Paul Newman And Kid Racer
Paul Newman, 75, and Gunnar Jeannette, 17, will be racing cars at the Daytona International Speedway this weekend – the oldest and youngest drivers ever in the race. They spoke to The Early Show's Jane Clayson on Friday.
They're teammates in a marathon event called The 24 Hours of Daytona.
The race lasts for 24 hours, from 1 p.m. Saturday to 1 p.m. Sunday. There are three to four drivers on each team and there are 80 teams in the race.
Their team is driving a Porsche 996 GT-3R. Each gas tank lasts one hour and a half and the drivers switch when the gas is pumped.
The switch only takes 25 seconds – they have it down like clockwork: New tires, fresh gas, and new driver in 25 seconds.
Each Porsche will eventually go for 2,700 miles in the race – which is the distance from New York to L.A.
Gunnar, a high school senior in West Palm Beach, got his driver's license the day he turned 16. When he was 15 he went out with a driving instructor in a Porsche Boxster and learned he was pretty good at driving.
Gunnar says the Porsche 996 is great because, "It's not going to put you in a place where you could get into trouble…the way that you win this race is just staying out of trouble and just keep it going for 24 hours."
Newman got into a bit of trouble last month when he was practicing for this race. His Porsche crashed into a tire barrier, leaving Newman with some bruised ribs.
"I got overconfident on a fresh set of tires,"Newman said at the time. "It was a stupid thing to do."
Although Gunnar loves racing, he has never received a ticket for speeding. He saves his speed for the track.
"He's smart and he's quick," Newman said about the boy. "He's definitely better than I am out there."
Gunnar said that Newman brings "wisdom and speed" to the team. When asked if Newman was slow, Gunnar said in the older man's defense, "Slow is one thing that he is not."
Newman first became interested in racing when he played an Indy 500 driver in the 1968 movie Winning.
In a few months, his new movie, Where The Money Is, will be coming out. He plays a bank robber who fakes a stroke to get out of prison.