When Hollywood legend Steve McQueen attended IndyCar’s California 500

One of Hollywood's most renowned anti-heroes, Steve McQueen, was as big a racing fanatic as any other. The "King of Cool" was known for his love for motorcycles and race cars, and he drove as well as some of the top drivers. When he passed away in 1980, his garage had 38 cars and 140 motorcycles and a few World War vintage biplanes.

In 1971, McQueen combined the two worlds of film and motorsport. He acted in the Lee H. Katzin's directorial 'Le Mans', which was a fictional and dramatized depiction of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Though the film didn't do well commercially, it was well-received by the ones who watched it.

That year, the Indiana native was also announced as the grand marshal for IndyCar's California 500, taking place on September 5, three months after the release of 'Le Mans'. As the grand marshal, McQueen gave the racing driver the traditional command of "Gentleman, start your engines."

Mark Donohue took pole position with a 4-lap average speed of 185.004mph, with Bobby Unser and Peter Revson rounding up the front row. Out of the three, Revson was the only one who remained in the Top 10 when the chequered flag waved on race day. Joe Leonard made his way from eleventh on the grid to win the race.

---

Steve McQueen "subscribed to every European magazine" to indulge in his obsession with motorsport

In 1966, Steve McQueen received his first Oscar nomination for his role in the war epic 'The Sand Pebbles', and by 1974, he was the world's highest-paid movie star. He could've easily been equally good at motor racing if he pursued a career there wholeheartedly.

McQueen raced in the 1970 12 Hours of Sebring and won in the three-liter class driving a Porsche 908/02 and finished second overall to IndyCar legend Mario Andretti. Nine years before, at the 1961 British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), he drove an impressive race to finish third.

In an interview with GQ in 2017, his son, Chad (who passed away in September 2024) revealed the level of obsession he had with motor racing.

"He had his hands on the pulse of every kind of racing in Europe or America," said Chad. "He knew everything and was friends with pretty much everybody from Lotus to Ferrari, to Porsche ... Back then there wasn’t a whole lot of coverage, but he was subscribed to every European magazine we could get our hands on. Obviously TV viewing was very rare, putting on Monaco (Grand Prix) once a year and the Indy 500, but that was about it."

Steve McQueen, like Paul Newman, was at the top of his game in both of his chosen fields. The only regret that the late Hollywood star probably had was that his F1 movie, 'Day of the Champion', made in the 1960s never saw the light of day. In 2021, a film titled 'Steve Mcqueen: The Lost Movie', narrated by David Letterman, explored the F1 movie that could have been.