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aeronca65t

aeronca65t

Great Pumpkin
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Most of you probably know that Paul Newman is battling cancer.

Sadly, reports are that it is terminal, and he may be gone soon.

As part of an e-mail I got today from a vintage club, apparently Newman was at Lime Rock recently to "say goodbye" and take a last lap.

Really sad.
 
I had a dozen or so interaction with Paul newman over the years, and he's a good guy. he used to come to my pits at the Road Atlanta runoffs and view the races from there, I got the same spot ever year right above the podium on the fornt stretch, there was a oak tree there,between the fence so it made a great place to throw up some chairs and to see all the action on the fornt staright.
Newamne used to come down and watch the qualifying session during the week there, before the crowds came in for the weekend. He would talk to me about my Huffaker MGB, said he always wanted to drive one, I used to kid him, and tell him, sure you can drive, if I can drive that Bob Sharp GT1 Nissan 300ZX. I'm form Greenville, SC, and that where Joanne grew up, so he often times talked to me about greenvile, and even called me "Greenville", I'm sure because he probably forgot my name. The last ime i saw him was Road Atalnta a few years back, i was sitting there on my ATV, talkng to a guy at the garges, and this rental car came flying around a blind corner, saw me there at the last minute and almost ran over me, it was Newamn, he aplogize to me, and I reminded him of me, and he said, oh yes I remember you, Greenville right?

Here's my funny PLN story, when he won the 1986 runoffs in GT1, remember I told you my pits were just above the podium, you could literally look straight down on the podium. At Road Atlanta runoffs on the weekend after all the fans got there you had to rope off your pits, or you would get all these crazy people walking up on you and your car. Well Newman had just won the GT1 race, and some rather large woman busted thru my ropes with a big bag of popcorn, pushed herself right by me, headed for the fence, and pour the entire bag of popcorn n on Newman and the others on the podium. Newman steppped back looked up at her, and asked her what that was all about. She replied "it's your popcorn, Newmans's Own", Newman just shook his head and said, "well thank God it wasn't the salad dressing" the crowd roared in laughter.

PLN is a first class guy, and from what little I was around him, he was put off by the whole movie star persona, he treated me what few times I was around him like a normal guy, and I tried to return that favor. Oh did I mention he could drive. :smile: My thoughts and prayers will be him and his family.
 
Great story, Hap. Thanks for that.

I often stood near him at driver's meetings (NJR-SCCA) at Lime Rock and he was always just a regular guy.

One time he wore this amazingly funny tee-shirt. There were no words on it, but it was pretty profane (and hilarious). One of our crew asked if he could take a picture of "just the shirt". He told Newman, "I don't want a shot of you. I can get that *anywhere*....I just want a picture of the shirt".
Newman thought that was pretty funny and said, "Go right ahead!"

I remember he used to drive to the track from his house (very near Lime Rock) in an old VW convertible.
 
He will be sorely missed. My opinion of him is that there are too few of his character. Met him a couple of times at Laguna Seca, fortunately we were both on the "proper" side of the pit wall. He was not aloof to fellow racers, as some others I have met..

At Long Beach, one year, he gave the fans an extra half hour.

Anyone remember the first course setup they had. To get to the pit area(he was owner) you had to walk through the concourse and when all the fans were there considerable time would get spent answering questions and signing autographs. He allowed extra time to cross the concourse, just to gratify the fans...

He was, and hopefully still is as this is being written, A true down to earth hero...
 
Simply the best! When his time does come (which, unfortunately, inevitably will), he will be sorely missed! Every single story related by those who have met him follow the same thread. I am sure we will each cherish those memories we have of him!
 
He and his crew wore those T-shirts to put off any "publication" from using pix of them. Now, with photoshop I suspect that trick wouldn't work as well.
 
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