Rolex 24 Retro: Newman, Roush Stole Show In 1995

Jack Roush’s teams had a remarkable run in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, winning the leading GT class nine consecutive times from 1985 through 1993.

Roush sat out the 1994 Rolex 24, concentrating on his burgeoning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series operation that took him out of sports car competition. But for 1995, he was called out for an encore – a challenge that Roush found too enticing to pass up.

To celebrate Paul Newman’s 70th birthday, Paramount Pictures presented the veteran with a sponsored ride in the Rolex 24 – a Roush-prepared Ford Mustang. Joining Newman behind the wheel were fellow racer/actor Mike Brockman, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series star Mark Martin and Roush Trans-Am champion Tommy Kendall. The car was sponsored by Newman’s upcoming film, Nobody’s Fool, and carried No. 70 in honor of his age.The race played out like a Hollywood script. Newman drove the car into the GTS-1 class lead four hours and 30 minutes into the event – running fifth overall in the 74-car field. Following his stint, Newman was asked if traffic had been courteous. “Courteous is what you find in office buildings and dentist offices,” the actor told Godwin Kelly of the Daytona Beach News-Journal.The team kept the car in the class lead and top-five overall in a near-flawless performance. Newman held up his end, logging 114 laps while driving four hours, 20 minutes in his first Rolex 24 appearance since 1970.Roush recalls Newman telling him, “I’m done,” after getting out of the car with four hours remaining.“I said, ‘No Paul, this is your race car, you’ve got to be in it for the last hour when we finish,’” Roush recalled. “So he reached down and did something that an American hero would do, and got back in the car for the last hour.” The Roush team won its class, finishing third overall. Almost overlooked in the celebration was the overall-winning Kremer Brothers Porsche driven by Christophe Bouchut, Giovanni Lavaggi and Juergen Laessig, as Bouchut became the first driver to win overall in both the Daytona and Le Mans endurance classics.Spirit of Daytona made its Rolex 24 debut, with current Prototype team owner Troy Flis passing a near-record 50 cars to finish 24th overall in the Flis Brothers Mitsubishi Eclipse.The 1995 event featured a “might have been” that could have stolen the headlines from Newman and the Roush team. Mario Andretti – fresh from his “Arrivederci Mario” farewell to Champ Car racing tour – and 1994 Rolex 24 overall winner Scott Pruett tested a super-secret “X Machine” prepared for Porsche by Tom Walkinshaw. Other drivers on the two-car team included Bob Wollek, Hans Stuck, Geoff Brabham and Scott Goodyear. But only 14 days before the test, the sanctioning body announced new restictors for the cars, and Porsche withdrew the entry. The Kremer team – already en route to America when the rule was announced – decided to run despite the restriction, and went on to win the race.