Meet Steve Ott, Newman’s own.
Ott, who grew up in Thornton, is a rookie driver for the rookie Toyota Atlantic team co-owned by legendary actor and longtime racer Paul Newman.
Ott, 24, joined Newman Wachs Racing in July after turning heads in a part-time Champ Car support-series deal with Jensen Motorsports. He made his Atlantic debut in the Grand Prix of Houston support race, finishing seventh, and produced a third-place result in an ensuing race at Cleveland.
Ott signed with Newman and his old racing buddie Eddie Wachs before the Grand Prix of Toronto and will make his fourth consecutive start for Newman Wachs and seventh of the season at this weekend’s Grand Prix of Denver. Sunday’s feature is pegged to begin at 11:15 a.m. at the 1.65-mile course around the Pepsi Center.
Not bad for a guy who began the Champ Car/Atlantic season as a driving instructor and mechanic at a road course south of Houston.
Driving for Newman, a Champ Car owner since 1983, “is a dream opportunity,” said Ott, who graduated from Horizon High School in 1999. “I couldn’t picture it happening in a million years. Luckily, it did.”
A Newman/Haas driver has won the Champ Car title in three of the past four years. Ott says Newman’s Atlantic team could be similarly successful.
“They just started putting it together in February, so we’re still getting organized,” said Ott, a former SCCA multiple-level champion. “It’s coming around. We just don’t have the history, or background, with running these cars.
“But this is a good team that wants to stay in Atlantics, and with great owners. I can’t think of a better opportunity.”
Rookies galore
Eight Champ Car rookies, each from outside America, are among 20 drivers to have started a race this year. Six first-year drivers are expected to compete in what likely will be a 16-car field Sunday.
Most of the rookies previously competed in the Atlantic series, which typically draws some of the best young drivers in the world.
“Owners are people giving opportunities to move up,” said Champ Car rookie Katherine Legge of Britain, who won three Atlantic races last year. “If you don’t perform, you’re back down. It’s really the survival of the fittest.”
Footnote
Champ Car driver Cristiano da Matta of Loveland-based Ru- Sport was taken off most of his sedatives Wednesday and was moving his extremities on his own and reacting to physical stimulation. Da Matta, 32, suffered head injuries after hitting a wandering deer a week ago today in a test session at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis. … Grand Prix partygoers will begin to heat up downtown when the engines go silent. G. Love & Special Sauce will perform at the City Lights Pavilion inside the Grand Prix grounds Friday night, and The Samples headline Saturday night’s “Life in the Fast Lane Street Party” on 14th Street between Larimer and Market streets.
Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-820-5453 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
