I saw a picture of Paul Newman in a doctors office today. He was sitting in a rear engine Lotus race car and the car had the name Jack Kruph on it and Paul was wearing a race suit with the same name. Am I just seeing things or does anyone know anything about it? I asked the doctor and he didn't know what the story was, but it was Paul Newman.
Are you sure the name wasn't Frank Capua? That's the character he played in WINNING the 1969 racing movie.
From the movie "Winning" Check out www.imdb.com Type in Winning and you can watch the trailer for the movie,and read the plot line.
That might have been from the movie "Winning" where he got his first real thrill in a race car at Indy. He went on to become a very good racer in SCCA events and at eighty won his class at Daytona in a Mustang after finishing No Bodys Fool, which he painted on his car.
Here is a link on our own Forum!!!! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=475108&highlight=paul+newman
Paul Neuman was the real deal, still racing trans am cars in his seventies. He was partners with Carl Haas as an indy car owner for years. Lots of actors have been racers. James Garner, Steve Mcqueen etc. Watch "On Any Sunday", that really is Mcqueen riding dirt bikes with Malcolm Smith.
I pushed his Datsun into the pits at Road America when he ran out of gas... His best movies... "SLAPSHOT" & "Cool Hand Luke"
He may have started out as an actor,but after getting the racing bug,he became a "RACER" who also acted! His own words,when I met him at Long Beach. There's a guy who lives here in Yorba Linda,Stu Haner,that raced with him in Trans Am,and was asked by Paul to come and race with him at his home track many times. He sure loved racing! The old Can Am cars were my favorite...
met him a couple times at BIR (Brainard international Raceway) in the early 80's....(maybe `81-`83??????) at the IMSA Camel GT. one time we were right next to him in the pits , he had some extra barbecue chicken and he gave us some. if i recall correctly he was driving a Datsun
He ran all kinds of cars, he ran Legends cars had track record at Charlotte for a long time RIP paul.
I worked for Ed Debrecht Datsun In St. Louis in 1975 and Newman came to St. Louis to race at Mid America Raceway (MAR) in Wentzville. Mr. DeBrecht was good friends with Bob Sharp, a Datsun dealer in Connecticutt and a racer himself. He (Sharp)sponsored/raced with Newman in the SCCA series of that time. Ed DeBrecht hung out with Sharp and Newman and he was reportedly a very nice guy. It is on the record that he did, in the earlier days of his racing ventures, use an 'assumed name' when racing.......for a variety of reasons. Ray
The car Newman drove in "Winning" was the Can Am "Wedge" car built by Bob McKee, McKee Engineering, Lake Zurich, IL. Bob has been a crew chief, builder, engineer all his life, in Indy cars, NASCAR, CAN AM, Formula 5000s an an enormous array of production, one offs and prototypes, including many all electric vehicles, hybrids, military vehicles, motorcycles and stationary powerplants.
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