Rolex Daytona: Paul Newman at Le Mans 1979

DrStrong's article delves into Paul Newman's pivotal role in motorsports, particularly his participation in the 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans, and how this era cemented the legendary status of his Rolex Daytona. The piece meticulously traces Newman's racing career, from his start in 1972 to his significant finishes, illustrating the deep connection between the actor, his racing passion, and the iconic timepiece.

Introduction   

Paul Newman first got serious about motorsports in 1968 while making Winning (1969), which revolved around the 1968 Indianapolis 500, but he wasn't really able to begin racing until four years later. When he started to be a professional driver in 1972, his wife offered him an exotic dial Cosmograph Daytona that he was soon going to transform into a legendary watch….

Paul Newman and his son Scott attending a race in 1972

When he arrived at Le Mans to participate to les 24 Heures in 1979, Paul Newman was already a professional driver for several years: he had won his first SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) national title in 1976 in the D-Production category, with a C-Production class championship in 1979. He had began his entry into top-class professional racing on a Porsche 911 in Sebring and with a 5th-place finish in the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1977: during this particular race on the International Daytona Speedway , he was wearing his exotic dial Rolex Daytona Cosmograph and his car was....a Ferrari Daytona !

Paul Newman in Sebring in 1977: he has just qualified his Porsche 911 for the race and is wearing his Rolex Cosmograph.

Le Man 1979

Due to the construction of a new public road, the profile of the track had to be changed for the 1979 race. This redesign led to a faster double-apex corner as well as requiring the removal of the second Dunlop bridge.

After two rather boring years, the 1979 race did not sound very exciting: Renault, Ferrari and Ligier had focused on F1 and the only Porsche that were planned to enter the race were private 935's. The Porsche 935 turbo was a high-powered version of the Porsche 911 road car, which dominated endurance racing in the late 1970s.

In the last minute though, Essex boosted the interest of the race by asking Porsche to officially enter the previous year's 936’s driven by Wolleck/Haywood and Barth/Ickx/Redman.

Essex Porsche 936

Kremer and Loos - who were leading the German championship – had also prepared very sharp 935’s.

Dick Barbour had prepared four 935’s for the Imsa class and was driving one of them with Stommelen and Newman. The cars were sponsored by Hawaiian Tropic... you know, the famous models…

The Hawaiian Tropic models

In the Imsa class, BMW was entering a famous M1 Procar painted by Andy Warhol.

The Warhol M1

The Race

At  2 PM, the race starts as follows:

1  Essex Porsche 936  Wollek/Haywood/Barth

2  Essex Porsche 936  Ickx/Redman

3  Porsche Kremer 935 K3  Ludwig/Whittington

4  Porsche Loos 935  Shurti/Heyer 

5  Ford M10  Schuppan/Jaussaud

…

At  3:10 PM, Ickx has to stop to change his tires but he gets new ones on unapropriate wheels :

Wollek takes the lead, but soon runs out of gas :

Later in the afternoon, Wollek has to stop several times to fix engine troubles: the 936’s are obviously unprepared for the race…

At 8:30 PM, the Mirega Ford has to stop to replace its exhaust pipe, the 935’s take the lead.

Positions at 10 PM:

1 Porsche Kremer 935  Ludwig/Whittington

2 Porsche Loos 935 Shurti/Heyer

3 Porsche Loos 935 Fitzpatrick/Grohs/Lafosse

4 Porsche 935 Barbour  Stommelen/Barbour/Newman

5 Ford M10 Bell/Hobbs

Wollek and Ickx drive like crazy to catch up and they beat the track record several times.

At 2:00 AM, the rain starts pouring on the track...

1 Porsche Kremer 935 Ludwig/Whittington

2 Porsche Loos 935 Fitzpatrick/Grohs/Lafosse

3 Essex Porsche 936 Wollek/Haywood/Barth

4 Porsche Loos 935 Shurti/Heyer

5 Porsche 935 Barbour Stommelen/Barbour/Newman

4:00 AM: the two Loos 935’s have to quit, Schurti has an engine problem and Fitzpatrick has damaged his radiator when hitting a rabbit.

1 Porsche Kremer 935 Ludwig/Whittington  

2 Porsche 935 Barbour Stommelen/Barbour/Newman

3 Essex Porsche 936 Wollek/Haywood/Barth

4 Porsche 935 Kremer Servanin/Ferrier/Trisconi

5 Porsche 935 Haberthur Haldi/Lowe/Terran

8:16 AM: the Porsche 936 has to give up, the Kremer 935 is ahead by 13 laps on the 935 of Dick Barbour, Rolf Stommelen and Paul Newman….

10:35 AM, the leader has to stop to repair his engine and Stommelen catches up a little….

11:15 AM: during a pit stop, Stommelen's mechanics have problems unscrewing one of the wheels, it takes 22 minutes to fix it

At 12:00 PM, the leader is only 3 laps ahead the second, but Stommelen breaks his cylinder head gasket…he has to slow down to be able to finish the race….

The Finish

Newman finishes in the second position with Barbour and Stommelen. They win the Imsa class !

With this race, both Paul Newman and the Rolex Daytona have made history and have  acquired a cult status among sports cars and Rolex enthusiasts !

Race Stats:

Date:  June 9-10, rain on sunday

Track Length (m): 13 626

Pole Position:  Bob Wollek, Porsche 936, 3:30.07=233.519 km/h

Fastest Lap: Jacky Ickx, Porsche 936, 3:36.10=227.003 km/h

Class Winners:

Source : edmunds.com , autodiva.fr, les24heures.fr