of America road racing, and his race teams won several championships in open-wheel IndyCar racing.

Newman began racing cars in 1972, three years after completing the movie “Winning,” in which his character, Frank Capua, was a struggling race car driver who turned his career around by winning the Indianapolis 500.

The movie’s subplot involved a three-way love triangle between Capua, his wife Elora (played by Newman’s real-life spouse Joanne Woodward, whom he married in 1958) and rival Luther Erding, portrayed by Robert Wagner.The film grossed about $14 million. But what it did for Newsman’s second career was priceless

Newman’s greatest accomplishment as a driver was a second-place finish in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in ’79, driving a Porsche 935. He remained active in endurance racing, making his last start at the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway in 2006 at the age of 81.

Newman was posthumously inducted into the SCCA Hall of Fame at the national convention in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 21, 2009.

 

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