Motor Racing

Stunning photographs from motor racing history, most previously unpublished, in a book that examines the many facets of Grand Prix racing before the dominance of television.

This is a photographic journey covering a period of ten years in motor sport. Moving year by year, this book is written from the perspective of a passionate motor sport enthusiast of the day. Exciting, dramatic, sometimes tragic events are described on the spot, as seen over the driver or mechanic’s shoulder. These are the events that often made headline news the following day, complemented by stunning, previously unpublished photographs.

A nostalgic pictorial record of Goodwoods' motor racing heyday.

This book explores the history and politics of motor racing, one of the most popular and lucrative elements in the international sport industry. Written by a group of international scholars and motor racing specialists it discusses the sport’s origins, the relationship of motor racing to nation building and modernity (noting its links to fascism and dictatorship), the links between motor racing and the automobile industry, motor racing and the politics both of gender and of race, motor racing, the media and postmodernity, and motor racing, the spatial and globalization. This book speaks to scholars in history, politics, sport studies, the sociology of sport, sport management and cultural studies, along with the many lay readers who are interested in the relationship between motor sport and society.

This book is a trip down memory lane, recalling the days when Formula 5000 cars roared around the race tracks in Britain and Europe, creating a lot of noise and, occasionally, dust. The wail of a 5-litre engine was often more spine-tingling that ANY other racing car! Nowadays, many of the same cars show modern day spectators just what Formula 5000 was, back in the day. Few, if any, of the drivers are prima-donnas and many want to know what their car did before it came into their possession. This book answers those questions and many more.

“ ...When the idea of this book was first suggested to me, although I had no misgivings as to the interest of its subject for myself and those immediately concerned, I had some misgiving as to my ability to make it interesting to the general reader. I may say that this misgiving is by no means abated now that I see the finished result of my labours. But I felt a very earnest wish, which will be understood by those who have ever been in the thick of any exciting or momentous experience, to preserve, if only for my own satisfaction, some record of the early days of the motor-car in England and my own experiences in connection therewith, and to reconstruct some of the events of those exciting days before my impression of them should become blurred. In this way my book may perhaps come some day to have an interest of its own, when the world shall have forgotten that the thing we call the Motor Movement ever had a beginning ...” Charles Jarrott - September, 1906. (Charles Jarrott was an English racing car driver. He won the 1902 Circuit des Ardennes race and competed in the 1903 and 1904 Gordon Bennett Cup races.)

Since 1894, when motor racing’s colourful history began with a bang (and a banger!), drivers, racers and lunatics alike have done many stupid and bizarre things all in the name of motor sport. Author Geoff Tibballs has gathered together this absorbing collection of stories from over a century of motor racing around the world, including the Frenchman who drove 25 miles in reverse, the Grand Prix in which the leading drivers were so far ahead that they stopped for a meal in the pits, the Le Mans 24-hour race won by a car patched up with chewing gum, and the driver who drank six bottles of champagne – virtually one per pit-stop – on the way to winning the Indianapolis 500. The stories in this book are bizarre, fascinating, hilarious, and, most importantly, true. Revised, redesigned and updated for a new generation of petrolheads, this book contains enough extraordinary-but-true tales to drive anyone around the bend. Word count: 45,000

This book takes the Immortals concept made famous in cricket and applies it to motorsport, choosing the best of the best from Bathurst and the Australian Touring Car Championship (now the Supercars Championship) and other local series. It delves into the careers and characteristics of icons Peter Brock, Allan Moffat and Dick Johnson along with modern-era champions such as Mark Skaife, Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup: heroes who are not just high achievers but influential identities who set a new benchmark and changed local racing forever through skill, determination and sheer will. It tells the remarkable stories behind each Immortal's rise, from the fabled tale of rock star Johnson to the little-known facts surrounding Lowndes' Bathurst arrival in 1994 that, a few hours earlier, teetered on the brink of disaster. The Immortals of Australian Motor Racing: the Local Heroes is the third instalment in Gelding Street Press's Immortals of Australian Sport series. In it, motorsport writer Luke West gives readers insights into his 10 chosen immortals and their influence on the national scene.