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glemon

glemon

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I read this week Paul Newman visited the Lime Rock Park race track recently to say farewell to one of his favorite venues. He has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

I am sure all of you know about Paul Newman the actor, many of you know he was also a very successful racing driver, including 4 D production championships in Triumphs and a 2nd at Lemans. To paraphrase the guy loves racing because in addition to the general thrill and fun, he got to be, "just another guy you were trying to pass"

You may not know about his Newman's own line of foods, all the profits of which go to charity, mostly for inner city kids and kids with terminal diseases, well over $120,000,000 to date.

Also married to his wife for over 50 years, while many Hollywood types tend to hop around a little more than that.

I don't much get into the "culture of celebrity" that goes on in the modern world, but I do have to say I feel the guy is worthy of admiration, class act.
 
I was fortunate enough to see him race on many occasions. Towards the beginning of his career in a Datsun 510 and a BP Ferrari, to his last trip to Mid-Ohio for The Runoffs in a Jag.
He showed tremendous improvement each year. It didn't take too many years before his winning at The Runoffs in the Group 44/PLN Racing TR6.
He certainly increased track attendance wherever he raced.
Too bad there aren't more people like him.
 
DougF said:
...It didn't take too many years before his winning at The Runoffs in the Group 44/PLN Racing TR6....
Click to expand...
Maybe the best part of that is that Group 44 had tried for six years to win The Runoffs with the TR6, and they finally succeeded in 1975. One year later, PL Newman took the ex-Group 44 to a win in class, with Group 44 a close second in the "new" TR7. Great victory for Independents and Traditionalists! :driving:

See the report in the TSOA newsletter.

The man is a class act...and a class actor!
 
I met him in Johnstown when he was filming Slap Shot in the 70's. The company that I worked for supplied a lot of cars for the movie. A really funny guy with the bluest eyes that you've ever seen. He loved Coors beer long before it was popular east of the Rockies. He was nice to EVERYONE, not just other actors. He treated the janitors with the same respect as the Mayor of the city.

I've also visited his "Hole in The Wall Gang" camp for kids that is off RT44 in CT not for from Nutmeg's house..

It's too bad that the rest of the "so called celebrities" in "EmptyWood" don't have one tenth of the class or dignity that Mr. & Mrs. Newman have.
 
Besides fiddling with Triumphs, I also work on Sprint Cars. Several years ago at a play day for the vintage sprint car crowd at Willow Springs, PLN came out with sprint car champion Jimmie Oskie. Jimmie asked if PLN could jump in one of the modern cars there. He supposedly had not driven on dirt before and within 10 laps was very fast and was running down Oskie. He was painfully uncomfortable with his fame that day but obviously a very quick learner. Hopefully he gets to live the rest of his life with dignity and without pain.

Rich
 
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