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Paul Newman terminally ill???

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vagt6

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Is it true??

Other than in some excellent film appearances, I first saw him in person in 1971 at VIR (VA International Raceway) driving a Datsun Z-car for the Bob Sharp racing team. I was there on my 18th birthday! We had pit passes (a friend was racing an H-Prod. car) and I got to actually meet Newman, shook his hand and took a few photos.

He was very laid back and friendly, but very serious and focused on his job as a driver. One night he was drinking "Coors" beer, first time I'd ever seen a Coors! I recall that he won his class, or at least had a very good showing in the standings. He was a highly competitive driver, too.

At the race and in the pits, he was one cool customer. He was slightly built and rather short in stature. Probably about 5'6", maybe 130lbs. soaking wet, but very wiry and muscular with piercing blue eyes. I was shocked that he was so small: he looked so much bigger in the movies!

The racing community will most certainly mourn his passing, if this rumor is true. I have the <span style="text-decoration: underline">greatest</span> respect for him, having had the pleasure of meeting him and closely watching his racing (and movie!) career.

The donations he's given to charity must go into the tens of millions of dollars. And, married to the same girl(JoAnne Woodward, a great actor in her own right) his whole adult life, which doesn't happen often in Hollywood.

They just don't make many like Paul Newman, IHMO. Very special guy.

Best wishes to him and his family. Very, very sad news.
 
It will be sad indeed. I too have ssen him race and he was awesome! Mario Andretti once said if Paul only would have started racing sooner he could a giant in racing just as he was on the screen.
 
Yes, very sad!! The tabloids at the supermarket have been headlining his deterioration for some time now!! My wife and I got to spend an afternoon in the old Kendall Tower at the Glen sipping wine and watching the races with him and mutual friends many years ago. What a gentleman!!! One of THE major thrills in S'mits life (other than, prior to that, when she and he literally walked into each other face-to-face while walking, talking and not paying attention...which is how we got introduced and wound up sharing a bottle in the first place)!!!
 
Yes.

See my post ~HERE~

They closed Lime Rock for a few hours last week for him just so he could say goodby and take a few last laps.
 
One of the last of the old school Hollywood actors. A good man who's done a lot for charity.
 
Gonna be a long time before we see the likes of him again, methinks.

He's always been a Gentleman any time he was at tracks we went to. On course or in th' paddocks. A Genuine Class Act.
 
P.L. Newman (that's how he would register as a driver) raced a Datsun sedan in the same class as the BMW I crewed on. He was way faster than my driver though!

It always seemed to me that he wanted to be treated like any other racer, but of course that was impossible given the actor job. Even so, he handled the attention with class.

Once I was waiting for my driver at Summit Point Registration. I was leaning on the fence watching practice when a Datsun station wagon with Connecticut plates pulled in. The driver went into registration. The passenger leaned on the fence next to me and watched practice. I did an involuntary double-take (is involuntary double-take redundant?) when I saw that it was P.L. I felt bad about the double-take because I think the notoriety must bother him.

When lay persons would see me wearing a Summit Point T-shirt or hear me say that I was going to Summit Point, they would say, "Oh, that's where Paul Newman races, isn't it?" People who knew nothing about SCCA road racing had heard about Summit Point because of Paul Newman.
 
Didn't he race something there before the Datsun's. I seem to recall seeing him in another car before that.
 
I've a few photos of him, but would generally NOT take pix out of respect. He wanted to BE one of the racers. Most times he was treated that way. Particularly in the infield. Just one of the fellas. The wife of our F-A owner/driver and my First Wife were agog. He did consent to posing with those two. But it won't be released by ~me~.

What a crappy circumstance he's in. *sigh*
 
Me dad in law spent many years as a track worker at Watkins. he fondly remembers spending an afternoon with Mr. Newman and his wife, watching the race, and chatting about racing. If you went all "starry-eyed" on him he would politly excuse himself says my dad. But if you treated him like one of the guys, he'd hang around with ya for a while.
class act. Here's to a fine man.
 
That was it in a nutshell, Banjo, we had a similar experience to your dad-in-law!! You should have seen my wife all starry-eye, trying to act "normal" around him :crazy: ! Words cannot describe! :jester:
Truly a precious memory of an afternoon spent with a special person! :thumbsup:
 
DNK said:
Didn't he race something there before the Datsun's. I seem to recall seeing him in another car before that.
Click to expand...

Yes, it was a Triumph!
 
A few of those pix I may have here someplace. PLN Racing.
 
Yeah...at first he had a Triumph 2500 TC (twin carb) sedan. Later he went on the TR sports cars.

After he was done with it, it ended up being donated to a community college automotive program (funny to me since I used to run a community college automotive program).

A guy named Fenton owns it now (in Calif, I think).

Here it is:
rogfenton.jpg
 
Seems th' same number is attached, too.
 
I know the TR's. I seem to remember him in something before that.
Big Pontiac or something.
 
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