Carl Haas driver, racecar entrepreneur, car owner and promoter



MILLER: Haas a racer above all else

Thursday, 07 July 2016


Robin Miller / Images by LAT





Carl Haas was a driver, racecar entrepreneur, car owner and promoter during his six decades in motorsports, but above all, he was a racer.

"What I liked most about Carl was that he didn't come from wealth but something else, everything he earned and accomplished was from racing and he truly made a successful living from the sport," Mario Andretti said Thursday morning as he reminisced about his longtime car owner.
"After Formula 1 I found a home with he and Paul (Newman) and I was the luckiest guy around because it was the perfect situation and I loved those guys."
Haas, whose trademark was his unlit cigar and dark glasses, passed away June 29 in his Chicago home at the age of 86 after a long bout with Alzheimer's. He had not been seen publicly in several years.
A native of Chicago, Haas drove sports cars in the 1950s and 1960s before starting a clearinghouse for racecar parts and then becoming the Lola and Hewland distributor in North America.
But it was his partnership with Newman that brought Haas his true happiness, as their team scored 107 IndyCar victories plus eight championships in CART and Champ Car from 1983-2008.
Though rivals in Can-Am, Haas approached Newman about forming an IndyCar team and was rebuked before hearing the words: Mario Andretti.
"I said, where do I sign?" Newman recalled many years later.
After convincing them to go with a Lola chassis, Andretti worked out its bugs and scored two wins in that inaugural 1983 season before capturing the CART title in 1984.
"They were the original odd couple, Carl and Paul, but they always gave me the best equipment and Carl never held back on the things that were essential," said Andretti, who raced with Newman/Haas from 1983-1994.
"I had input on who we could hire and Carl always invested in the best people."
Michael Andretti joined the team in 1988 and racked up 40 wins and the 1991 CART crown. "I loved the fact they would do whatever it took to win," said Andretti, now a car owner himself. "It was a great atmosphere and one of the best teams ever."
Sebastien Bourdais, Cristiano da Matta and Nigel Mansell also captured championships, but Haas stealing Mansell away from Formula One in 1993 the year after his title still ranks as one of the greatest coups in motorsports history.
Ralph Hansen, who spent 30 years as Haas' right-hand man, still laughs about those negotiations with the 2001 F1 champion.