PAST IMPERFECT:Movie star Paul Newman came late to racing, but was winning until his eighties, writes Bob Montgomery
ASK MOST film-goers to think of an actor who was identified with motor racing, and nine times out of 10 the name that will be forthcoming will be Steve McQueen.
McQueen certainly enjoyed his motorsport but, with the exception of a few notable occasions, insurance issues prevented him from regular participation. Paul Newman, who died recently, was never happier than when he was in a racing car, and managed to race from 1972 as a novice driver at the late age of 47, right up until last year when, aged 82, he appeared at Watkins Glen in an SCCA GT-1 race. On that final occasion he qualified on pole and finished fourth, quipping to a journalist after the race: "Wish I was 81 again."
Born in 1925, Newman discovered motor racing late in his life, taking his first victory in 1972 at the wheel of a Lotus Elan. He followed the Lotus with a Datsun 510 saloon, a car make with which he would have a long association over the years, becoming a works driver for Datsun in the 1980s.
In 1976 he won the first of four National SCAA Championships, driving a Triumph TR6. He was to repeat the win in 1979 in a Datsun Z car and then in 1985 and 1986, by which time Datsun had been re-branded as Nissan.
Newman continued his close association with Nissan into the 1990s as their number one driver and even appeared in TV commercials for the company. It was rumoured that Newman was not paid for his drives, but received payment-in-kind from the team's main sponsor - Budweiser.
In 1979, Newman's standing as a driver received an enormous boost when he came to Europe with Dick Barbour Racing and came close to winning that year's Le Mans 24-Hour Race driving a Porsche 935. The team, after a tremendous race, finished second and won the Imsa class.
For Newman it was a wonderful result, but sadly the opportunity to return to Le Mans and try to go one place better never happened for him.
In 1983, Newman became co-owner with Carl Hass of what would become one of America's most successful race teams - Newman Hass Racing. Together, they managed to win no fewer than 107 races and eight championships in the Indycar Cart series. Famous names who drove for the team include Mario Andretti and Nigel Mansell, while current French F1 driver Sébastien Bourdais won four consecutive titles for the team between 2004 and 2007.
As well as his involvement as a team owner, Newman continued to drive and took a Ford Mustang to victory in the Imsa GTS class in the 1995 Daytona 24 Hours.
At 70 years of age, this made him the oldest driver ever to appear on the rostrum of a major international motor race.
Finally, it's worth recalling the film that led Paul Newman to "discover" motor racing. This was a tale of Indycar racing titled Winning made in 1969/70. To prepare for the role, Newman enlisted at Bob Bondurant's famous racing school in California and discovered that he felt pretty good behind the wheel of a racing car.
The annals of motor racing were to be considerably richer for that discovery.