Historic Festival 44 will celebrate the racer and the instructor whose stories became intertwined at Lime Rock Park. Paul Newman photo via David Livshin

LAKEVILLE, CONN. (3 September 2026) – Long before Paul Newman became a four-time SCCA national champion, there was Bruce MacInnes teaching him how to go faster.

The student became one of the most recognizable racers in American motorsports. The instructor built a legacy of his own, winning championships and spending nearly five decades teaching generations of drivers how to find speed around a racetrack.

This weekend, their stories will come together again at a place that played an important role in both of them.

Newman and MacInnes will be inducted into the Legends of Lime Rock Park joining a small group reserved for those who helped shape the history and character of the 69-year-old Connecticut road course, during the Historic Festival 44 Competitors Dinner presented by HUB International on Friday evening,

For Newman, Lime Rock Park became something of a second home.

The Hollywood star discovered racing while preparing for the 1969 film Winning, but what began as preparation for a role developed into a serious racing career. He became a four-time SCCA national champion and competed at Lime Rock for decades, eschewing any celebrity pretense, preferring to be treated simply as another driver in the paddock.

Some of the final chapters of that career were written at The Park. Newman earned his final Trans-Am victory at Lime Rock in 1986 and, more than two decades later, won his final race here in 2007 at the age of 82.

MacInnes’ Lime Rock story was being written alongside Newman’s.

A championship-winning racer in his own right, MacInnes became one of the most recognizable instructors in the Skip Barber Racing School, spending nearly five decades teaching drivers ranging from first-time racers to future champions.

Among them was Newman.

Their relationship eventually blurred the lines between teacher, student, competitor and friend. MacInnes continued building his own reputation behind the wheel, including one of his most memorable performances at Lime Rock Park when he won a Can-Am race in torrential rain in 1985.

Now both names will become permanent fixtures at the circuit.

The Legends of Lime Rock Park was established in 2024 during the Year of Skip Barber, with Barber becoming its inaugural inductee. John Fitch and Sam Posey joined the Legends in 2025, honoring another pair whose careers and influence are inseparable from the history of The Park.

Following Friday night’s induction, the Newman and MacInnes additions will be installed at the base of the Skip Barber Tower, where fans can see them beginning Saturday.

Newman’s induction will also be celebrated throughout Historic Festival 44.

A special Paul Newman Legends of Lime Rock T-shirt will be available during The Festival, with proceeds benefiting Newman’s Own Foundation and The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. Every purchase supports kids in need and their communities, extending an association with philanthropy that became as much a part of Newman’s legacy as his acting and racing careers.

The celebration moves beyond the circuit Sunday evening when The Colonial Theatre in Canaan, Conn., hosts a special screening of WINNING: The Racing Life of Paul Newman. Suggested donations from the screening will benefit The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, the nonprofit camp Newman founded in 1988 for children with serious illnesses and their families.

Historic Festival 44 is shaping up to be the largest in the event’s history, filling Lime Rock Park with hundreds of competition cars and some of the rarest and most significant automobiles in the world. Nearly 300 cars will compete across three days of racing, while Sunday in The Park presented by HUB will bring more than 190 Concours entries and nearly 1,000 additional cars to the circuit for the Gathering of the Marques. With both paddocks at capacity and major collections and displays arriving from across the country, the five-day Labor Day tradition will turn The Park into a rolling showcase of more than a century of automotive and racing history.

For an entry list and full schedule of events visit, limerock.com.