Racing Books

This book is incredibly hard to find...and with good reason. It chronicles the early career of John Morton, a sports car racing driver, and the way the money end of the sport works (in the early '70's of course) and how teams are structured and the commitment required to "be good" at racing. I'm on the inside of racing. I crew on a sports car and have worked as a press photographer for over ten years in all types of professional motorsports. I've seen what it's really like. If you want to find out what it's really like....read this book. It has no peer.

This is the only book available that gives a detailed look as the brief Trans-AM 2.5 Challenge series. This short lived race series introduced sedan racing to America and produced many memorable battles between Alfa, Datsun and BMW. This book was invaluable in researching the Trans-AM history for the popular BSedan.com web site. Highly recommended!

Edward Marston is the pseudonym of Keith Miles, a fairly prolific and extremely good writer of mainly Elizabethan and medieval mysteries. He has also written mysteries under his own name with both sporting and golf backgrounds. However it is primarily the books that take place earlier in history that I am interested in. He read modern history at Oxford and has had many jobs, including university lecturer, but fortunately for all his readers, he turned to the writing profession.

After reading the first book in the series, I avidly sought out all the other books by Edward Marston and not a single one has ever disappointed me. They are about a period of history that I love. His Elizabethan theatre series of books were wonderful and he has continued them through from 1988 to 2006. The Domesday series is also a great series and this is the second book in the series.

The Domesday series is about a period in England's history shortly after the Norman conquest , during the reign of William the Conqueror. It was King William himself who called for an `inventory' to assess taxes and survey landholdings. This inventory was called the Domesday book and was a tremendous undertaking, but one that brought stability to England. Edward Marston's Domesday novels are based upon actual entries in the Domesday Book.

Another superb medieval whodunnit from the master of the genre. The plot has the five central characters, Ralph, Gervase, Golde, Hubert and Simon involved in another investigation of land disputes in the doomsday book. In this case one of the claimants is murdered during a horse race. As usual the plot has many twists but it is the rapier witt diologue between the characters that makes this an immensely enjoyable read.

Reviewed by April Sullivan for Reader Views (5/06)
"Starlight's Shooting Star" is the fourth book in the Starlight Series for young readers and it continues the momentum of the first three. This book starts exactly one year after we first met Miranda Stevens in "Miranda and Starlight." Two of the three wishes she made on the first day of school a year ago have come true. Her first wish was to have friends. She now has many including her best friends Laurie and Chris, Mr. Taylor's grandson Elliot, and finally Margot, Adam's daughter.

Miranda's second wish was to own her own horse. She is now half owner of Starlight and is allowed to ride him whenever she would like, with the stipulation that she must show a jockey how she has trained Starlight. It seems she is the only person that the horse will not throw off his back. Miranda shows Colton Spencer how love and respect have won Starlight's heart. Colton takes her advice and Starlight wins first place in a race.

Miranda's third wish was for a regular family. And this wish looks more and more unlikely to come true. Her real dad is dead and she does not like Adam, her mom's new fiancý. But in an exciting turn of events we find out that her father Barry Stevens is actually alive and well. And he makes an appearance in Montana shaking up the entire new family situation.
The multiple plot lines and long term investment in the characters gives children in a classroom or family setting the chance to discuss the many complex issues in the series. For example, in "Starlight's Shooting Star" a foal is born to Queen and Starlight, named Shooting Star. Mr. Taylor is upset to find out that Miranda let her stallion get close enough to the mare to produce a baby, but he is even more distressed when he finds out that their offspring is not pure black in color. A DNA test proves that Starlight does not have the dominant genes needed to produce the pure black foal his ranch is known for breeding. It is interesting to note how the horses are prized for their pure black color, while Mr. Langley is ostracized for his African-American heritage.

The Starlight Series gets better and better as I find myself more involved with the characters. Janet Muirhead Hill uses the chapters to their fullest potential. As each one comes to an end, she leaves the reader hanging and wanting to know more. This technique is essential in keeping young boys and girls interested in reading. And perfect for a family reading the book aloud together. With two more books to go, there is still so much more that can happen!

Miranda Stevens was now in the sixth grade. Laurie and Chris were still her best friends. They rode their horses together as often as possible. It was becoming less and less due to Chris's horse, Queen, being pregnant and Mr. Taylor had decided it was time for Starlight to begin racing.

Colton Spencer was hired to be Starlight's trainer and jockey. Unlike the previous trainer, Adam, this one was kind. Colton actually listened to Miranda and took her advice on how to train Starlight.

Miranda's mother was still engaged to Adam and the wedding day was drawing near. Miranda went to visit them briefly and met Adam's daughter, Margot. A shaky friendship began between the two girls. Margot kept to herself, seldom spoke, and cried every night because she missed her mother. Margot had seldom seen her father before her mother died. Worse, Adam was showing his temper more often and Miranda's mom never noticed Adam's cruelness to anyone. When Miranda goes back to her grandparents, Margot goes with her. Slowly Margot begins to bloom.

**** I know a great series when I read one! They are hard to find, but here is one just waiting for young readers to discover!

I can not tell too much more without spoiling the story. So much happens in this book! Grandpa has an accident while with a calf, Miranda and a few classmates become lost while exploring some caves (during a school field trip), and a surprising new character throws everyone for a loop!

This is book four of six and, in my opinion, the best one yet! Apparently I am not the only reader who believes this to be an outstanding series. A recent article in "The Billings Gazette" reports that shooting has begun in Montana for the MOVIE "Miranda and Starlight"! Yes, you read that correctly. It is all about to become a movie. EXCELLENT! *****

I've always had a huge passion for anything having to do with dirt bikes, and this book is one of my favorites! It's got some great air shots, and it shows some of the best bikes in supercross history! Any dirt bike lover, like me, should get this book.

This book is excellent for anyone interested in supercross and/or motorcross. It's got everything you need to know about this awesome off-road sport in 96 pages between two covers. Oh yeah, great pictures too.

I read the Bonnie books when I was a kid, and I still remember them twenty years or so later as some of the best books I read. Great stories for any girl who likes horses, or boys, or both.

This is the start of a series about a race horse named Bonnie and the girl who saves her from some scam artists. It's full of mystery and suspense and will touch the heart of all who love horses and horse racing.

Taking the Wall is a selection of short stories about the dreams and aspirations of all the would-be Nascar racers across the southern states of America. Jonis Agee has captured the thrill of winning, but more often the frustration of not being to make it to the big one whether it be car failure, money, or skill. But to these backyard racers, there is always the next one. Maybe the car won't take the wall this time and the frustrated racer will finally win.

Racing is an obsession to them and because of it families will crumble and divorces will ensue. But this does not deter the racer. He will follow his dream to the end.

Three paragraphs really jumped out at me while reading this book of short stories. One in "The First Obligation":

"I mean a whole life can't come down to this collection of furniture and photographs, like a bunch of trophies you win in go-cart for just showing up--what kind of a race is that? I mean the sun's going down, my car engine's blown, and I can't even remember enough of my life to cry good tears over it. I feel like I'm rolling loose, about to hit the wall again, and no one's looking anymore."

And later

"A dream is something you die for," she'd told him, and he'd looked at her, lying drained of blood as if her own dream and not his father's was the thing he should fear. He'd understood then that she loved her husband, that his father hadn't forced her to what was her death bed, she had climbed into it herself. They were lucky, these two people, his parents, he'd come to realize over the next few years. Lucky because they';d been true to their dreams and because they knew what those dreams were. Recognized them out of all the others that must have presented themselves like dancers at the dance."

and finally in the short story, "Mystery Numbers":

"Late summer when Dale Earnhardt had driven into the wall at the start of the Mountain Dew Southern 500, they said he experienced 'a transient alteration of his consciousness.' Tom was thinking he needed one of those, but hoped it wouldn't take a smack in the wall to do it."

These men (and women) always hope that they will be one day up there with the Earnhardts, the LaBontes, the Martins. That is not the main reason, though. It is the car. It is the love of the car and the need for speed. And they keep trying.

This book takes the wall, and keeps going. Flashes of grace illuminate these stories of workaday people who dream of something more. Agee's blue-collar characters come out of the curve in terribly mixed up and out-of-control circumstances, and nearly always manage to grab the wheel and steer the course. If only we all had their sense of direction. Take this book for a spin--it handles well.

As a big fan of Jim Clark and the Indianapolis 500, I had to have this book for my very large Indianapolis 500 memorabilia collection. Although Lotus wasn't the first rear-engine race car in Indianapolis 500 (Jack Brabham did it in 1961 with a Cooper-Climax), the Lotus was the most successful of the mid-1960's marques. Jim Clark won the the 1965 Indianapolis 500 and the Lotus he drove was the first rear-engine race car to win the race. The "Old Guard" was upset that they got beat by a Green car but soon everyone either had a Lotus or a Lotus clone. In addition to winning the Indianapolis 500 in 1965, Jim Clark finished 2nd in the 1963 and 1966 races.

Many fans of motor racing and of the Indy "500" in particular are always on the lookout for more inside stories and details about the men who race and the teams behind them. This book gives the inside story of Lotus' involvement at Indianapolis in great heaping handfuls. Unlike many motor racing books which focus primarily on facts and statistics, Ferguson adds a great deal of his personal perspective into the book. There is even an account about the author and Colin Chapman competing for the attention of the same woman! Even though the book focuses on Lotus, it is a valuable reference for anyone who wants to learn more about the big bucks and politics involved with racing at "The Speedway" in the 1960's. Packed with great B&W as well as color photographs.

Saratoga Race Course is the definition in sports on how time can stand still. It is a throwback in an era of throwaway.

For about a month in the summer, the focus of the Thoroughbred racing world is directed at a facility older than Wrigley Field, with tradition well-versed in blue-bloods, rogues and immortal runners who may have charged to the winner's circle or suffered legendary defeats in the "Graveyard of Champions." And that may apply to the blue-bloods and rogues as much as the runners!

Edward Hotaling pens the definitive book on racing at Saratoga. The oversize paperback also tells the history through ample photographs of the personalities and racers that makes the track a living hall of fame.

They're Off is a gate-to-wire champion.

A beautiful history of the oldest sports venue in the United States. Reading it made me long to have experienced the spa in years gone by. If you are into the history of horse racing, this book is a must read.

When I wrote my review of this book there was only one other, written by G.M. Kingsley III, which starts with the line: "This book isn't very popular, because it's old and because it's English.", which I found strange as not only was my first reading in a copy out of my local public library here on Long Island, NY. But it was also one of the few books the library had on the shelf dealing with the topic. I can only surmise, knowing what I do about our library's acquisition process is that someone had selected this book based on knowledge that it stood out in its field of study.

This is one of the better books that I have read covering a broad spectrum of information on the sport of sailboat racing, but it is not written for someone who doesn't have a good foundation in general sailing knowledge. You really have to know your terminology to read this book as it starts off right away with the basic rules a captain must know in order to race.

In the chapters such as "Wind, Weather, Waves and Currents" and " Tactics and the Wind" Creagh-Osborne goes beyond racing providing a level of knowledge that falls under the title of "Seamanship", which is incredibly detailed with information that everyone who skippers a boat of any sort, shape, or size should be "required" to know.

If you're looking for a book to develop a foundation in sailing knowledge as well as starting in racing pick up Alan Brown's "Invitation To Sailing", or Stephen Falk's "The Foundations of Sailboat Racing". Brown's objective was clearly to provide a training manual for Junior Sailors, even including a section on how to develop instructors, and is written for someone new to the sport, covering the basics of both sailing and seamanship all the way to starting in racing to intermediate helmsmanship. Brown's book doesn't cover the material at the level of Richard Creagh-Osborne's "This Is Racing". In comparison Falk's book reads more like Creagh-Osborne's, without the level of detail.

Osborne's book is a masterpiece all in and of its own but he is writing for a more advanced sailor then Brown or Falk. Brown's diagrams are much easier to understand on a first reading. He covers the topics at hand selectively, and although Falk's are just as selective in their coverage of the topics quite a few of them are unfortunately faulted (in some the sail doesn't appear on the right tack to match the content and in others the text is so small and is unreadable). Whereas Creagh-Osborne's diagrams are extensive, jam packed with details and information covering many more possibilities. Creagh-Osborne also uses a broad spectrum of media from diagrams and photos to photos of models with NFL Football looking play-by-play arrows.

Reading these books in conjunction with each other will provide an excellent foundation in both the aspects of seamanship that are missed in most other books and racing from beginning to intermediate and advanced levels. If you are only going to buy two, go with Creagh-Osborne and Brown.

This book isn't very popular, because it's old and because it's English. But, it's clearly written, profusely and clearly illustrated, and it covers the important points (tactics, wind shifts, etc) in a very organized and concise fashion.

The book's main focus is one-design monohull dinghy racing -- the essence of the sport, in my opinion. And it doesn't have a lot of material on the racing rules, which is good because they change every three years anyway. If you buy any book on this topic, you should also pick up a book on the current (2005 to '08, as of this writing) IYRU rules.

Form cycle analysis has become mainstream for handicappers of horse racing and Cramer's book here is probably the most complete on the subject. He discusses what to look for in identifying cycles from horse past performances, and includes material on how trainers fall into cycles and patterns of winning and losing as well. His methods will always have a place in the game because you will never duplicate Cramer's observations with computer programs. Cramer's material is always well written and easy to understand for students of the game.

Mark Cramer has written the most thought provoking tome I've read. There are many excellent books on the "SCIENCE" of handicapping. But this book brings home the the reality that races are won by flesh and blood animals prepared by mortals (trainers) who are fraught with their own strengths and weaknessses.Anyone who extrapolates figures from services or computer programs water down the past performance to a number. Predicting the future(handicapping the "ART"), is far more involved in "cycles". This book is a must read for all serious handicappers