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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Motor sports
The history of sports car racing in the states of Delaware,
Maryland, West Virginia and Washington DC in the 1950s and 1960s
has long been talked of but never thoroughly documented until now.
This is a story of a period when sports car drivers such as Jim
Kimberly, Charlie Hayes, and Dick Thompson competed mainly for tin
cups and glory on civil airport runways and private tracks before
the age of professionalism took hold. They drove mainly European
cars, Alfa Romeos, Allards, Austin-Healeys, Coopers, Elvas,
Ferraris, Jaguars, Listers, Lotus, Maseratis, Porsches, and the
American Scarabs, now highly valued by avid collectors. The
histories of these cars are of great interest, and many are
mentioned in this book by chassis number which will aid research by
interested owners. A chapter begins with a synopsis of the activity
in each year and is followed by detailed descriptions of the races.
There is a comprehensive index, and the book is profusely
illustrated with period photographs.
Gathered together for the first time, here is a comprehensive
record of the motoring achievements and competition history of
Briggs Swift Cunningham II. He was a competitor, patron and
pioneering champion of road racing in the USA, and in addition to
the cars that bore his name with pride and competed against the
best in the world, the Cunningham team raced many other models in
the late 1950s and early 1960s in both the USA and Europe. Further,
during his long life, Cunningham owned a large variety of vehicles
ranging from the mundane to the spectacular. Richard Harman has
spent the past seven years researching this long overdue and
worthwhile tribute to the accomplishments of the great man. He was
granted unprecedented access to hitherto unpublished archive
material by the Cunningham family and the families of the team
members and has been able to trace the history of most of the
Cunningham-owned cars in great detail. This book has been awarded
the 2014 Cugnot Award by the Society of Motoring Historians and was
shortlisted for the RAC Book of the Year Award 2014. It was also
shortlisted for the 2013 International Historic Motoring Awards
Publication of the Year
Many of the Ferrari single seaters and sports racers that won
world championships were born of the imagination of Mauro Forghieri
and designed by him. That was the case with the John Surtees 1964
158 F1 and the unbeatable Ts of the Lauda-Regazzoni era. The same
can be said of the 250 P, the 330 P3 and P4, as well, naturally, as
the 312 'PB', the unquestioned protagonists among the sports racing
cars of the 1960s and 1970s. The life of the outstanding Mauro
Forghieri is told in this book, in which noted stories, especially
those that have remained unpublished for years, intertwine in an
riveting narrative, supported by a wealth of absolutely unpublished
illustrations, a large portion of which come from the publisher's
archives.
At one point in her life, Dorothy Paget was described by journalist
Quintin Gilbey, as `so much in the public eye that she became,
apart from royalty, the best-known woman in the land.' Synonymous
with Golden Miller, perhaps the greatest racehorse ever to jump a
fence, Paget ploughed fortunes into racing and breeding, buying -
despite never visiting - the Ballymacoll Stud in Ireland. She also
happened to be the biggest gambler ever to walk the turf. Living an
eccentric lifestyle, she would spend most of the day in bed and
rise at night, placing bets with bookmakers and their staff,
specifically employed for these late night duties. She was even
allowed to place bets on races that had already been run the
previous day. This long overdue telling of the life of an
extraordinary, larger-than-life character is now available in
paperback.
On May 30, 1958, thousands of racing fans poured into the infield
at dawn to claim the best seats of the Indianapolis 500, unaware
that they were going to witness one of the most notorious wrecks in
racing history. Seconds after the green flag, a game of chicken
spiraled out of control into a fiery 16-car pile-up that claimed
the life of 29-year-old Indiana native and rising star Pat
O'Connor. The other drivers escaped death, but the tragic 1958 Indy
500 seemed to leave its mark on them: the surviving drivers were
hounded by accidents and terrible crashes, and most would die at
tracks around the country. But the tragedy also prompted new
regulations and safety precautions like roll bars that would
ultimately save hundreds of lives. In The Curse of Indy 500: 1958's
Tragic Legacy, veteran sportswriter Stan Sutton profiles the
ill-fated race and the careers of the drivers involved,
highlighting their lives in the dangerous world of auto racing.
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