How a roll of tape kept away Paul Newman from becoming a legend.
We are at the beginning of June 1979, on the Sarthe circuit, for the start of the greatest endurance race in the world, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The no show of Alpine-Renault, winner the previous year, put Porsche in the position of big favorite, facing only to Rondeau’s car, local to the stage. But even before the start of qualifying, it is the presence of American actor Paul Newman on the list of drivers who creates the most comments. Star whim? Exaggerated ego? Publicity shot ? At the start of the race, no one puts a coin on Newman. But the smiles will quickly fade.
At the biginning of this 47th edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which took place on June 9 and 10, 1979, everyone was afraid...of being bored. First disappointment, the Alpine-Renault team, after a resounding victory last year, did not return to Sarthe to defend its title. Renault is betting everything on Formula 1, leaving Porsche alone in the world. To try to interest the spectators, a “David versus Goliath” duel was sold to the media with Jean Rondeau, a small craftsman from Le Mans, who was said to be capable beating the Porsches with a team of seven people. This will be the case the following year, against private Porsches. In the meantime, this is another event that will excite the crowds.
Paul Newman is at Le Mans.
In the months leading up to the race, the rumor had grown. American actor Paul Newman would be at the start of the 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans. If the news was enough to surprise the general public, the keenest observers were not unaware of the actor's appetite for motorsport. A passion discovered late, at age 43, with the film “Virages”, in which he played the role of a driver in the Indianapolis 500. When he arrives at Le Mans, he had been racing for four years and had just launched his own CanAm team. Not enough to reassure Newman who fight to make his way around the circuit. Paul Newman arrives angry, anxious and seems bored against the horde of photographers who prevent him from reaching the stand of his team, Dick Barbour Racing. Paul Newman will not give an interview until departure, the media have been warned. Which does not stop us from pleasing to his sponsors.
Hawaiian Tropics.
As always, when the Americans land, they take care of logistics. Fortunately, Paul Newman did not come alone, and took with him the partner “Hawaiian Tropic”, an American brand of sun tan lotion, also known for organizing beauty contests. Each appearance of the brand is accompanied by a beautiful lineup of young women in two-piece bikinis, deliciously tanned. A common practice on Uncle Sam’s Tracks, much less in the depths of Sarthe. Photographers, officials, VIPs, journalists, pilots, spectators fight for a photo with the Hawaiian Miss, the impact is enormous. Paul Newman has not yet started the race, but the team's first mission has been fulfilled, each of the 140,000 spectators present on the circuit now knows the “Hawaiian Tropic” brand. Enough to forget that on the evening of qualifying practice, the car shared by Newman, Stommelen and Barbour was only sixteenth. Teammates say to French television: “We have every chance of finishing this race”, displaying very modest ambitions.
Paul Newman didn't come to play.
As he takes his first stint, Paul Newman settles into the seat, adjusts his harness and lowers the visor of his full-face helmet hiding his blue highly determined eyes. If Paul Newman refused to speak, it is precisely because he knows the many pitfalls of Le Mans, and the difficulty of keeping his monstrous red Porsche 935 on the track in these conditions. He knows it, each of his words will be interpreted, distorted. The slightest mention of any objective or ambition immediately mocked at the slightest mechanical glitch or racing incident. You might say nothing and just drive. However, the first part of the race will smile to Newman’s team. After an afternoon and a night spent tracking down the other competitors one by one, the results in the early morning are rather flattering. Bell's Ford is in difficulty, while Jacky Ickx, favorite of this edition, is out of the race, after having benefited from external help following a breakdown at the side of the track. Remaining in the lead, the Porsche 935 of Porsche Kremer Racing, driven by brothers Don and Bill Whittington and Klaus Ludwig, with a comfortable lead over the Newman-Stommelen-Barbour crew, which has just taken second place.
A makeshift repair.
In the stands, we begin to measure the road achieved by Paul Newman. Each passage of the Porsche 935 is greeted as it should be by the Manceau’s public. With fifteen laps behind the leaders, no one imagines Paul Newman winning but an event will turn the situation around in favor of the actor-driver. In the morning, the leading Porsche 935K3 stopped on the Mulsanne straight. The cause was the breakage of the injection pump belt. We are three and a half hours from the finish and nothing is decided yet but the driver in the leading car, Don Whittington, must follow the procedure dictated on the radio by his team manager. Take the replacement belt taped inside the passenger compartment and replace it. Simple formality? No, because pilot does not mean mechanic. When he replaced the belt, which cannot be extended, he breaks it during replacement. All hope has just vanished for Whittington, who curses himself on the side of the track, soaked and sweating. But with 15 laps in advance, the team has time to think and find a solution. Always advised on the radio by Manfred Kremer, the pilot will bring a spare alternator belt and a large roll of adhesive tape. By wrapping the ribbon around the camshaft pulley, Whittington achieved a first miracle, bringing the Porsche 935 back to life. After long minutes of immobility, the driver got back behind the wheel and successfully restarted the ignition. The car can return to the pits at idle speed, a second miracle. An operation made possible thanks to radio communications between the stands and the car, a technology used for the first time by the team.
Newman close to the feat.
Obviously, during this time, Paul Newman's crew, galvanized by the encouragement of the crowd and reinvigorated by the troubles of the Kremer Porsche, reduced their delay. But while the 935 Barbour is about to take the lead of the race, the left front wheel locks during a pit stop. More than 20 minutes are lost, Paul Newman finishes in second place in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This is how a radio, combined with a roll of adhesive tape, will prevent Paul Newman from climbing the top step of the podium in the greatest endurance race in the world at 54 years old. The Porsche 935, restored in its original Hawaiian Tropic livery, was sold a few years ago for more than four million dollars. Paul Newman continues to race, before becoming team boss in Indycar. After this episode at Le Mans 1979, no one dared to question his driving skills.