A life well lived. I found out last night. The word was passed to his race team and other related racing entities. I was surprised that I knew about it nearly 12 hours before the news broke in general. I saw him at several races. He and Carl Haas owned a race team that was one of the best in CART and later Champ Car. Paul was always at the races with his team. He kept behind the scenes, never one to be a celebrity. If you treated him like an ordinary guy, he was happy to be just that. He was a very competitive racer, too. In fact, he competed ably until a few years ago. His last race was the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2005. Last month Limerock Race Course, near his home closed for an afternoon for Paul to come out and drive it one last time. We knew then his time was close.
Three years ago at the Long Beach Grand Prix, I was with a group of friends and one of the guys had a hat he had fashioned out of a Miller Lite 12 pack box. He had a monkey stuck on the front of it and pictures and autographs of drivers all over it. When Paul walked through the lobby of the Long Beach Hyatt, we stopped him and asked him if he'd wear the monkey hat. He did. Just an ordinary guy.
