What compels a young man or woman to spend ungodly amounts of money driving a racecar every weekend at the local track, risking life and limb at 150 miles an hour, entertaining friends and total strangers? Author editorial cartoonist Bob Englehart had to find out after witnessing the tragic wreck that killed Boston-area driver Shane Hammond at Thompson International Speedway. This non-fiction book explores a slice of American culture, the short track racing obsession, and how the author became a fan as a child, bedridden for a year by rheumatic fever with only his imagination, pencils, and watercolors to pass the time. The author writes about his parents' divorces and remarriages during an era when divorce was rare, giving him and his brother Tim a stigma in their neighborhood in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The author discovers the extraordinary motivation behind Shane Hammond's desire to race by a chance encounter with his mother and younger brother in the pits at the last race of the season. Trackrat: Memoir of a Fan is about love of family in spite of the complexity and confusion it may involve and the author's working class heroes on the track. This isn't NASCAR; this is your neighbor.

Forty pages of action with times filled in. The Summit Mountain Hill Climbs of Uniontown, Pennsylvania ran three miles from Hopwood to the top of Summit Mountain. This 1915 program takes you to the mountain with 25,000 onlookers and Indy 500 winner Ralph DePalma. The original program was donated to author, Marci McGuinness, by Gary Cooper of Charleroi, PA. A year after this pro race, coal, auto and film barons joined famed driver (beat DePalma ), Charlie Johnson to build the fastest board track in America, the Uniontown Speedway. Some of the 1915 Summit Mt. Hill Climb Drivers: Denny Hickey - Metz A.D. Spencer - Buick Ralph DePalma - Mercedes Charlie Johnson - Packard Guy Woodward - Ford Joe Dawson - Marmon I.P. Fetterman - Simplex Joe Boyce - Hispanosuiza

On June 17, 2006, unknown part-time driver David Gilliland brought his homemade car and can-do attitude to Kentucky Speedway. With just seven NASCAR starts, his best Nationwide finish was 29th. But that night he achieved one of the sport's greatest upsets ever. Circle of Hope: An Inspiring NASCAR Journey profiles fascinating lesser-known drivers in NASCAR's two top series through joy and triumph, disappointment and defeat. Journalist Deann Alford follows hope-driven stories of Sprint Cup driver David Reutimann; NASCAR legend Morgan Shepherd; ARCA truck champion Brett Rowe; Nationwide driver Eric McClure; and David Gilliland whose spectacular win landed on NASCAR media's ballot for "Race of the Decade." This book offers behind-the-scenes portraits of drivers and those covering the sport, plus vignettes with stars Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Trevor Bayne and celebrated dirt racer Buzzie Reutimann. Each provided the author with hope amid her own darkest season of grief. Circle of Hope brings refreshing encouragement to those needing hope, no matter their walk, in their own battles of life.