Racing Books

This book contains 17 close-up, clear and current photographs of motocross riders in action. The book outlines the types of bikes used, the equipment necessary and safety measures. I feel it is a great book for a young reader interested in motocross. Although it is RL2, I would say it might be a higher reading level. There are words such as suspension, equipment and others that might be difficult for a young reader. The book is well constructed with a hard bound cover and heavy weight pages. It provides additional resources in the back via websites and other books.

I got this book because we were going to check out MotoGP in the Czech Republic. It gave us great info on the track and what the best places to sit would be to get the best experience. It also has info on the indivial riders which is always a good read. Rossi won the race.

This book focuses solely on the premier 990cc class of MotoGP motorcycle road-racing and is full of beautiful color photos of bikes, riders, and paddock/umbrella girls. Many pages consist of large, full-page photos and the emphasis is as much on the artistic quality of the sport as on the raw race data and results. There are also several full-page advertisements, and even double-page spreads, from MotoGP sponsors. Fortunately, these are done in such a way as to make them appear part of the annual, but it is dissappointing to pay so much for something with advertisements.

After a Forward by "King" Kenny Roberts, the premier class World Champion in 1978-1980, the next 10 pages (3 of them advert pages) are devoted to a text and photo overview of the 2006 season. The next 6 pages (1 being an ad for the MotoGP Xbox game) cover the Riders' Rider of the Year award and its winner.

The next 9 pages are really sweet, consisting of a detailed technical and photographic look at the Honda RC211V ridden by 2006 World Champion Nicky Hayden. This is followed by 14 pages and 1 ad page covering the 7 motorcycle models, which were raced in 2006. Each bike has a 2-page annotated photo of each bike, wiith text and sub-photos, except the Ilmor, which gets only a single page.

The next 15 pages (4 of them ads) take a look at each rider during the season, including Wildcard and Replacement riders. Each rider feature includes a text bio, a photo, and a chart showing the qualifying and finishing position for each round during the 2006 season. The top riders get more space, while the replacements and wildcards get considerably less and lack the chart of the regular riders.

The heart of the book is devoted to the races and covers pages 63-200, including the index. Each round gets 8 pages, six filled with photos and a narrative of the race, and two filled with charts and stats, with only a couple small photos in one corner of the two-page spread.

The information contained on these two pages includes:

1. Race stats (date, length, distance, weather, winner, fastest lap, and previous lap record)

2. A detailed track map, including the names of significant corners and both the speed and gear used at all corners and the fastest spots on the track.

3. A color-coded "lap map" shows the position of each rider on each lap crossing at the finish line, allowing an easy way of identifying which riders DNF'd and any major position battles during the race. It also shows the rider number next to each rider name for easy reference.

4. A Qualifying chart, showing the name, nationality, team sponsor, qualifying time, and how far behind their time was from the pole and the position in front of them.

5. A Race chart, showing the rider name, bike model, full race time, amount behind the race leader, fastest lap time for each rider, and average speed of each.

6. A Championship chart showing the points standings after the race.

7. A small paragraph describing the race from the perspective of each rider, in their finish order.


The final 9 pages consist of 4 pages on the Riders for Health program, 4 pages of adverts (tho one is a full page photo of World Champ Nicky Hayden) and a page showing the final season standings for the riders, the manufactures, and the teams. It also contains two a small photo with all three MotoGP champions and the final season standings for the 125cc and 250cc classes.


Overall, this is an excellent look at the premier class of MotoGP, motorcycle racing's premier circuit. It is full of beautiful color photos and contains a nice mixture of text and stats. The layout is superb and the book can be enjoyed as a photo album, a good read, or as a reference of the 2006 MotoGP season. Highly recommended to any racing fan.

Well justified receipient of the above.

This book was realy good. I learned alot about dirtbikes thats why I recomend this book to anyone that likes dirtbikes especially bigginers. It tells you about the clutch throttle etc. So if you like dirtbikes check out this book.

I am building a dragster motorcycle and with the book I saved many hours of search in magazines looking for this kind of motorcycles, the book is the only one that I know of the subject, very well ilustrated and very informative, always you learn something new!

The primary focus of this annual are the three MotoGP World Championship classes of road-racing: 125cc, 250cc and MotoGP (990cc).

The book begins with a small feature article on Michelin tires used in motorcycle road-racing and an editorial by the authors.

The first major section of the book details all the Teams in seperate subsections for each class. Each subsection starts with a "class photo" spread showing all riders at the opening race. The following pages detail each of the teams and each rider on those teams. This is done with a page of text on the left and photos of the riders on their bikes on the right. This section spans pages 12-57.

Pages 58-71 detail each of the three major series champions, with a double-page photo of the three on their bikes at the end of the season, followed by four pages devoted to each rider.

The meat of the book runs from pages 58-171. Six pages are devoted to each race, starting with a double-page photo spread, a page describing the race overall, and a page for each of the three classes. The class pages include the starting grid with qualifying times, the final race positions and times, fastest lap times, and a chart showing the championship points after the race. Additionally, a small paragraph or sentence described the pre-race outlook, the qualifying, the start and a short description of the action in each lap of the race. The US round is 2 pages shorter as there was no 125 or 250 racing in the US.

The next 6 pages show the final season standings for each of the three classes.

Finally, the book ends with the results of other major road-racing championships around the world in pages 180-192. The results are less comprehensive and consist of a paragraph list of the finish order and final race times for each rider at each race in each classification, followed by final points standings for the top ten riders and points standings for each manufacturer.

The other racing championships covered in this final section include:
World Superbike
World Supersport
World Endurance
FIM Superstock
World Side-Cars
125cc European Championship
250cc European Championship
Supersport 600cc European Championship
Superstock 600cc European Championship
AMA Supersport
AMA Superstock
AMA Superbike
AMA Formula Xtreme
125cc German
German Supersport
German Superbike
German Side-Cars
Spanish 125cc
Spanish Supersport
Spanish Formula Xtreme
French 125cc
French Supersport
French Superproduction/Supersport
French Side-Cars
British 125cc
British Supersport
British Superstock
British Superbike
Italian 125cc
Italian Supersport
Italian Superstock 1000 Under 30
Italian Superbike
Swiss Superstock 600
Swiss Superstock 1000
Swiss Supermotard (7 classes)

While it contains a lot of stats, it isn't anything like a baseball encyclopedia. The book is designed with a lot of white-space, which gives it a more "art" appeal than the standard encyclopedia or reference. The photo are all in brilliant color and contain close-up action shots as well as a few small "cheesecake" shots of paddock and umbrella girls.

The primary appeal of this book over other MotoGP annuals is that it covers the 125cc and 250cc classes. Secondarily, the descriptions of action on a lap-by-lap basis gives it data not found in the other major MotoGP review annual. Third, it is complete in that it includes the results of the other major road-racing championships, such as the Superbike and Superstock classes, which feature riders that may be in MotoGP in a few years. Finally, the price is awesome, especially the current Amazon price on this-year's edition ($14). While older editions of the other annual cost $35 each, this one can be had back to 2002 for $20 each (current pricing).

This fabu book covers it all~ even though it is from 1976, things just don't change a lot in the sailing world. 152 pages of racing strategies, hobie cat maintainence and tips for use. woo hoo! it is the best!

There are very few books that are able to give the reader an insight into the early history of man and machine, their bond and intermingling like a separate species of creation. We look into the past and we faint shallow of understanding,...close but not close enough. Photography can say much more than any words penned by any man or woman of any day or age, to give attest to the wonders of the pioneers that paved the way in the world of hot rodding. Sadly, the world of hot rodding came to an end in the 1950s, with the advent of the drag cars, and show cars. Now our ears burn at the very mention of "Rat rods" and "street rods",..terms that had come of age far away in a time of automobile molestation! True hot rodding was and will always be about the ability to make an average jalopy do unimaginable things that it shouldnt be able to do....not how rusty and fragile or how much paint one can mix and make shine like the cosmos!

William Carrol is one of the most important pieces to the puzzle of the world of hot rodding,..true hot rodding!

Thank you for giving us a past to look upon and study,..a feast for the eyes and a fire in our bellies to savor more history with every page!

If you're a race fan or if you get nostalgic about the heroes of your youth, this book is for you. I was skeptical at first about how much I would really learn about Jimmy Bryan since this isn't formatted like most biographies. It turns out that I learned more about him as a person than I have ever learned from any biography. Learning about someone through the eyes of a child's experience and relationship with their hero is refreshing and priceless. An incredible story. You couldn't make this up and have it be any better. I was sad to get to the end of the book. This is one book I will read every year.