Photo by Jacques Pavlovsky / Sygma
 
Negative Year: June 1979 (printed year: 1970s)
Print size: 30x19.8 cm
Style: Vintage print / gelatin silver print
Photographers stamp on the verso
 
The Backstory:
Paul Newman competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1979 at the wheel of a Porsche 935. He teamed up with Dick Barbour, driver and team owner, and Rolf Stommelen, admired for his prowess at the wheel of the German manufacturer’s cars. 
 
The No.70 935 moved up into the top ten in the second hour of the race and, despite the rain, broke into the top five in the tenth hour. Newman was under tremendous pressure from the public and the media. However, Newman drove an exemplary race and by the fifteenth hour, the actor and his teammates were in second place behind the other 935 driven by leaders Klaus Ludwig and Bill & Don Whittington. When the latter was struck by fuel injection issues shortly before the finish line, the No.70 was thought to have won. However, it too was set back by a faulty head gasket and finished the race at snail’s pace. On this, his only Le Mans entry, Newman thus finished second overall and winner of his class, which the No.70 Porsche had dominated almost from start to finish.
 
Meanwhile, Newman continued his glittering film career, which saw him win a Best Actor Oscar in 1987 for his role in Martin Scorsese’s "The Color of Money". In that film, he co-starred with Tom Cruise, another fan of motorsport and high-speed action. Newman turned 70 in 1995, which didn’t stop him from coming third at the 24 Hours of Daytona that year. He lined up on the grid again ten years later (aged 80!), teamed with Bourdais and Brazilian Bruno Junqueira, his two Champ Car drivers at that time.