Emerson Newton-John is out to prove that dreams don’t have an age limit or an expiration date.
“I am out to make a f****** statement,” Newton-John told Motorsport.com.
At 51 years young, the British-born California native’s path in motorsports has been about as treacherous as the roads of Hollywood Hills.
Once a promising upstart in the junior formula categories, his career was sent into a tailspin after real world tragedies abruptly halted financial support. Instead of a potential run at Champ Car (now the IndyCar Series) in 2002, he spent the next decade-plus piecing together occasional opportunities in hopes of finding his way back. There were random one-offs in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series or even ARCA, along with a couple of brief chances in Indy Lights (now Indy NXT).
While this description builds up like real-life Sonny Hayes from “F1: The Movie,” the 2025 blockbuster film that won an Oscar for Best Sound, this is merely the start.
Now, after roughly a decade away from racing, Newton-John is set to make his anticipated return later this month in the SRO GT4 America round at Circuit of The Americas (April 25-27) with Mad Joker Racing. Alongside team owner Marc Austin, he’ll co-drive a Mercedes-AMG GT4 in a collaborative effort by fellow Texas-based squad Lone Star Racing. Austin recently claimed a third-place result – and Bronze Cup honors – in the GSX class of IMSA’s VP Racing SportsCar Challenge at COTA in February courtesy of an entry engineered by Lone Star Racing.
The venture came together through Newton-John’s business partner, who also has a relationship with Austin. After some conversations, he was put to the test, literally, at Motorsport Ranch in Cresson, Texas, some 25 miles southeast of Fort Worth.
“It went beyond perfectly and we became friends and that’s how that kind of morphed into running this COTA race together,” Newton-John said.
“As far as the race itself and the significance of it, I’m at a place right now man where if I can run in a reasonably high level championship in a really cool car like that AMG, especially one that’s engineered by a team as good as Lone Star, that’s a huge thing.”
Emerson Newton-John
Photo by: Emerson Newton-John
It’s a remarkable situation considering that, although Newton-John tested a Radical SR10 in 2024, he hasn’t competed in a race since 2015. With two significant gaps in his career of 10 years (2003-12) and seven years (2016-2025) are the obvious “what if” when it comes to losing his financial backing, notably after the tragic events on September 11, 2001. At this point, though, it’s part of his story and something he wears on his sleeve.
“I’ve been asked about the gaps 1,027 times,” said Newton-John, who nearly won in his Formula Holden debut in 2001 and finished fifth in the title race despite missing four races in the fallout of switching teams three times after his initial outfit, NRC Racing, was being sold.
“So it’s this most simple and straightforward reply: there’s been no money. That’s it. I would never have stopped racing for a day at the end of 2001 had I had financial backing.
“I mean, going testing anything over mid-level even with a buddy discount, you’re looking at $20,000 for the day. Anything significant like GT3 you’re looking at $50,000 or more for the day. Then add insurance and the deductible on top of it, that’s not a thing for me. That’s just not an option.”
For some, a lack of money might seem like an excuse for the nephew of the late Olivia Newton-John, a global icon in her own right as an actress, singer, and songwriter. The reality of it, though, is that she was the beloved aunt that Newton-John regards as “pure as Snow White” and, simply put, not his mother.
“She was like a mom, absolutely, especially the first half of my life when I was young but she wasn’t my mom,” said Newton-John. “Maybe if she was I would have retired five years ago from 20 seasons of IndyCar. I’ll never know that, but it wasn’t her responsibility to foot the bill.”
Given the circumstances that led Newton-John down an unconventional journey, it’d be understandable for anyone in that situation to become somewhat bitter or even a little jaded. Being so close to a lifelong dream and having it swept away like sand in a dust storm due to factors beyond control is a challenging thing to comprehend.
“I was extremely emotional about this sport,” he said. “It’s so embarrassing but a lot of my youth, probably up until I was maybe 14 or 15, I would get actually teary-eyed at the pre-engine startup for the Indianapolis 500.
“I remember as a kid like when I was 10 or 12 I would put on a helmet, sit on my bed and watch the five minutes when the drivers were getting in the cars and everyone was getting them ready, and then the parade left; that was highly emotional to me and to a degree it still is. I think the emotion is still there, I’m just a lot better at channeling it.”
Emerson Newton-John
Photo by: Emerson Newton-John
That isn’t to say, though, that if his return at the end of this month leads towards something bigger, such as a chance to compete in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the crown jewel for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, those suppressed emotions wouldn’t come rushing back.
“Let’s say it all works out for me and I get to run the Daytona 24, I’m in a class-winning car and we win it, guarantee I’m going to cry,” Newton-John said.
“I may even get to that point if I just lock in a sponsor. At the first race weekend, I’d probably be like, ‘Holy s*** I pulled this off. This is insane.’ I think that probably will be the case.
“And definitely, if bigger and better things happen it’s gonna blow my mind. But right now, I may sound calm, cool and collected because that’s where I put myself. I gave so much emotion, brain power and just everything you could give to this sport, and a lot of that was when I wasn’t racing. The racing part is easy. Driving a race car is easy, getting to the race car is the challenge.”
For Newton-John, who has been referred to as “a natural” by a respected motorsports veteran that spent several decades in the IndyCar paddock for his ability to be instantly quick regardless of how much time was missed, the tenacity demonstrates how much, even after everything he’s been through, the fire for racing still flickers as wildly as ever.
It begs the question, though, for a guy that was named after the legendary Emerson Fittipaldi and grew up admiring Nigel Mansell’s bravery, what’s the endgame?
“My pipe-dream scenario is to not only go back racing at a high level full time and tell this story of mine, but it’s also to do it as a team owner,” Newton-John said.
“I want to be a team owner. It would be a category obviously, that I could race in. I would love to be an IMSA team owner and definitely be driving full time at the same time. To me, that’s a legitimate way to spend ‘your money’ because you’re actively participating with a way to create a financial stream. If you have a team owner, you can bring in sponsorship, you can bring in other paid drivers and then you have a legitimate business. That I’m all about.”
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