In the publicity driven world of the Indy 500 and NASCAR, the name Ken Miles may not have rung a loud bell for some race fans, but in the 1960’s, at endurance races like the Daytona 24 and the Le Mans twice-around-the-clock, Miles’ name and results were magic. Time after time he and his fellow Shelby Ford endurance teammates owned the podium steps as a variety of drivers from various racing disciplines combined to take Carroll Shelby’s Ford’s Cobras, Mustangs and especially the Ford GTs, to dominant victories.

Shelby American team photographer/writer Dave Friedman takes the reader of “Ken Miles: The Shelby American Years”, into the pits and race circuits, team meetings and private moments, recording with words and a volume of photos how Miles’ role as Competition Manager and lead driver/test driver pushed the team to endurance racing dominance world-wide.

Shelby had hired Miles before the 1963 season to organize and create more professionalism within a team that had the cars but somehow couldn’t race and win with the other big-name organizations.

In Friedman’s all-encompassing review, he tells of Miles’ immediate impact on the team, racing to the 1964 USRRC championship by winning 8 of 10 races and securing that season’s Manufacturers’ Championship along the way.

Ford transferred its nascent GT-40 program from their Advance Vehicles department to Shelby’s guidance in December of 1964, but after an unsuccessful first season on the endurance circuit, the team clicked and captured the 1966 Le Mans crown jewel.

It’s here however that Friedman combines his story-telling images with a revealing word description of how Miles and co-driver Lloyd Ruby were robbed of that win by Ford team politics; a win that in later years was proven to have been rightly captured by Miles’ team.

Sadly, Miles never had another chance to try again at Le Mans as he died in a horrible crash while testing Ford’s J-Car at Riverside Raceway on August 14^th, just two months after being robbed of his much-deserved Le Mans victory.

Author Friedman does an excellent job of taking the endurance racing fan into the heart of the sport; especially through his 357 photos. But the 240-page horizontal format volume also shines while taking the casual sports car follower deeper into the sometimes hard-edged, often cruel world of the sport.

“Ken Miles: The Shelby American Years” would make an excellent Christmas present that will keep the reader occupied for many hours of leafing through the pages and digesting the photos.

To order: contact Car Tech at www.cartechbooks.com or call 1-800-551-4754. Also available through Amazon.

Paul Gohde

Paul Gohde heard the sound of race cars early in his life.

Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, just north of Wisconsin State Fair Park in the 1950’s, Paul had no idea what “that noise” was all about that he heard several times a year. Finally, through prodding by friends of his parents, he was taken to several Thursday night modified stock car races on the old quarter-mile dirt track that was in the infield of the one-mile oval -and he was hooked.

The first Milwaukee Mile event that he attended was the 1959 Rex Mays Classic won by Johnny Thomson in the pink Racing Associates lay-down Offy built by the legendary Lujie Lesovsky. After the 100-miler Gohde got the winner’s autograph in the pits, something he couldn’t do when he saw Hank Aaron hit a home run at County Stadium, and, again, he was hooked.

Paul began attending the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, and saw A. J. Foyt’s first Indy win. He began covering races in 1965 for Racing Wheels newspaper in Vancouver, WA as a reporter/photographer and his first credentialed race was Jim Clark’s historic Indy win.Paul has also done reporting, columns and photography for Midwest Racing News since the mid-sixties, with the 1967 Hoosier 100 being his first big race to report for them.

He is a retired middle-grade teacher, an avid collector of vintage racing memorabilia, and a tour guide at Miller Park. Paul loves to explore abandoned race tracks both here and in Europe, with the Brooklands track in Weybridge England being his favorite. Married to Paula, they have three adult children and two cats.

Paul loves the diversity of all types of racing, “a factor that got me hooked in the first place.”

racingnation.com

The post “Ken Miles: The Shelby American Years” appeared first on RacingNation.com.

by Paul Gohde

Warren Johnson’s 45-year drag racing career began in the snowy weather of Minnesota in the 1960’s with the help of his high school sweetheart and soon-to-be wife, Arlene. She had experience working on her fathers’ cars while Warren had a fast car that attracted the girls. It was a natural coming together.

His racing career began while running an automotive machine shop in Minneapolis; a job that led to Warren opening his own business. “I was pretty successful at anything I attacked, and that’s kind of what led me to the decision to race,” he explained.

And it was that early move, that brought the man, later known to the drag racing world as the “Professor”, into what became a five-decade career that took him to six world titles and 97 national event wins while developing competitive racing engines for General Motors Performance.

Author Kelly Wade, at one time a reporter for NHRA’s National Dragster magazine, had exclusive access to the Johnson family’s collection of photos and stories that help readers learn from the inside what made Johnson and his small crew, often made up of just his wife and son Kurt, tick. We learn how he could outthink the competition and push boundaries that led to so many wins while still putting on a good show for his fans in his Oldsmobiles and later, Pontiacs.

Chapters focus on the early 1980’s when the NHRA introduced what became the popular Pro Stock class, his record-breaking 200-mph run in 1997 and his family duels with son Kurt, who won at least one race in each year from 1995 through 2008. Kurt also recorded the first sub-7-second run in Pro Stock history.

Warren’s final NHRA win came in 2010 at Gateway International at the age of 62, but he continued racing part-time until 2014 at Atlanta, his 649th and final Pro Stock race, leaving him just three wins short of 100.

Author Wade tells Johnson’s story from the inside, highlighting both the “Warren the racer” angle as well as the “Warren the family man” view, while mixing in a bit of “Warren the thinker and boundary pusher,” as well.

The 175-page book, published in 2020, contains hundreds of color and black/white photos, many never seen before, due to the author’s access to the family archives.

This is a well written book that brings you inside the drag racing sport, the Johnson family, and their racing team. Highly recommended.

• Car Tech Books… www.cartechbooks.com … Forest Lake, MN 55025…(800)-551-4754.

Paul Gohde

Paul Gohde heard the sound of race cars early in his life.

Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, just north of Wisconsin State Fair Park in the 1950’s, Paul had no idea what “that noise” was all about that he heard several times a year. Finally, through prodding by friends of his parents, he was taken to several Thursday night modified stock car races on the old quarter-mile dirt track that was in the infield of the one-mile oval -and he was hooked.

The first Milwaukee Mile event that he attended was the 1959 Rex Mays Classic won by Johnny Thomson in the pink Racing Associates lay-down Offy built by the legendary Lujie Lesovsky. After the 100-miler Gohde got the winner’s autograph in the pits, something he couldn’t do when he saw Hank Aaron hit a home run at County Stadium, and, again, he was hooked.

Paul began attending the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, and saw A. J. Foyt’s first Indy win. He began covering races in 1965 for Racing Wheels newspaper in Vancouver, WA as a reporter/photographer and his first credentialed race was Jim Clark’s historic Indy win.Paul has also done reporting, columns and photography for Midwest Racing News since the mid-sixties, with the 1967 Hoosier 100 being his first big race to report for them.

He is a retired middle-grade teacher, an avid collector of vintage racing memorabilia, and a tour guide at Miller Park. Paul loves to explore abandoned race tracks both here and in Europe, with the Brooklands track in Weybridge England being his favorite. Married to Paula, they have three adult children and two cats.

Paul loves the diversity of all types of racing, “a factor that got me hooked in the first place.”

racingnation.com

The post Book Review: Warren “The Professor” Johnson appeared first on RacingNation.com.

By:  Joe Jennings

Rolling Thunder, 50 years of USAC Silver Crown Racing 1971-2020, is a labor of love endeavor by four knowledgeable reporters; namely, skilled writers Pat Sullivan and USAC’s Richie Murray and noted photographers John Mahoney and Bob Mays.

And based on previous products by this quartet, this book will also be a winner.

As presented, the 350-page book reminds one of a fulfilling seven-course meal, which   leads off with the appetizer, a stimulating Introduction authored by Sullivan, a college professor and acclaimed writer and track announcer.  He warms-up readers with a walkthrough of the 50 years of Silver Crown racing, and he’s followed by the soup and salad portion — a well-written Foreword by Kody Swanson, the winningest driver in the history of the series.

The first two sections of the book are followed by the all-important main course — the meat and potatoes, so to speak – split into five chapters:  The Road of Legends, 1971-1977; Time to Blaze a New Trail, 1978-1997; The Circuit Grows Up, 1998-2005; Into the Depths, 2006-2013 and Out of the Abyss, 2014-2020.

Lastly, the dessert is served with 136 pages of statistics with box scores of every race along with additional data such as list of driver and entrant champions, rookies of year, all-time victories and more.

Over the last half of century, the series has experienced its ups and downs, going from being an integral part of the National Championship Trail to being dropped as advanced technology of race cars took over along with the growth of larger venues and the influence of sponsorship dollars and television exposure.

Also, the number of mile-dirt tracks, the bread-and-butter playgrounds for the series, was dwindling rapidly.  In 1971, four dirt-tracks had survived and two years later, just three remained and today, two are still active.

These conditions didn’t bode well for the once-popular series, particularly after fan-favorite drivers such as A. J. Foyt, Mario Andretti and Al Unser, Sr. had other priorities on their schedules.

Regardless, the series stayed in business and when half-mile dirt tracks and pavement races were added to the schedule, interest was seemingly renewed.  At times, there were more than a dozen races being run after being reduced to three at one point.  These situations are described well throughout the book and every year’s action is presented along with relevant photographs on every page.

A new generation car gained short-term attention, but the emergence of future stars like Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon pumped new life into the series.

And then along came Jack Hewitt, who became the new poster child.  His runs are described in detail as is Swanson’s record-breaking rise through the ranks along with a few unique occurrences.

Who can forget the 1981 Pocono 500 when the Silver Crown contingent was called upon to be field fillers for the senior circuit?  With 11^th place, Mark Alderson scored the top finish by the slower class – 18 laps behind Foyt, the race victor. To race at the superspeedway, the Silver Crown cars were required to add a rear-view mirror and the drivers were handicapped by having to exit during the refueling process.  But the payoffs were worth the aggravation.

“Rolling Thunder” contains many references to stories and anecdotes from the past, which will either jog a reader’s memory or add to one’s education about events and accomplishments over the half century of coverage.  Not surprisingly, the book is hard to put down once you start reading, and it will make for a welcome addition to a racing library or to display on a coffee table.

As stated at the beginning of the review, the book reflects on the commitment to excellence by the producers and comes off as a big-time winner.

Printed on high-quality paper, “Rolling Thunder” is bargain-priced at $49.95 + $9 postage from Fastrack Publishing, 5220 North 10^th Street, Lincoln, NE 68521, if paying by check or cash.  Credit card purchasers should contact www.sprintcarstuff.com or call the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame at 641-842-6176.

Joe Jennings

racingnation.com

The post ROLLING THUNDER, USAC Silver Crown history – 50 years – 1971 – 2020 appeared first on RacingNation.com.

by Paul Gohde

In the early1960’s drag racers were often known by nicknames designed to put fear into the hearts of their opponents. The “Snake”, “Dyno Don” and “The Judge” were also part of racing entertainment (somewhat like wrestling…think, “The Crusher”). But Arnie Beswick, a mild-mannered Pontiac racer from Morrison, Illinois, and a third-generation farmer, adopted a less imposing moniker becoming “The Farmer” throughout his 65-year quarter-mile career; a name that he dreaded at first.

Beswick’s early driving career moved from farm tractors to Oldsmobile and Dodge before switching to Pontiac in 1958; a brand that stayed with him and his team even today, though production-based models have now ceased production.

Author Dean Fait was born the grandson of a South Dakota Chevrolet/Pontiac dealer and later moved to Illinois where he met Beswick at a local Pontiac club. That fateful meeting, (no pun intended), led to Fait producing a two-and-a-half-hour documentary about “The Farmer” and later wrote various articles about him; becoming as Arnie noted, his “Historian”.

The book takes a 184–page, six-chapter trip through Beswick’s career, moving from his early days in the 50’s with Dodge to his switch to Pontiac; a move that was given impetus by Pontiac’s success in NASCAR 500-mile races.

Fait notes that Beswick’s new racer was ordered through a local Illinois dealership and was partially paid for by trading in his daily-driver 1950 Oldsmobile, and from helping neighbors bale hay. How times have changed!

From those early days of racing on Sunday at Illinois tracks like Cordova, Beswick eventually branched out, taking his Chieftain to Florida in 1960 for the Winter Nationals that were the one and only joint venture to that point with the NHRA and NASCAR.

The book follows Beswick and his beloved Pontiacs through the Super Stock era, his A/FX years and the popular wheel-standing Funny Cars of the later 1960’s and 70’s. Match races along the way often exposed drag racing to an entirely different audience, one that came to the track as much for entertainment as for the racing.

Fait also touches on some unhappy times, too. There were fires in Arnie’s shop, crashes on the dragstrip, and creeping old age that finally allowed “The Farmer” to turn over the driving chores to Anthony Layne in 2018.

The 184–page book, published in 2020, is filled with 450 photos that show how drag racing has changed radically from those early 1950’s to today’s business of racing on tracks shortened to less than a quarter–mile due to ever-climbing speeds.

Fait chooses to follow Beswick’s career in great detail which, for true drag racing enthusiasts, is what they will enjoy most about the book. For the casual fan, the photos will help to move through the remarkable 65–year career of that once–young farmer from Illinois who wound up in many drag racing halls of fame and brought with him legions of loyal fans.

The book is now available through Car Tech Auto Books and Manuals…www.cartechbooks.com/CT664…1-800-551-4754.

Paul Gohde

Paul Gohde heard the sound of race cars early in his life.

Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, just north of Wisconsin State Fair Park in the 1950’s, Paul had no idea what “that noise” was all about that he heard several times a year. Finally, through prodding by friends of his parents, he was taken to several Thursday night modified stock car races on the old quarter-mile dirt track that was in the infield of the one-mile oval -and he was hooked.

The first Milwaukee Mile event that he attended was the 1959 Rex Mays Classic won by Johnny Thomson in the pink Racing Associates lay-down Offy built by the legendary Lujie Lesovsky. After the 100-miler Gohde got the winner’s autograph in the pits, something he couldn’t do when he saw Hank Aaron hit a home run at County Stadium, and, again, he was hooked.

Paul began attending the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, and saw A. J. Foyt’s first Indy win. He began covering races in 1965 for Racing Wheels newspaper in Vancouver, WA as a reporter/photographer and his first credentialed race was Jim Clark’s historic Indy win.Paul has also done reporting, columns and photography for Midwest Racing News since the mid-sixties, with the 1967 Hoosier 100 being his first big race to report for them.

He is a retired middle-grade teacher, an avid collector of vintage racing memorabilia, and a tour guide at Miller Park. Paul loves to explore abandoned race tracks both here and in Europe, with the Brooklands track in Weybridge England being his favorite. Married to Paula, they have three adult children and two cats.

Paul loves the diversity of all types of racing, “a factor that got me hooked in the first place.”

racingnation.com

The post Book Review: “Arnie “The Farmer” Beswick” appeared first on RacingNation.com.

by Paul Gohde

If you know a Chevrolet fan who often wears a blue Bowtie wherever they go, it’s likely that racing author Doug Boyce’s new 8.5 x 11-size Car Tech book, “Chevy Drag Racing: 1955-1980” is aimed at them and could become a welcome holiday gift.

Car Tech has produced a long line of automobile-related books over the years, many leaning heavily on photos from certain eras of motorsports.

This time Boyce has gathered 176 pages of what some would call the “Golden Era” of Chevy’s success on the nation’s drag strips. The newly published book combines an interesting blend of nostalgic racing images with well-researched, detailed biographies on the drivers who became household names in the drag racing world.

From Chevy’s 1955 introduction of its revolutionary compact overhead-valve 327 V-8 engine, restyled body design and an array of drivetrain combinations, GM began to dominate at drag strips and dealer’s sales charts as well. Boyce follows with looks at the ensuing 25-years when Chevy’s stars like “Grumpy” Jenkins, “Jungle Jim” Liberman, “Dyno Don” Nicholson, and many others, set records in various classes of competition from coast-to-coast. Much of that early success was accomplished with little or no factory support, to the amazement of rivals Ford and Chrysler.

The book’s seven chapters cover the 327’s path (and its predecessors) from Shirley Muldowney’s twin-engine dragster to competition in Super Stock, Sportsmen, Pro Stock and Funny Car classes. Corvettes, Camaros and even 1940 Gassers have benefitted from the magic of the innovative power plants; often causing other makes of racing engines to become obsolete overnight.

Hardcore Chevrolet fans and drag racing regulars will enjoy the history of this era in the book’s over 300 photos, detailed racing results, and interesting driver histories.

The book, as well as others by Boyce, is available through Car Tech at: www.cartechbooks.com/. Phone: 1-800-551-4754.

Paul Gohde

Paul Gohde heard the sound of race cars early in his life.

Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, just north of Wisconsin State Fair Park in the 1950’s, Paul had no idea what “that noise” was all about that he heard several times a year. Finally, through prodding by friends of his parents, he was taken to several Thursday night modified stock car races on the old quarter-mile dirt track that was in the infield of the one-mile oval -and he was hooked.

The first Milwaukee Mile event that he attended was the 1959 Rex Mays Classic won by Johnny Thomson in the pink Racing Associates lay-down Offy built by the legendary Lujie Lesovsky. After the 100-miler Gohde got the winner’s autograph in the pits, something he couldn’t do when he saw Hank Aaron hit a home run at County Stadium, and, again, he was hooked.

Paul began attending the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, and saw A. J. Foyt’s first Indy win. He began covering races in 1965 for Racing Wheels newspaper in Vancouver, WA as a reporter/photographer and his first credentialed race was Jim Clark’s historic Indy win.Paul has also done reporting, columns and photography for Midwest Racing News since the mid-sixties, with the 1967 Hoosier 100 being his first big race to report for them.

He is a retired middle-grade teacher, an avid collector of vintage racing memorabilia, and a tour guide at Miller Park. Paul loves to explore abandoned race tracks both here and in Europe, with the Brooklands track in Weybridge England being his favorite. Married to Paula, they have three adult children and two cats.

Paul loves the diversity of all types of racing, “a factor that got me hooked in the first place.”

racingnation.com

The post Chevy Drag Racing: 1955-1980 appeared first on RacingNation.com.

US price: $80.00

ISBN: 978-1-910505-43-4

Format: 11 x 9.25 inches
Hardback
Page extent: 304
Illustration: 334 photos, mostly color

LONDON (Dec. 14, 2020) – “QUATTRO: The Rally and Race Story 1980-2004” by Jeremy Walton is now available in the U.S.

The word ‘quattro,’ chosen by Audi for its pioneering high-performance four-wheel-drive cars, immediately captures glamor and excitement in the minds of all motorsport enthusiasts. This book, written by a leading journalist and quattro devotee, explores 24 years of factory-prepared and factory-supported quattros in motorsport, from 1980 to 2004.

It is a tale that extends from rough rally stages to race tracks, from pine-fringed ice trails in the depths of European winters to the shimmering heat haze and melting asphalt of Texas street racing. Along the way, it explains how quattros collected four world rally championships, five American driver/manufacturer crowns and a single-year haul of seven international touring car titles, plus numerous other honours.

Key content:
With the five-cylinder turbocharged quattro in its original form, rallying in the early years yielded numerous wins, most of all in 1982 when seven victories in 11 world championship rallies brought the first title.
With the short-wheelbase Sport added to Audi’s armory, 1984 became an all-action, all-conquering rallying season with two more world titles won, for drivers (Stig Blomqvist) and manufacturers.
Three stunning Pike’s Peak wins were achieved in America in successive years, for Michèle Mouton (1985), Bobby Unser (1986) and Walter Röhrl (1987).
Starting with double championships for the 200 quattro in Trans-Am (1988) and the 90 quattro in IMSA (1989), racing success unfolded in America. Exuberant Hans Stuck was the star driver, but consistent teammate Hurley Haywood captured that 1988 title.
Touring car campaigns during the 1990s brought huge success, starting with fearsome V8 quattro ‘racing limos’ in Germany. Global achievements followed with A4 quattros in many national Super Touring series throughout Europe and in Australia, including Frank Biela’s 1996 title-winning campaign in Britain.
Audi continued to win on track in the new millennium as race versions of the S4 and RS6 captured five SCCA GT Championship titles in America.

About the author:
Jeremy Walton is an award-winning author of more than 30 motoring books and one racing-themed novel. All matters Audi are an area of special expertise and his earlier books about the marque (2003, 2004 and 2007) are regarded as benchmark works and have been published in both English and German. He has worked for Motoring News (weekly newspaper) and Motor Sport (monthly magazine) as well as Ford Motor Company’s competition and Advanced Vehicle Operations. Besides writing, his motoring activities have included TV advertising, automotive consultancy and race driving in touring cars. He lives in Wiltshire, England.

Evro Publishing books are distributed in North America by Quarto Publishing Group USA. Books can be ordered from Quarto by email: sales@quarto.com; phone number: 800-328-0590; or website: www.quartoknows.com. Please use the relevant ISBN number when ordering.

“QUATTRO: The Rally and Race Story 1980-2004” is also available in the U.S. from specialist and online booksellers.

www.evropublishing.com

RacingNation Crew

The post QUATTRO: The Race and Rally Story 1980-2004 Now in the U.S. appeared first on RacingNation.com.

US price: $40.00
ISBN: 978-1-910505-59-5
Format: 11.4 x 8.3 inches (landscape)
Hardback
Page extent: 184
Illustration: over 350 color illustrations

LONDON (Dec. 9, 2020) – “Quest for Speed: The Epic Saga of Record-Breaking on Land,” by Barry John, is now available in the U.S.

As Land Speed Record historian David Tremayne states in his foreword, “This is a wonderful book that celebrates passion.” In a remarkable first book, Barry John has celebrated his life-long passion for the quest for speed by writing, illustrating and designing this fascinating history of record-breaking on land.

Along with his informed and detailed text, his beautiful artwork shows all significant record-breakers in their immense variety, each illustrated in profile and accompanied by a cameo portrait of its driver. From the start of it all in the late 19th Century to today’s challengers seeking to reach “the last frontier,” 1,000 mph, the story that unfolds will enthrall not only enthusiasts for the subject but anyone appreciative of innovative engineering and brave human endeavor.

Key content:

• Early records, often achieved with electric cars such as Camille Jenatzy’s La Jamais Contente (65 mph, 1899) and steam-powered vehicles such as Fred Marriott’s Stanley Steamer (127 mph, 1906).
• American pre-eminence in the jet age, when a flurry of Bonneville records fell to Art Arfons in Green Monster (576 mph, 1965), Craig Breedlove in Spirit of America (600 mph, 1965) and Gary Gabelich in Blue Flame (622 mph, 1970).
• Californian Danny Thompson’s successful attempt in Challenger 2 to pick up where his father Mickey left off in 1968 in the Challenger 1 (448.757 mph, 2018), vindicating his father’s design.
• American Charlie Nearburg’s run in the normally-aspirated Spirit of Rett, to honor his son, who died of cancer at the age of 21 (414.316 mph, 2010).
• With actor Paul Newman’s support, stuntman Stan Barrett’s controversial supersonic attempts in the Budweiser Rocket, claiming a 739 mph pass.
• Other notable early American achievements, set on the beach in Daytona, Fla., in cars such as Henry Ford’s 999 (91.37 mph, 1904); Ransom E. Olds’s Pirate (57 mph, 1903); and Alexander Winton’s Bullet (57 mph, 1903).
• Richard Noble’s exploits at Black Rock Desert, first as a driver in Thrust2 (633 mph, 1983), then as mastermind of ThrustSSC, the current record holder with Andy Green and the only car to have broken the sound barrier on land (763 mph, 1997).
• Britain’s speed kings, most significantly Malcolm Campbell, whose record-breaking began with a Sunbeam 350HP (146 mph, 1924) and culminated in him becoming the first man to exceed 300mph, in his final Blue Bird (301 mph, 1935).
• Besides the absolute records, the book covers national and class records where we encounter vehicles as diverse as Dave Spangler’s Turbinator II (fastest wheel-driven car), Andy Green’s Dieselmax (fastest diesel), Rocky Robinson’s Ack Attack (fastest motorcycle) and Don Wales’s Inspiration (steam-powered record-holder).

About the Author:
Like every boy in the 1950s, Barry John knew the names of Cobb and Campbell and possessed battered Dinky toys of their cars. When he was 15, he discovered Hot Rod magazine and, instantly mesmerized, bought it when pocket money stretched that far. In Hot Rod’s pages he discovered the exploits of Breedlove and Arfons — and has been fascinated ever since. After studying at London’s Harrow School of Art, he pursued a career as a graphic designer. Now retired, he has applied his professional skills to his passion and produced this book. He lives in Kent, England.

Evro Publishing books are distributed in North America by Quarto Publishing Group USA. Books can be ordered from Quarto by email: sales@quarto.com; phone number: 800-328-0590; or website: www.quartoknows.com. Please use the relevant ISBN number when ordering.

“Quest for Speed: The Epic Saga of Record-Breaking on Land” is also available in the U.S. from specialist and online booksellers.

RacingNation Crew

The post Quest for Speed by Barry John now available in U.S. appeared first on RacingNation.com.

The 320-page book, published by Racemaker Press, with more than 180 photos and illustrations, retails for $80 plus shipping and handling and is available at www.racemaker.com.

The book tells the story of the life of Englishman Chris Pook and the history of the Long Beach Grand Prix, which debuted in September of 1975 through the streets of that California city, and injected new life into the urban surroundings.

Pook emigrated to the United States in 1963 at the age of 22 and soon started a travel agency in Long Beach, which he eventually sold to start another business. In his younger years he’d competed in rallies in the U.K. and Europe and had always been a race fan.

Pook’s business and entrepreneurial savvy came from his father who ran a variety of small businesses in England. His parents made sure he was properly educated at a series of private schools before attending the Sorbonne University in Paris.

The unconventional, and crazy to some, idea of running a Grand Prix race through the streets of Long Beach occurred to him one day in the early ‘70s while watching the Monaco GP on TV.

With stout determination and the powerful support of racing legend Dan Gurney, other racing greats, as well as the City of Long Beach, Pook proved his doubters wrong. It took a huge amount of work, but the first Long Beach GP was born.

Initially, the GP featured Formula 5000 cars that first year, with the Formula 1 cars arriving the following year. Formula 1 competed there for nine years before rising costs compelled Pook to switch to CART and Indy cars in 1984.

Pook’s “crazy idea” turned into a model for bringing racing to the people and using a motorsports event to rebuild flagging urban communities. It also sparked many other downtown racing events around the country. Few of these races survived, but Long Beach stands today as INDYCAR’s second biggest event outside of the Indianapolis 500.

Pook tells his story frankly and in considerable detail, providing a rare look inside the business and politics of big-time automobile racing. He provides an important insight into the trials and tribulations he faced on the road to making the race succeed, as well as the two hellacious years he spent trying to save the failing CART organization in 2002 and 2003.

“For a variety of reasons, it was a great pleasure to write this book,” said Kirby, the author of 16 racing books and an accomplished journalist. “I’ve known Chris for 46 years and have enjoyed covering every one of the Long Beach races since that first race in 1975. I tried to capture the passion, and even the angst, that it took to take an idea and build it into a successful venture.”

Added Pook, “I am most grateful to my friend of 46 years, Gordon Kirby, and his publisher, Joe Freeman of Racemaker Press, for taking on this project. As I actually re-read the book I am constantly reminded of all the people along the way who made the Grand Prix of Long Beach possible; in particular, Dan Gurney, without whose support and enthusiasm we would have never gotten it off the ground.”

An in-depth interview with Chris Pook about “Chris Pook & the History of the Long Beach GP” may be found at https://racer.com/2020/04/17/chris-pook-details-gp-of-long-beach-history-in-new-book/

RacingNation Crew

The post “Chris Pook & the History of the Long Beach GP” Tells of One Man’s Passion to Create America’s Most Successful Street Race appeared first on RacingNation.com.

by Paul Gohde

He started his “racing career” on roller skates at nine years old, modifying them to get an edge on his youthful competition. He moved on to dirt track Motocross bikes, and finally made his oval track debut in 1977 at southern Wisconsin’s Jefferson Speedway where he destroyed a Hobby Stock mount just a few laps into the race.

The story of Edgerton, WI native Rich Bickle’s “unfiltered” move from those humble beginnings to become an almost NASCAR star, is told in great first-person detail by Bickle himself along with veteran motorsports writer and public relations co-author John Close.

In their book Barnyard to Brickyard…The Rich Bickle Story, the pair recount second-generation racer Bickle’s rise to dominance in some of the country’s richest short track events as well as his ups and downs while working for 17 seasons to elevate his career in the three national traveling series of NASCAR, having recorded over 250 career wins .

Close remembers his friend’s three Craftsman Truck Series wins, highlighting that final 1997 victory at Martinsville Speedway where his Darrell Waltrip-owned Diehard Chevrolet was fastest in practice and won the pole. Fearing a runaway in the race, Bickle learned a lesson in the sanctioning body’s race management plan. He recounts that NASCAR Director of Competition Dennis Huth told him “not to stink up the show.”  “He basically told me if I went all out, they would find a way to take the race from me,” the outspoken Bickle recounted. “But this was NASCAR, and I had to agree with him because I was pretty much convinced that if I didn’t do what he said, they would somehow find a way to screw me out of winning that race.”…a race that he finally won after loud pleading on the radio by his crew chief to slow down and make the finish close.

But that wasn’t Bickle’s style of racing, and with other issues that arose while driving in the Winston Cup Series as a sub for Hendrick Motorsports’ Terry Labonte at Pocono in 2000, the Badger-state invader began to see his underfunded NASCAR efforts fade away, despite having won more than $2.2 million down south.

In their 195-page paperback book, Close and Bickle use over 150 photos to illustrate the changes in racecar design from that first effort at Jefferson,WI, to his sleek, modern, post-retirement comeback cars that he still wheels at annual special events like Florida’s Snowball Derby and the Nationals at the Slinger Speedway near Milwaukee.

Bickle, now 59, plans to retire for good after the 2021 season; a retirement that will be a loss for race fans and media who like to hear racing truths, Bickle-style.

Having known Close for many years as a prolific motorsports’ writer, I’m sure this book, his fifth NASCAR effort, was a labor of love. John also spent 14 seasons as Bickle’s race day spotter, giving him access to much of the insider information found in this easy-to-read work. The book, which would make a welcome Christmas gift, was published by MB Global Solutions/Green Bay, WI and is available as a paperback ($24.95), or an e-book ($6.95), on Amazon.com, Coastal181.com, or other select motorsports-related websites.

Paul Gohde

Paul Gohde heard the sound of race cars early in his life.

Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, just north of Wisconsin State Fair Park in the 1950’s, Paul had no idea what “that noise” was all about that he heard several times a year. Finally, through prodding by friends of his parents, he was taken to several Thursday night modified stock car races on the old quarter-mile dirt track that was in the infield of the one-mile oval -and he was hooked.

The first Milwaukee Mile event that he attended was the 1959 Rex Mays Classic won by Johnny Thomson in the pink Racing Associates lay-down Offy built by the legendary Lujie Lesovsky. After the 100-miler Gohde got the winner’s autograph in the pits, something he couldn’t do when he saw Hank Aaron hit a home run at County Stadium, and, again, he was hooked.

Paul began attending the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, and saw A. J. Foyt’s first Indy win. He began covering races in 1965 for Racing Wheels newspaper in Vancouver, WA as a reporter/photographer and his first credentialed race was Jim Clark’s historic Indy win.Paul has also done reporting, columns and photography for Midwest Racing News since the mid-sixties, with the 1967 Hoosier 100 being his first big race to report for them.

He is a retired middle-grade teacher, an avid collector of vintage racing memorabilia, and a tour guide at Miller Park. Paul loves to explore abandoned race tracks both here and in Europe, with the Brooklands track in Weybridge England being his favorite. Married to Paula, they have three adult children and two cats.

Paul loves the diversity of all types of racing, “a factor that got me hooked in the first place.”

racingnation.com

The post “The Rich Bickle Story…Barnyard to Brickyard” appeared first on RacingNation.com.

This new edition of a classic book tells the story of the celebrated Ford GT40 through a remarkable array of over 850 period photographs, many of them in color.

After Ford unsuccessfully attempted to buy Ferrari, in 1963, the American car giant instead embarked on its own racing program in a bid to beat the famous Italian marque at the world’s most prestigious race, the Le Mans 24 Hours, as told in the forthcoming Hollywood movie Ford v. Ferrari. The mission was eventually accomplished: Ford’s challenger in this battle, the GT40, finished 1-2-3 at Le Mans in 1966 and won for the next three years as well.

This book, originally published in 1985 and redesigned in 2005, is now available again due to popular demand, with further revision to keep the information up to date.

Key content:
Development of the GT40: how the prototype Ford GT emerged in 1964 from the previous year’s Lola GT program.
The works teams and the GT40: the car’s racing exploits in its earlier years, first with Ford Advanced Vehicles (1964), then Shelby American (1965) and Alan Mann Racing (1966).
The big ones: this section of the book covers the GT40’s evolution into the 7-litre monsters that brought enormous success, including the first two Le Mans victories with the Mark II (1966) and Mark IV (1967), before becoming outlawed by new restrictions on engine size.
The Gulf years: against all expectations, the venerable GT40, now back to 5-litre power, raced on with John Wyer’s crack JW Automotive Engineering outfit in the iconic blue and orange colors of Gulf, successes including two further Le Mans wins (1968 and 1969).
The production line racer: the stories of the 68 privateers, big and small, who raced GT40s.
Chassis and drivers: a data section giving resumés of type designations, chassis histories and all drivers who raced GT40s.
The magic lives on: the book’s concluding sections show surviving cars at differing stages in their later life and bring the story up to date with developments since the 2005 edition.

About the co-authors:
John S. Allen and Gordon J. Jones are long-time enthusiasts with an over-riding passion for the Ford GT40 and other great cars from the golden era of endurance racing that inspired them when young. Besides their long-term collaboration on this book, they have independently contributed to numerous magazines over the years, and now, ever indefatigable, both continue to work on new books. Both live in France, respectively in the Deux Sèvres and Charente-Maritime areas.

“The Ford That Beat Ferrari: A Racing History of the GT40 – Third Edition” is available in the U.S. from specialist and online booksellers.

The Ford That Beat Ferrari: A Racing History of the GT40
Third edition
John S. Allen and Gordon J. Jones
Foreword by Jacky Ickx

Publication: November 5, 2019
US price: $120
ISBN: 978-1-910505-47-2
Format: 280x230mm
Hardback
Page extent: 496
Illustration: over 850 photos, including color

Find it at www.evropublishing.com

RacingNation Crew

The post “The Ford That Beat Ferrari: A Racing History of the GT40 – Third Edition” now Available in US appeared first on RacingNation.com.