[mitchntx]

Just heard it on TV news.

A great racing gentleman ...

(IMG:http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/093Jdwcb6I2n2/340x.jpg)

[rpoz-29]

I saw him years ago at Summit Point when Jim Fitzgerald was his partner. We were watching from the straight, and camped nearby. Between race group practices this Maxima comes slowly down the straight and stops. Two guys get out and start to paint white braking marks on the track. It was Newman and Fitzgerald. We got their attention, and offered them a beer, which they declined and showed us the Diet Cokes they were drinking. Later on Fitgerald drives up the access to where we were, and wanted to know if we minded him setting up a radar gun on the hood of my truck in order to check terminal speed on the straight. One of the guys in our group was a cop and he helped him with lining it up. He hung around until PLN's group finished running. He was a great person and gave all the profits from "Newman's Own" products to charity. No one I see in Hollywood today could ever fill his shoes. I knew Fitzgerald had passed away years ago, but couldn't remember when. I looked it up and it was November of 1987. Doesn't seem that long ago.

This post has been edited by rpoz-29: Sep 28 2008, 01:35 PM