Emerson Newton-John (born September 26, 1974) is an American professional racing driver. The nephew of Olivia Newton-John, he has competed in numerous forms of motorsports, most notably in NASCAR, the ARCA Racing Series, and the Indy Lights Series.
Racing career
Newton-John competed in the Formula Holden Tasman Cup in 2000–2001, nearly winning his inaugural event in the series, and the Formula Holden Australian Drivers' Championship in 2001, finishing fifth, with a best result of 2nd; he also competed in the FrenchRenault Megane Cup, and tested a Formula Three car.[1] His final Formula Holden race was on September 10, 2001; the September 11 attacks resulted in financial backing for his open-wheel career drying up, and Newton-John switched to stock cars.[1]
In 2012, Newton-John returned to professional racing, driving an open-wheel formula car for the first time in almost eleven years in a test at Iowa Speedway. Passing a refresher test, he went on to compete in the Freedom 100 Firestone Indy Lights race, driving for Tyce Carlson's Fan Force United team.[1] He was 6th fastest in practice and qualified in 8th position. He was involved in a multi-car incident on the fifth lap of the event,[3] and was credited with a 17th-place finish.[4] He ran again in Indy Lights later in the year at the Grand Prix of Baltimore; he crashed twice due to faulty rear suspension, first in qualifying for the event,[5] and then in the race, finishing 12th of 13 cars.[6]