09/09/2024
TempestGuys.com want to extend our sympathies to Paul's family and friends.
A true motorsports living legend, 2008 Motorsports Hall of Fame of America inductee Paul Goldsmith has passed away at 98 years young. Cool as a cowboy and quietly stoic, Goldsmith - who was a little over a month shy of his 99th birthday - may have been the first major "all-arounder" in motorsports. He made his initial mark in motorcycles as a teenager right after the conclusion of WWII with his maiden major win in 1952 on the one-mile dirt track at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds - later the legendary Milwaukee Mile – followed by a victory a year later in the Daytona 200 on the old beach road course on a Harley-Davidson prepared partially by the equally legendary Smokey Yunick (MSHFA Class of 2000). Goldsmith soon moved into stock car racing, teaming again with Yunick for his first NASCAR race win at Langhorne in 1956 and winning the final NASCAR race on the beach course in 1958 as Daytona International Speedway (DIS) was under construction just a few miles west of the Atlantic. He ran his first of five Indianapolis 500s in 1958 and went on to score top finishes of fifth in 1959 and third in 1960 in addition to logging thousands of laps in that time span at the Brickyard as Firestone's chief test driver. He later teamed with Ray Nichels (MSHFA Class of 2021) to dominate in USAC stock cars, bookending championships in 1961 and 1962 with runner-up finishes in 1960 and 1965. In that same era, Goldsmith and Nichels made their mark in road racing as well, dominating the 1963 American Challenge Cup race on the DIS infield road circuit, a milestone and now legendary victory over Ferraris, Porsches and factory Corvette ZO6s in a highly modified Pontiac Tempest that launched the iconic Pontiac GTO later that year. Not surprisingly, Goldsmith also embraced aviation, flying his own planes until late in life, owning an airport in northern Indiana, an aviation engine repair business and even training commercial pilots. Goldsmith also stands out among his hundreds of peers enshrined in the MSHFA as a rare and possibly the only Historics category living inductee. He actively supported the MSHFA after his 2008 induction, and one of his last visits was earlier in this decade when he flew from Indiana to Florida to be reunited on Daytona Beach and at DIS with a 1949 Oldsmobile that he and other racing legends drove at the dawn of NASCAR. On the sand, dirt, pavement and in the sky, few did more for as long as Paul did on two wheels, four wheels and with wings, and it is an honor to preserve this true Hero of Horsepower's legacy and accomplishments at the MSHFA Museum. Race in Peace Paul!
