Featured History Steve McQueen’s Command Center

I’m not sure where this is coming from or where you got that, but everyone I know in racing loved the guy. The Unsers, Paul, Jim Hall, etc… In fact, he raced Porsches quite a bit with John Paul Sr. under the name Harvey Mushman to avoid the insurance kickback.

And there isn’t a Le Mans racer in the world that doesn’t love what he did for that race.

 

Off topic, but this is probably the most successful car Steve campaigned:



In 1970, he won at Holtville and Phoenix in the 908…. And got 2nd overall at Sebring - leading most of the race with Peter Revson… Closest factory team came in 4th.

 

Yeah, I have never heard anything different. You have to figure that any time Steve McQueen rolled up to a race, whether he was there to drive or just stand around and soak it in, the temperature of the place changed. People noticed. Even if they were not star struck, it messes with your head to see a face you have lived with on movie screens suddenly standing ten feet away, breathing the same dust.

And of course there is always the other crowd. The ones who feel threatened by that kind of presence, or maybe it is jealousy dressed up as principle. They busted their ***es to get to that track under those conditions and here comes Steve, just walking in like gravity bends for him. Celebrity rubs some people the wrong way no matter the context. So they hang back in the shadows and mutter invented nonsense about a man they have absolutely no experience with.

From everything I have ever heard from people who were actually there, McQueen was respected. Maybe not always worshiped as a driver, but absolutely respected as a guy who was genuinely committed to the sport. He was not a tourist. He showed up for the right reasons and that counts for more than most people are willing to admit.

 

Quote from Andrettis book talking about Sebring in 1970:

“I was hell-bent on not letting that *******ed Hollywood actor win. Over the last hour or so I clawed my way back into striking distance and, to my surprise, the guy was smooth. I had at least 300 horsepower on him and still had to work like hell to reel him in. When I finally got around him, it felt like a weight came off my chest.

Afterward, I shook his hand, braced for the worst. Instead, I fell hard for his charm and we stood there talking racing for a good long while. He was the rich guy, the one with every advantage, yet he rolled out of the track alone in a beat-up old pickup. Meanwhile, I lifted off in a factory-provided helicopter.

I saw and raced with him a few times after that, but never had that pressure again.”

 

Growing up on the East Coast, Paul Newman was as well. Really compe***ive at Lime Rock in the Bob Sharp Datsun’s 510’s and Z’s when I went there.

I put McQueen as one of the King’s of Cool and one of the “ Hero’s get remembered but lengends never die”

 

Both McQueen and Newman were respected very compe***ive racers.

Yet, like all of us, put one pant leg on at a time.
Good guys from all that I’ve read.

 

Paul Newman was a race car driver who tolerated acting because it kept the lights on and the transporters rolling. Hollywood was the job, racing was the point. Steve McQueen was an actor possessed by the soul of a racer, loaded with p***ion and nerve, but never quite climbed to the same al***ude. He wanted it badly, lived it honestly, but the ceiling was always there, just out of reach.

In a lot of ways, just like everything else, it came down to money… Newman landed that huge “Towering Inferno” contract and didn’t have to worry about his next paycheck for a long, long time… allowing him to focus on racing at a very pivotal time.

McQueen made huge money also, but never all at once like that.

 

I love Mario:

 

Andretti, multiple Unsers, Jim Hall, and Dan Gurney would all disagree.

And I mean… dude got 2nd at Sebring with a broken foot and in a borrowed car… and won three or four national races. Better than I ever did.