Racing Books

My 5 year old son enjoys this book and has me read it over and over. It's a great book for any little boy who loves race cars.

Michael has done a terrific job of telling his story from the mind of a small boy. My three boys LOVE this story--and from a mom's perspective, it captures so wonderfully the way little boys play, think, and imagine. The illustrations are fresh and vibrant, the story itself simple and straightforward. All in all, a great children's book.

My Race Car, the second in a series which started with My Fire Engine, is another hit by Michael Rex. The books in this series portray a young boy who, while playing with his toys, pretends he is a race care driver. For anyone that ever played pretend with their toys it brings back memories. For the child you will read this book to, it inspires them to dream a little dream. This book as well as My Fire Engine are must buys.

I've always enjoyed William Nack on ESPN's Sports Century programs, and I'd read some of these selections in Sports Illustrated. It's great to have a collection of such eloquent sportswriting. The characters he writes about come to life. Even non sports fans would enjoy the features on Secretariat, Bobby Fishcher, and Bob Kalzu. In a nutshell, this is a treasure. Next how about a book of Gary Smith's SI stories?

I thought this book would be for sports enthusiasts only. Instead, it is actually a compilation of beautiful human interest stories that capture and inspire the hearts and minds of its readers. I highly recommend this book for boys and girls, young and old.

Bill Nack reports the "back stories" of human and equine athletes better than anyone around and this collection of some of his best work kept me turning the pages for more. From Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston to Secretariat, interesting and important figures from the world of sports are shown as human (or animal) beings, not simply athletic commodities. Nack's writing is elegant without being flowery, and often ironic. This book is a terrific read. The best quote in the collection is attributed to Liston and the meanest person was Rocky Marciano.

I found it really interesting.On a scale of 1 to 10, I rate it at a 50.Even my 18-year old brother and my dad read it.We also read #5 and #6. I think T.B. Calhoun is a terrific writer.I enjoy how he elaborates on every little and big thing.I can't wait until he comes out with more.I really look forward to reding the others. I even would like to read the ones that I have already read again.

My son doesn't like to read, but he loves NASCAR racing. We picked up this book on Mon. it's Wed. He has read half of the book with out any encouragement from us. He is 9yr. old. The first night he read for an hour. At 10:00 we had to tell him to turn the light out because he had school the next day. He think's it is so good he has shared it with his friend and asked me to read,"cause it is so good, and it has mystery and adventure in it". If your child like auto racing they will love the book.

My sons (8&9) love NASCAR and couldn't believe their eyes when they saw the 1st two books in this series. They loved them. Our only regret is that the new ones won't be available until 1999.

Wonderful book from a series that provides hours of fun reading, especially for kids who are Nascar fans.

This is number 2 in the NASCAR series and it is just as good as number 1 (Race Ready). In The Groove is in the groove. If you like cars you will love this book. The characters are very interesting. It was a fast read. I cannot wait for number 3!

This book has a lot of action. My mom and I really enjoyed reading it together. I would like to read all of the Nascar series that he wrote.

The photo on page p. 209 of Jacques Anquetil climbing the Aubisque is one of the most amazing photographs I've ever seen. It's all in there. I'm going to buy another copy just to cut that photo out and frame it.

2003 saw the 100th birthday of the Tour de France, the world's most famous bike race. This book was released at the beginning of the centenary year as part of the race's birthday celebrations.

The race was created by a newspaper called L'Auto, the forerunner of today's sports newspaper L'Equipe. The race's organisers worked closely with L'Equipe in the production of this book. Thanks to L'Equipe's involvement, the book had the pick of a huge amount of material dating back to the Tour's inception. The collection of photographs used is incredible and is the main strength of the book. The Tour is a tough enough race today, but being able to see what sort of conditions and equipment the cyclists had to endure in the early days.....well, phrases like 'seeing is believing' and 'every picture tells a thousand stories' could've been formed with these pages in mind. It was also nice being able to finally put a face to some of the famous names - the likes of Coppi, Bobet and Anquetil.

Essentially, the book begins in 1903, and has something similar to a chapter for each edition of the race. The level of detail varies from year to year - the years where there was a 'big' story are generally given the luxury of an extra couple of pages. These would include, for example, 1998's Festina Affair, Merckx's and Hinault's first wins (1969 and 1978 respectively), the deaths of Tom Simpson (1967) and Fabio Casartelli (1995) and the completion of the race's first hat-trick by Philippe Thys in 1920. Inevitably, some races are comparatively skimmed over. It would've been nice if, for example, the 1960 race had been given some extended coverage also, when Roger Reviere crashed in the mountains and broke his back.

For the most part, the writing centres on the battle for the yellow jersey. L'Auto was responsible for the creation of the famous yellow jersey. In 1919, it arranged for a special jersey to be presented to the race leader so spectators could easily identify him. As the newspaper was printed on yellow paper, they chose yellow as the colour for the jersey. Of course, this would've done no harm to the newspaper sales either.

Little is said, however, about the battles for the race's other jerseys. The King of the Mountains (polka dot) jersey was introduced in 1933, while the Sprinter's (green) jersey was introduced 20 years later, in 1953. They are given some coverage in the stats section at the back of the book, but really only mentioned in passing throughout the book. The combined and red jerseys that were formerly a part of the Tour don't even get a mention in the stats section - though the combined jersey, at least, does make an appearance in one or two photographs. These are only minor quibbles, it has to be said. These omissions are understandable, given all that has happened in this race over the years, and that there was always going to be a limited amount of space available ! This is an incredible book, one that should be owned by anyone who is even vaguely interested in sport.

A sumptuous volume. I found I had to ration my reading to three years at a sitting to avoid finishing it too quickly. A perfect balance of history, anecdote, statistics and photographs.

One thing to bear in mind is that this book is written by the tour organisation. The organisation is rarely at fault for the mishaps and scandals down the years.

One technical quibble is that I don't seem to be able to avoid making smudges on the page edges, no matter now carefully I handle the pages.

No-one is going to be disappointed by this book. I may buy several more copies to give as gifts.

I thought this book was an exciting book because in every part of the book there was something happening. I also liked it because it had a lot in it about biking and how to get started in biking with out showing it directly. It also showed that if your a kind of lazy person who just sits and watches television all the time that you can get out and do something to make yourself proud like doug did on the book.

Olympic Dream by Matt Christopher is an extremely amusing, in my opinion. This book takes place in a small town in the U.S., late 1980's. It is about an adolescent boy. Doug, who meets a man, Red, that completely changes his life. They become friends and Red teaches Doug to ride a bike. The reasons I am recommending this book are, that the author was very descriptive on every part including the characters and setting. He went into superb detail about each characters personality. He described the setting which was the town so that you could visualize it as you were reading it. For instance he described the arcade and old wooden shack with 6 arcade machines each costing a quarter to play. He also made this book have a wonderful moral. This book teachers a lesson that stuck in my head and sticks in others heads too. The moral was never give up and never stop trying. Even though he described the book well he didn't describe it enough to make it boring. Some people say that the problem with this book is that there wasn't a main character. That can be exceptional or miserable but in my opinion that is extraordinary. I think having more than one main character is remarkable because the story isn't focused on one person but on three or four people. This makes the story more absorbing. The three main characters lives all connect. One is the best man in Doug's sisters wedding. Doug is taught to ride a bike by Red (the best man) and they all support each other and it shows different points of view.

This book was fantastic! It really explains how to become a true Olympian. I really encourage people to read this great book!

Mike O'Leary's OUTLAW SPRINTS puts the reader so close to the track you start sneezing. The small cars with big wings that are built from start to finish in a week, tear up the track when they come close to flying. If you have a dirt track near and its a Saturday, then you know they sometimes do fly.
These cars and their drivers are what make motor sport racing an intimate personal event for the owners, the drivers, the fans, the pit crews and the neighbors who live near the track.
A must for every shelf of a true race fan.
Nash Black, author of QUALIFYING LAPS and TRAVELERS.

Mike O'Leary's book is outstanding. A person who has no background in American racing can easily understand the sport after reading this. Great photos and solid information. This book is a pleasure.

Husband loves his Christmas present. There was some delay to get it by Dec 25th, but not a problem. Receiving after the 25th just stretched the holiday out further. I had ordered other books too so it wasn't like he had no books.
The item was as it is described. Reasonable wait time to get it. Great customer service from Amazon.
No problems.

Yes, it's getting close to the end of 2008, but get either this book or the next version, for some real study on the mechanics of the rules and case studies.

In the case studies, is where this book really earns its price. There are clearly illustrated scenarios that make you understand the rules _in application_.

I can't see how a serious racer can get by without this book in their arsenal. It won my boat a protest just a few weeks ago in a situation with two port boats and a crossing starboard boat!

Besides being a great resource, it has the plastic cut-outs so useful in explaining the rules or recreating scenarios on the water.

I like this book so well my son is going to order his own copy.

This book has become the usual refernce source for every racer and Race Officer

Excellent picturs, and data on the cars. I reccommend this book, although amazon packing was not the best.

As a fan of prototype race cars especially the Porsche 956/962 it's nice to finally see a book on this. Haynes publshing and Peter Morgan do it again with another detailed, thoroughly researched book on Porsches. Great photos with coverage of the IMSA series, Group C and races in Japan. A chassis record and race results are included. I highly recommend this book!!

Peter Morgan has done an excellent job of taking what could be a dry and technical subject and making it an easy and enjoyable read. If you like the Porsche 956/962 series of race cars, this book is a must-have, with outstanding pictures and text that helps explain the origins of the cars as well as the fascinating technical background - and all in such a way that even a novice to the world of sports car racing would understand and enjoy. And did I mention that the pictures in this book are outstanding?

This is the best of the Dr. Walker books. It's a concise treatice on all the tactical elements needed for around the buoys racing.

Dr Walker's book, Positioning, has provided me with an integrated and logical framework with which to formulate my own racing strategy. The categorisation of beats and runs into category I, II or III conditions and a thorough discusion of the principles pertinent to each, greatly simplify the process of data collection and effective strategic decision making during a race. The book is made very readable by Dr Walker's use of interesting examples from races in soling yachts conducted at a high level (names such as Torben Grael, Buddy Melges and Hans Fogh feature regularly). The book integrates much of the content of Dr Walker's earlier books such as Advanced Racing Tactics into a far more digestible format which is suitable for beginners, but also is beneficial for experienced sailors wishing to achieve true mastery of sail boat strategy and wind shifts.

This is the book by Stuart Walker which cleared a lot of things up for me -- I go back to it constantly, especially when there are areas of my racing that I want cleared up a bit. As he likes to do, the author has plenty of real-race situations from which he draws his experience. This one is out of print, but keep checking out-of-print sources; it is well worth the search!