His Other Love
by David Caldwell
OCTOBER 1, 2008 TAGS:
No other movie changed Paul Newman’s personal life quite like Winning, a well-received 1969 film in which he played the role of Frank Capua, a race-car driver who was so obsessed with winning the Indianapolis 500 that he neglected his adulterous wife, Elora, played in the film by Newman’s real-life wife, Joanne Woodward.
Newman and Robert Wagner, who played Erding, the teammate who betrays Capua, were sent to the Bob Bondurant Racing School to learn more about the sport. Newman insisted he did not want a stunt double. When scenes were filmed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Newman was behind the wheel.
During three weeks of filming immediately after the 1968 Indianapolis 500, Newman befriended Rodger Ward, a former driver who had won the race twice. Ward, the technical director for the movie, drove the camera car, which traveled around the track in front of Newman and captured footage of him in the cockpit.
When filming ended, Newman and Wagner received honorary driver’s licenses at a trackside ceremony from Henry Banks, the director of competition for the U.S. Auto Club, which sanctioned the Indy 500. After the ceremony ended, Banks would say later, Newman whispered to him, “What do I have to do to get a real one of these?”
Banks said, “Run a lot and get back to us.”
Newman said he knew virtually nothing about racing before Winning, but he was smitten, and only partly because the sport was “the first thing I ever found I had any grace in.” He loved the mechanical and technical aspects, the challenge of finding ways to shave fractions of seconds off lap times.
Unlike other celebrities who dabble at the sport, Newman won. Often competing under the name P.L. Newman, he mostly raced sports cars – sleek, low-slung autos that hugged the curves of twisty road courses. He drove in endurance races on famous tracks in Le Mans, France; Daytona Beach, Fla., and Watkins Glen, N.Y.
Newman won races, then championships, and also made new friends. He and Carl Haas, a fellow competitor, formed a team in the Can-Am Series in 1980. By 1983, they decided to join what was then known as Championship Auto Racing Teams, the major leagues of Indy-car racing. Mario Andretti was their first driver.
Newman often showed up at the speedway to watch his drivers (who never, much to Newman’s disappointment, won the 500). A baseball cap tugged over his gray hair, he tried to blend in with the crowds in the pits and the garages, but fans would spot him, exclaiming, “Hey, that’s Paul Newman!” as if he were royalty.
Newman-Haas won eight series championships, but Newman would continue to race. He was not just turning laps. At 70, he won the 24 Hours of Daytona. In 2004, he raced in the Baja 1000, on a rugged, off-road course, and in 2005, a month past his 80th birthday, he raced again in the 24 Hours of Daytona.
Then he took what would be his last role, providing the voice of Doc in the Pixar animated movie, Cars. Doc is a 1951 Hudson Hornet, a former stock-car champion stuck in the backwater of Radiator Springs when a new champion, Lightning McQueen, happens upon the town. Doc gruffly imparts his wisdom to Lightning.
As a way to promote the movie, which came out in 2006, an old Hudson Hornet body was placed on a stock-car frame and taken to Lowe’s Motor Speedway, near Charlotte, N.C., for publicity shots. Several Nascar drivers took laps in the car. Newman waited his turn.
“The only man on pit road with a stopwatch was Paul Newman,” Jimmie Johnson, the two-time Nascar champion, said Saturday. “He was timing the laps, what I was running, other guys were running. Then he got in that car that had no business, with that body especially, going around that track at [high] speed, and he was trying to break the lap times that we were running out there. You could see that spark in his eye.”
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The Aging Wonder Boy
By Kevin Nance
How Paul Newman gained grace and gravitas as his youth waned.
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CLICK HERE
For a guide to Obit's complete coverage of Paul Newman's extraordinary life.
Newman and Robert Wagner, who played Erding, the teammate who betrays Capua, were sent to the Bob Bondurant Racing School to learn more about the sport. Newman insisted he did not want a stunt double. When scenes were filmed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Newman was behind the wheel.During three weeks of filming immediately after the 1968 Indianapolis 500, Newman befriended Rodger Ward, a former driver who had won the race twice. Ward, the technical director for the movie, drove the camera car, which traveled around the track in front of Newman and captured footage of him in the cockpit.
When filming ended, Newman and Wagner received honorary driver’s licenses at a trackside ceremony from Henry Banks, the director of competition for the U.S. Auto Club, which sanctioned the Indy 500. After the ceremony ended, Banks would say later, Newman whispered to him, “What do I have to do to get a real one of these?”
Banks said, “Run a lot and get back to us.”
Newman said he knew virtually nothing about racing before Winning, but he was smitten, and only partly because the sport was “the first thing I ever found I had any grace in.” He loved the mechanical and technical aspects, the challenge of finding ways to shave fractions of seconds off lap times.
Unlike other celebrities who dabble at the sport, Newman won. Often competing under the name P.L. Newman, he mostly raced sports cars – sleek, low-slung autos that hugged the curves of twisty road courses. He drove in endurance races on famous tracks in Le Mans, France; Daytona Beach, Fla., and Watkins Glen, N.Y.
Newman won races, then championships, and also made new friends. He and Carl Haas, a fellow competitor, formed a team in the Can-Am Series in 1980. By 1983, they decided to join what was then known as Championship Auto Racing Teams, the major leagues of Indy-car racing. Mario Andretti was their first driver.Newman often showed up at the speedway to watch his drivers (who never, much to Newman’s disappointment, won the 500). A baseball cap tugged over his gray hair, he tried to blend in with the crowds in the pits and the garages, but fans would spot him, exclaiming, “Hey, that’s Paul Newman!” as if he were royalty.
Newman-Haas won eight series championships, but Newman would continue to race. He was not just turning laps. At 70, he won the 24 Hours of Daytona. In 2004, he raced in the Baja 1000, on a rugged, off-road course, and in 2005, a month past his 80th birthday, he raced again in the 24 Hours of Daytona.
Then he took what would be his last role, providing the voice of Doc in the Pixar animated movie, Cars. Doc is a 1951 Hudson Hornet, a former stock-car champion stuck in the backwater of Radiator Springs when a new champion, Lightning McQueen, happens upon the town. Doc gruffly imparts his wisdom to Lightning.
As a way to promote the movie, which came out in 2006, an old Hudson Hornet body was placed on a stock-car frame and taken to Lowe’s Motor Speedway, near Charlotte, N.C., for publicity shots. Several Nascar drivers took laps in the car. Newman waited his turn.
“The only man on pit road with a stopwatch was Paul Newman,” Jimmie Johnson, the two-time Nascar champion, said Saturday. “He was timing the laps, what I was running, other guys were running. Then he got in that car that had no business, with that body especially, going around that track at [high] speed, and he was trying to break the lap times that we were running out there. You could see that spark in his eye.”
--
The Aging Wonder BoyBy Kevin Nance
How Paul Newman gained grace and gravitas as his youth waned.
CLICK HERE For a guide to Obit's complete coverage of Paul Newman's extraordinary life.
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