Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman Page #3

SCCA National Championship.

But I think Paul wanted

the thrill of beating a guy,

not winning a race artificially.

Paul would love to have been

a football quarterback.

Did Paul look 6'4,

200 pounds with muscles?

Was he really 5'9"-1/2

and 155 pounds?

And if you have some

of those ingredients

of spacial relations,

a burn in your belly

to want to win,

and the discipline to pull it off,

you've got an advantage

over the football player.

I always wanted to be a jock.

I skied and boxed

and played football badly.

I had no physical grace.

The only thing that I ever found

any grace in was an automobile.

He was always searching

to be better...

A better person,

a better actor, better driver.

That was just his nature.

That's where I think the ego

and the competitor came into him.

I can't be competitive

as an actor.

One guy is playing Uncle Willy.

The other guy is playing Hamlet.

So how do you say

which performance is best?

In a car, it's very simple.

It's down to a

thousandth of a second.

Anyone that's a racing winner

has an ego to want to be a winner,

and so did Paul.

Paul has a saying I'm sure

you've heard, where he says:

"Winning isn't everything.

It's just all there is."

I don't know

who the quote is from,

but it certainly applies to him.

Actors have the same stigma

that rich guys have.

You know, "here comes

so and so with his trailer,

and he's got his fancy leathers

and so and so.

Let's see how good he is."

so I think there was a tendency

to write him off as an actor

trying to do our job.

Oh, I don't care if they're

a movie star or a writer

or a movie producer.

You don't want to lose to somebody

that you feel

that you've devoted more energy

into it than they did.

The guys want to beat

a Paul Newman twice as bad

as they want to beat

Joe Luce Scooch.

So I think, you know, you got

a big bull's-eye on your back.

"Oh, I want to get that guy."

If you race with somebody

like Paul Newman,

you want to beat them,

because you figure

they've been lucky enough.

His presence at a track

would guarantee a large crowd.

If you could see

the number of people

that turned up from the press,

from New York,

from the big papers, and so forth.

He tried to have his privacy.

He'd have a motor home

and go in the back

before the race to cool down.

Paul loved his privacy.

We held the spectators off enough

that they still got to see Paul

And they got a press kit

or something like that,

maybe, without abusing Paul.

And I would get him,

like, Friday afternoon at 3:00

for 15 minutes.

And then I would go to the media

and say, "if you ask him

racing questions...

He loves to talk racing.

We're racers.

He'll talk racing

for the next hour.

If you want to know

'what's Joanne's next movie?',

he's gonna have to go talk to

the crew chief pretty quickly.

He was really the real Paul Newman

when he was around people

that he really cared for

and he was relaxed.

Except for your race, the only

good thing was the bratwurst.

I think that Paul

was approachable,

but he was very discerning

on where he gave his time

and what he did,

Because he was concentrating

on something else.

I mean, driving.

Does he want to have

somebody come up

and stick a piece of

paper in his face

and say, "sign the autograph"?

No. That would get him

a little hot.

It got me a little hot, too.

He was so adored, I think,

all over the planet

that he just like to be

like a regular guy.

He was in popular movies

but was also kind of an outsider.

He stayed in the trailer.

He didn't want to stay in the,

you know, the plaza,

and a limo didn't

take him to his car.

You know, he was just a guy.

Well, I think

he liked the camaraderie,

and I think the fellowship

of that relationship

with the fellow drivers...

there's nothing like it.

It's not anything you can have

in Hollywood at all.

He loved joking around,

he loved companionship,

and you can see that,

but he probably shifted

from the film world

into the racing world.

You can see that he adopted

a lot of friendships.

Fitzy, of course, was like

almost a mascot for our team.

Just the most personable guy.

- Hi, Sam. How are ya?

- So, congratulations.

How was it?

Nice.

He was a very, very good driver.

He was a gentleman PR guy

for auto racing,

and he was the chief instructor

at Road Atlanta, a great guy.

Everyone loved him.

"Teddy bear" Jim Fitzgerald.

He befriended Joanne.

They were both a

little bit southern.

They got along very, very well,

and he befriended Paul.

He even likes to let

everybody think he's 60.

He's really 50.

And everybody thinks I'm 50,

and I'm really... 40.

No, I'm not.

It's nice to have a teammate

who, at the beginning of the year,

was given a certificate

to Forest Lawn

the same way that I was.

That was on behalf

of the younger drivers.

They've also offered

to buy us teeth

when we needed them

and Polident...

A year supply of Polident...

And that special stuff

that you glue your hair on with.

But, by the same token,

a lot of those kids

have got diaper rash.

Fitzgerald loved him as a buddy.

I think they were good friends.

Paul tried to get Jim a little,

tiny spot in a movie one time,

and Paul had ended up putting

the words across his chest so

Jim would get them right on

about the 12th take, you know?

We don't have to race.

It's fun being with him

just as a friend

or visiting or palling around,

but to race in addition,

I couldn't ask for anything nicer.

It's terrific on two counts.

I count him as a friend,

for one thing,

and we drive very much the same

and we don't have to apologize

to those young kids out there... yet.

Deceit and treachery

will always triumph over youth

and good intentions anyways.

There is no sport

more exciting than racing.

This is the next best

thing to heaven.

They had never seen it before.

A black driver this fast,

this competitive?

They weren't ready for that.

It wasn't easy.

It was real tough to find support.

You could feel, in a lot

of respects, the animosity.

I was on a mission

to head up that ladder

to the top of the sport,

which, for me, was Indycar.

To the outside retaining wall

as he heads down the 1,730-foot...

I first met Paul in the pits,

and it was brief,

but he was paying attention.

And he said, "keep

up the good work."

I wasn't a paid driver

to that point.

I was getting paid a percentage

of the prize money,

but I wasn't receiving

a monthly check.

It was hard.

I didn't have the money

to buy my own racer

or own my own team,

so I would do about five

or six races a year

Until I got the call...

Until I got the big call.

It was the day before thanksgiving

that I got the car from P.L.

Said, "hey, kid,

I think I've got a deal for you

if you want it.

Trans-Am team is going

to call you tomorrow.

I recommended you.

If there's any problems,

call me."

And it changed everything.

When Paul got me that deal,

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