Wednesday 26th February 1930

Born on this day, Carl A. Haas. After winning sport car races at the wheel of Ferraris, Porsches, MGs, and Jaguars in the US, Haas had success in all sorts of racing-related businesses with his company Carl A. Haas Auto Imports, as the exclusive importer for Lola cars and Hewland gearboxes amongst others. He also entered race teams in various series, including Formula 5000, the Can-Am Series, the Super Vee series and, in 1983 and with actor Paul Newman as a partner, the Newman/Haas Racing team in the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) Series. The team won its first CART title with motorsports legend Mario Andretti the next year, and went on to win three more series championships for the team. In the meantime, in the middle of 1985, he also launched the Haas Lola Formula 1 team, but the team only fared another season and then folded, when Ford withdrew the finances for the turbo engine supply. Newman/Haas Racing, on the other hand, was extremely successful and won 11 championships in three decades with drivers like Mario and Michael Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Cristiano da Matta and, in the ChampCar World Series, the all dominating Sebastien Bourdais from 2004 to 2007. Carl also served on CART’s Board of Governors until the body folded in 2003. Today he is still the team principal of Newmann-Haas-Lanigan Racing and is also a member of the Board of Directors at Road America.