Carl Haas’ vast array of involvement in the motorsports industry has garnered him acclaim from USA Today, who has called him “one of the most powerful men in the history of auto racing” as well as earned him a place on the “50 Newsmakers of the Half-Century” list compiled by the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association (AARWBA) in 2004. AARWBA also presented him with their prestigious “Pioneer in Racing” award for his contribution to motorsports at their annual banquet on January 12, 2008. Over the years Haas has been a race car driver, race team owner, racing parts distributor, event promoter, advisor and visionary. His experience in these diverse areas has provided him a unique insight into the sport of auto racing.
DRIVER
Before focusing his business skills as a team owner in the motorsports industry, Haas won numerous races as a driver between 1953 and the early 1960s. During those years, he raced sports cars such as Ferraris, Porsches, Elvas, Oscas, Stranguellinis and Jaguars. His experience as a driver fueled his interest in the business side of the sport and he has since involved himself in its many different aspects.
TEAM OWNERSHIP
Since he gave up racing and focused on team ownership, Haas-owned and managed teams have won 16 championships and many poles and races in CART/Champ Car, Formula One, NASCAR, Can-Am, Formula 5000, Formula Ford, Super Vee and Sports 2000 competition. The crown jewel of Haas’s racing portfolio is his role as founder and co-owner of Newman/Haas Racing with actor, race car driver and philanthropist Paul Newman and now Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing LLC with the addition in 2007 of businessman Michael Lanigan. The team has won eight Champ Car championships to date, including something never before accomplished in American open-wheel racing -- four in a row with the same driver.
Haas’s experience in team ownership began in the late 60’s and blossomed as he dominated in the Can-Am, F5000 and Super Vee series in the 1970’s and early 1980’s winning championships from 1974 to 1980. It was through his involvement in the Can-Am series that he met Paul Newman as they competed against each other. Ironically each began looking toward Indy car racing in 1982 and in the winter of the same year he and Newman created what would become one of the most formidable operations in open wheel racing in the United States – Newman/Haas Racing. The hiring of Mario Andretti led to immediate success and brought the first of many wins, pole positions and track records. In 2008, the team will begin their 26th season of open wheel competition after winning 105 races and 106 pole positions from 1983 to 2007. Current drivers Justin Wilson and Graham Rahal were preceded at the team by Mario and Michael Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Paul Tracy, Christian Fittipaldi, Cristiano da Matta, Sebastien Bourdais, Bruno Junqueira and Oriol Servia. Englishman Wilson and American Rahal will rely on the depth of talented managers, engineers and mechanics at NHLR to compete for a ninth Championship to add to those earned by Mario Andretti (1984), Michael Andretti (1991), Nigel Mansell (1993), Cristiano da Matta (2002) and Sebastien Bourdais (2004, 2005, 2006 & 2007).
Simultaneous to running his open-wheel racing team, Haas-led teams also competed in other top series. Team Haas USA Ltd. competed in the prestigious Formula One series in 1985 and 1986 and Haas also ran a team in the National Association of Stock Car Racing (NASCAR) from 1994-1997 and 1999-2002, as well as a NASCAR Busch series team in 2007. Haas first entered the NASCAR series as a co-owner of Kranefuss-Haas Racing with retired Ford racing executive Michael Kranefuss from 1994-1997 before selling his interest to then fellow open-wheel team owner Roger Penske. Kranefuss-Haas highlights included a pole by John Andretti and a fourth place finish by both Andretti and Jeremy Mayfield. After a two-year hiatus from NASCAR, Haas formed and operated Haas/Carter Motorsports LLC with NASCAR mainstay Travis Carter from 1999 to 2002. The team, Kmart Racing, initially prepared the No. 66 Route 66/Big Kmart Ford Taurus for three-time NASCAR champion Darrell Waltrip, out of the North Carolina race shop for the 1999 season. For 2000, the team expanded to include NASCAR driver Jimmy Spencer. Todd Bodine took the retiring Waltrip’s place in 2001 and ran the majority of events in 2002 with Discover Card sponsorship. Overall Haas’s NASCAR highlights through the conclusion of the 2002 season include six pole positions (Andretti-1, Bodine-3, Spencer-2).
The consistent on-track success of Haas’ racing teams has attracted a long list of superstar drivers to his stable. In addition to the open wheel and NASCAR drivers previously mentioned are World Champions, Jackie Stewart and Alan Jones; five-time Le Mans winner Jacky Ickx; Brian Redman; Patrick Tambay; Roberto Moreno; David Hobbs; Joe Nemechek, Geoff Brabham and Robby Gordon.
RACING PARTS DISTRIBUTOR
In addition to running Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing LLC, Carl Haas Automobile Imports Inc. provides racing car products including Hewland competition gearboxes and Multimatic Dynamic Suspensions.
In the transmission industry, Hewland transaxles have become the standard for every pure-bred competitive class including Champ Car, Champ Car Atlantic, sports cars, Formula Ford, Formula BMW, FF2000 and others. Multimatic Dynamic Suspensions produces racing suspension and damper systems for teams in Formula One, Indy Racing League, and the ALMS and Grand-Am sports car series. They are also the sole provider of dampers to the Formula Atlantic series, FF2000 series and the DP02 IMSA Lights series. In addition Multimatic provides equipment for street car applications.
Prior to being the distributor of components for the Panoz Champ Cars in 2007, Haas was the North American importer and distributor for Lola Cars Ltd. (England). His association with Lola Cars racing products began in 1960, was briefly interrupted at the end 1996, resumed at the end of 1999 and continued until the conclusion of the 2006 season when the Lola chassis was phased out of the Champ Car series. During Haas’ initial involvement, he established and sustained Lola as an industry leader. Due to Haas, Lola Cars Ltd. grew from a small manufacturer of specialty racing cars to become the industry leader, delivering 3,000 specialized racing chassis worldwide. The majority of this total were sold by Haas, who consistently showcased Lola’s products via his highly successful racing teams.
During his brief hiatus from Lola (1997 to 1999), Haas became the distributor for California-based Swift Engineering, Inc. Haas and Swift joined forces to build an all-new, American-made Champ Car chassis beginning with the 1997 season and silenced the critics immediately with a convincing win in their racing debut with Champ Car’s winningest then-active driver, Michael Andretti, behind the wheel. A total of four victories and two pole positions came in the Swift chassis from 1997 to 1999. Newman/Haas Racing accomplished many goals for an American-made chassis during that time. The milestones include: the first win by an American-made chassis in 14 years (Andretti, Homestead 1997); the first pole position for an American-made chassis on a road course in 16 years (Andretti, Elkhart Lake 1998); the first pole for an American-made chassis on an oval in 17 years (Fittipaldi, Rio 1999); and the first victory for an American-made chassis on a road/street course in 19 years (Fittipaldi, Elkhart Lake 1999).
Prompted by a dynamic new organization at Lola Cars International, Haas announced in late 1999 that in 2000 he would return to the chassis manufacturer with whom he had won three Champ Car championships. In addition to fielding Toyota-powered Lolas for drivers Christian Fittipaldi and Cristiano da Matta, Haas’ company Carl Haas Automobile Imports Inc. again became the North American distributor for Lola Cars Intl. The team brought Lola titles in 2002 with Cristiano da Matta and 2004-2006 with Sebastien Bourdais. While running a Lola chassis over the years, Haas’ Champ Car team from 1983 to 1996 and from 2000-2006 brought the manufacturer 93 wins and 94 pole positions.
EVENT PROMOTER
From 1992 until May of 2003, Haas was CEO of the organization that promoted open-wheel and NASCAR racing at the historic Milwaukee Mile oval. In May of 2003, the Wisconsin State Fair Park purchased Haas’ 20-year contract so that they could run racing events at the track located on the fairgrounds in house. Haas also headed the organization that promoted CART Champ Car races in Houston from 1998-2001 before he sold the rights to Championship Auto Racing Teams. During this time, he was one of only two open wheel racing team owners who also operated a major track.
ADVISOR
In addition to Haas’ success on the track, he is one of the most respected executives in racing. He is a director of Road America, the world-class racing facility at Elkhart Lake, Wis. In 2003, he retired from the board of directors for the publicly held company known as Championship Auto Racing Teams, a position he held for six years (1998-2003). He also served as a member of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Board of Directors for 12 years until 1996 and was a chairman of that board for four years (1993-1996). The SCCA is one of the world’s largest amateur racing organizations. He also served on the Board of Directors for the subsidiary organization, SCCA Pro Racing, from 1993-2001. He is the only person to ever simultaneously hold top positions on two major racing governing bodies. In 2007 Haas was inducted in the SCCA Hall of Fame.
VISIONARY
In the late 1960’s, Haas was one of the first road racing team owners in the country to attract major corporate sponsorship backing. Since that time, his cars have enjoyed a high level of prestigious brand support, including major sponsors McDonald’s, Beatrice Foods, Budweiser, ChevronTexaco, Eli Lilly & Company, Havoline, Kmart, L & M, Little Caesars, Medi | Zone and PacifiCare. Other nationally known brands associated with Haas over the years include Alexander Julian, BellSouth, Bosch, Bridgestone, Centrix Financial, Citi Bank, Coca-Cola, Discover Card, DKNY, Duracell, Energizer, Firestone, Ford, Gillette, Goodyear, International Trucks, Kodak Premium Processing, Puma, RC Cola, Simoniz, Right Guard, SC Johnson (Glade, Windex, OFF!), Silicon Graphics Computer Systems, Sprint and Toshiba.
HAAS’ CURRENT BUSINESS INTERESTS INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING: - Managing partner and co-owner of Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing LLC, which prepares the McDonald’s Dallara/Honda/Firestone race car driven by two-time series runner up Justin Wilson and the Dallara/Honda/Firestone driven by Graham Rahal for the Indy Racing League-sanctioned IndyCar Series.
- North American importer and distributor of Hewland gearboxes, as well as a variety of other key racing components. Haas provides a sophisticated parts and service operation at each event. In 2000, he became the exclusive sales agent for Dynamic Suspension shock absorbers in the United States.
- Stockholder and member of the board of directors of Road America, the four-mile road course in Elkhart Lake, Wis., widely regarded as the most scenic track in the United States. Road America annually hosts several major professional events.
