1967 CZ250
Paul Newman isn’t, perhaps, the first actor you’d think of as a committed motorcyclist. Everyone knows of Steve Mcqueen’s addiction to two wheels, and names like James Dean, Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda are forever linked with the ‘bad guy biker’ image. But Newman, whose passion for four-wheeled motorsport is better known, owned a Triumph in the mid’60s and was a keen leisure rider. But it’s in one of his less well-known films, Sometimes a Great Notion, released in 1971, that his skills on a dirt bike were tested.
This is the machine that tested them. The plot of the film – which centres on a logging family in Oregon – included a motocross race in which Newman’s character took part. Top desert racer and stuntman James Nelson ‘JN’ Roberts was enlisted to hone Newman’s off- road skills and handle the trickier scenes as a double. In fact, Newman injured his ankle rehearsing some of his race scenes and filming was delayed for several weeks.
Through his connections in the industry, Roberts arranged for the American Jawa and CZ importer to supply Newman with a bike, and a letter included in the bike’s history file details this arrangement. The bike is being offered for sale at the auction in ‘restored to film use condition’.
It wasn’t a bad choice of machine, either. JN Roberts’ almost-namesake, the prodigiously talented Joel Robert, had won CZ’S first world title – in the 250cc class – in 1964. He remained with CZ until 1970 (when he joined Suzuki) and claimed another brace of world titles in 1968 and 1969 for the Czech factory. The bike would certainly have been competitive enough for Newman’s character, Hank Stamper, to win that race. Did he? You’ll have to watch the movie to find out...
‘NEWMAN INJURED HIS ANKLE REHEARSING
SOME OF HIS RACE SCENES IN THE FILM’