TAKEN FROM MOTOR SPORT MAY 2019

Ask the man in the street to name a movie star racer and they will invariably name the ‘King of Cool’, Steve McQueen. This is understandable: from Bullitt to Le Mans via that jump over the barbed-wire fence into Switzerland during The Great Escape, McQueen has become synonymous with cars, bikes and racing.

But the reality is that while McQueen made the headlines, it was his blue-eyed peer Paul Newman for whom racing became a way of life. Newman not only competed at a high level but also formed his own racing team and it remained his passion until his death in 2008. He came late to the sport – getting serious in the latter half of his life – and it was a film that first sparked his passion. That film was Winning, the 1969 racing movie that today is largely forgotten but would have a profound and lasting effect on Newman’s life.