[Books] American Racing: Road Racing in the 50s and 60s

[KC]

I recently spotted a very nice large format coffee table book at my local WaldenBooks on the clearance shelf. The book is a photo compilation by Tom Burnside, a preeminent motorsports photographer during what is affectionally referred to as the golden era of sports car racing in America. The book contains over 320 pages of black and white photos taken from 1952 to 1968 and covers most all forms of amateur and professional sports car racing across North America and parts of South America and the Caribbean. Soon to be famous (and a few infamous) racers are captured in their element and quite candidly racing at circuits as disparate as well known Sebring Naval Air Station, Elkhart Lake, and Mosport to long gone club circuits like Eagle Mountain, Cuba, and Brynfan Tyddyn. The accompanying text is well written by Denise McCluggage, one of motorsports excellent racer/writers. Her point of view comes from being there during this time and racing the same cars. the photography is excellent and anyone who follows motorsports will recognize a good many as they have been published in all sorts of magazines and newspapers, from motorsport monthlies to Life Magazine. His skill as a photographer is only matched by his apparent bravery in location as many of the photos were taken from extremely close range as the cars went by.

I whole heartedly recommend this book to anyone who loves the old racing scene and wants to open a window into the breeding ground of amateur racers to World Champions in North America.

American Racing: Road Racing in the 50s and 60s by Tom Burnside
published by Konemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH 1996

BTW, the text is all presented in English, German and French.

[SL]

I can only echo KC's comments. I brought this book last year, list price of £25. Can be obtained for £10 of less. It is a fantastic view of sports car racing in 50's 60's with several candid b & w shots of now very famous drivers.

Writting is in English, French & German and well worth the money.


Simon

[TimD]

Yep. I can add my recommendation too. It's a brilliant record of an under-reported era.

The word on the street amongst motoring booksellers is to buy it now while it's cheap. The price reflects the fact that Joe Public seems to be running scared of the trilingual text, and so the print run got quickly seconded. However, this is such a class publication that everyone's salting one or two away against the day when people are posting desperate want ads for it.

For my money, worth it for the Havana sports car race shots alone.