Racing Reviews

This is a very good book, it really goes behind the scenes of NASCAR. It tells the story like you are the owner of the car. It cleared up a lot of stuff for me.

A truly excellant book. It really helps you learn what NASCAR is and does off of the track. It stages you as a team owner, and takes you from race weekend to building an engine. I really suggest you getting this book.

As my good friend Art Vandalay likes to say, "YCLMFN"! As an avid motocross dresser, I can say these ladies know how to wear the gear!

This has to be the top motocross calendar on the market! All the top factory supercross stars like Jerremy McGrath, the top off-road racing stars including Larry Roessler, all shot by top race photographer Kenney Jones. Plus super sexy magazine cover girls Jaime Pressly and Francine Dee in the skimpest bikini's! YEOW! Better than any other motocross calendar on the market. BUY IT!

The Big Bike Race by Lucy Jane Bledsoe

In The Big Bike Race the main characters are Sonny, Ernest, Melissa and Grandma. His Grandma has raised Ernest and his sister, Melissa since the death of their parents. Ernest wanted a sleek bike for his tenth birthday. Instead he gets a chunky yellow one with streamers and baskets hanging off. Since his family is poor he wasn't too sad when he got a bad bike.

He thought if he won the junior division of the Citywide Cup he would win the new sleek bike. Then he met a professional racer named Sonny. Sonny, his coach, taught Ernest to be a good bike racer. Sonny said that it's better to have a great body and a bad bike instead of the other way around.

The Citywide Cup took place in Washington D.C. Ernest was really good but his bike was too heavy so he finished in thirteenth place. This is amazing because he only got about a month to train. Ernest got lucky because he was friends with Sonny , who won the race and got the new bike. He gets Sonny's old bike which is better than his yellow clunker.

I think Ernest will win his next race because he has a good body and a good bike now.

I liked this book because it shows you don't have to do everything without help.Ernest didn't give up when he lost the bike race. His friendship with Sonny taught him how to be a good bike racer and helped him earn a new bike.This book is good because it presents a believable story. So bike on down to your closest library and get this book!

Reviewed by Eli (8 years old)

This book is about a boy named Ernie who dreams of being a bike racer, but is poor. He gets a secondhand yellow clunker, not a racing bike, but he learns that your determination speeds you up more than your bike.

One of the best parts is the bikes and the pictures. The chapters are short so young kids can read this book. There isn't anything I didn't like about this book.

Theas is a great book for bmx riders. It tells a lot of stuf like how to clean your bike and more!

No NASCAR driver showed greater grit and determination than Robert Arther Allison. Born in Miami in a large family, Bobby Allison learned competitiveness right away. He started racing in Hialeah, Florida under an alias, and his mother's first sight of his racing came when he tumbled down the frontstretch right in front of her.

Ben White, of Winston Cup Scene, authors this overdue look back at a stock car career filled with triumph - and ultimately destroyed. He includes voluminous quotes from Bobby Allison on the entirety of his career.

Allison, his new wife Judy, and their year-old son David Carl moved from Miami to Hueytown, Alabama in 1962 to race on that state's rich short track circuit. Bobby was soon joined by younger brother Donnie, and the two built a race shop that soon became famous throughout the sport. It was in Alabama that Bobby struck up a friendship with Charles "Red" Farmer, perhaps the state's greatest short tracker, and a future winner of Daytona's Permatex 300 for superspeedway Late Model Sportsman cars. Bobby and Donnie would also take under their wing a happy-go-lucky pipe fitter who competed against them, named Neil Bonnett.

Bobby Allison competed in NASCAR's Modified Tour and finished high in points several times, but his goal was the Grand National Series. He began competing there almost immediately with his own equipment, and in 1966 at Oxford, Maine, he drove a well-worn Chevrolet to his first Grand National victory. He won several more times that year and early in 1967, but then came the first big break. Holman-Moody was the primary raceshop for Ford's Grand National efforts, and with Richard Petty driving his Plymouth to 27 wins that year, Ford went berserk looking for a driver who could stop him. Fred Lorenzen recommended Bobby Allison, and at the tail end of the 1967 season, Allison won at Rockingham and at Ashville-Weavervile, NC. The win at Ashville came after a heated car-banging duel with Petty - but the first of such showdowns.

By 1969 Allison had left Holman-Moody and joined up with Mario Rossi of Dodge. Campaigning Rossi's #22 Dodges and those fielded out of his own Hueytown shop, Bobby ran for the Grand National title, but finished a frustrating second to Bobby Isaac in 1970.

Along the way, Bobby had acquired sponsorship from Coca-Cola, and it proved vital over the next two seasons. The withdrawal of the factories from NASCAR injured the sport greatly, even though in 1971 Winston cigarettes came on board with a series sponsorship package that would eventually overcome the recession caused by the factory withdrawal. Without the factories, Allison left the defunct Rossi team and was very hard pressed to campaign his own cars. Finally, in May of that year, Ralph Moody of Holman-Moody came calling again, and Bobby took his Coke sponsorship into what would prove to be one of the strongest rides he'd ever had. Bobby rocketed to nine wins in the Holman-Moody Mercury and during this stretch challenged Richard Petty week in and week out. The result was some of the most exciting racing the sport had ever seen - and some of the nastiest, for no two personalities clashed more viciously than Richard Petty and Bobby Allison. The most dramatic clash of the two in 1971 came at the Talladega 500. Three wide with Pete Hamilton in the final mile, Allison slapped doors with Petty, sending him into Hamilton and sending both off the track.

When Holman-Moody disbanded after 1971, Allison took his Coke backing to the Chevrolet team of Charlotte Motor Speedway president Richard Howard, a car wrenched by winning team owner Junior Johnson. The key to the pairing was the hiring of engine builder Robert Yates, with whom Allison had worked at Holman-Moody. The combination pulled down ten victories and led over 4,000 laps, and it too everything Richard Petty could muster to win eight races and stave off the hard-charging Allison in the 1972 points race. This was most decisively shown at North Wilkesboro, NC in October of that year. The two fought ferociously over the course of the final 50 laps, and when Allison became trapped behind a lapped car, the resulting wreck would have eliminated anyone else, but Petty and Allison still went at it, Petty winning with a hard last lap pass. The crowd nearly rioted afterward, and Petty had to be taken to safety after a fan accosted him.

Such feuds were common with Bobby. White unwisely underplays the feuds Bobby had with other drivers, notably Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, and Terry Labonte. Such feuds deserve retelling if for no other reason than for their frequency and ferocity. Allison's determination to win was his greatest strength, but also his greatest weakness, for it led to incidents that were generally avoidable.

One such incident was the controversial National 500 at Charlotte in 1973. Allison protested the 1-2 finish of Cale Yarborough (in the Howard/Johnson Chevrolet) and Richard Petty, claiming both cars ran engines with more cubic inches than allowed by the rules. It turned out Cale's engine was indeed illegal - White implies that Petty's engine was likewise illegal, failing to note that only three of Petty's eight cylinders were checked, and that they averaged out to the then-legal limit of 431 cubic inches - and when the race results stood, Allison filed a lawsuit against NASCAR, a suit dropped after a closed-door meeting with NASCAR president Billy France.

Losing the 1972 title contributed to Bobby leaving the Richard Howard-Junior Johnson team to try again with his own equipment, but each time he ran his own team, "he broke himself," said Donnie Allison. It got so bad that, in 1977, his health deteriorated, and he required trips to the Mayo clinic - trips that seemed to catch most observors off guard.

Allison continued to win in the 1970s, driving for Roger Penske and Bud Moore, but it was with DiGard Racing that Allison achieved his goal of the Winston Cup championship. This time Bobby's arch-enemy was Darrell Waltrip, in the Junior Johnson car. Allison missed no opportunity to taut the Waltrip/Johnson pairing as the NASCAR-approved "company car," and also missed no opportunity to beat them on the track. Allison's 1982 season was what any racer could want - sweeps of races at Daytona and Pocono, and wins at Dover, Michigan, Richmond, and Atlanta - but no championship. The title finally came in 1983, and was the apex of a superlative career.

It was downhill after that. DiGard team owners Jim and Bill Gardner - known in the sport as money guys, for their status as businessmen rather than racers - were essentially con artists, and their race team, built more as a tax write off than anything else, was neglected, especially after the 1983 championship. Ben White provides the alternately fascinating and depressing details of the fall of DiGard Racing, a downfall fully consummated when first Allison, then Robert Yates and crew chief Gary Nelson, quit in 1985.

Allison wound up with Bill and Mickey Stavola, and by the 1988 Daytona 500 his son Davey was a Winston Cup star. The two finished 1-2 in one of the sport's most poignant finishes - a poignancy that took on a more tragic quality that June. On the opening lap of the Miller 500 at Pocono, Allison hit the wall in Turn Two, slid low, and was slammed through the driver's door at full speed by part time racer Chauncy "Jocko" Maggiacomo. Only quick work by the track's safety crew kept Allison on the threshhold of life, but even though he would recover, the crash destroyed Bobby's career.

And it was just the beginning. Bobby formed a race team out of the remains of the team he had won Daytona with, and campaigned for seven seasons with such drivers as Hut Stricklin, Jimmy Spencer, and Derrike Cope. Bobby had a strong deal with Buick, and with them made a very strong effort for race wins in 1991, but when GM disbanded all non-Chevrolet racing efforts other than Pontiac's for 1992, it started the downfall of Bobby Allison Motorsports.

The deaths of Bobby's sons Clifford and Davey - followed by the death of Bobby's lifelong friend and protege Neil Bonnett in 1994 - accelerated the downfall, and affected Judy Allison all the worse. Everything - the race team, and the marriage of Bobby and Judy - finally collapsed in 1996, and by 1997 Bobby was essentially a ruined man; even the mammoth collection of racing trophies he had acquired over his years of racing had to be sold off.

It is a depressing story, not made any better by a somewhat overly optimistic quality in White's retelling. Even the title is a bit deceptive - what had been a Circle Of Triumph has become a Circle of Futility.

But for all that, Bobby Allison's life - and this excellent book - remain worth remembering

This man had an uphill climb right from the get-go,and it seems that EVERYTIME he got almost to the top, SOMETHING or SOMEONE would chop him off at the knees.Then he would start all over again. The WORST thing a father can do is bury a child... HE did 2, plus a couple of close friends along the way AND if that ain't enough.. his wife leaves him! HE starts climbing again. GET the book!

This is the book if you want to find out the general idea of brake systems in cars. The book covers general idea of brake without going into detail. If you have no knowledge about brakes, this should help you to jump on the braking area.

While the front half of this book written by Larry Carley is well-done, it only covers brake basics and original-equipment information. As a racer, I use the second half of the book, written and photigraphed by Mike Mavrigian, which covers racing brake systems in great detail, for every type of racing use. The race section is extremely well done and provides useful information for anyone setting up a brake system on a drag, oval or road race vehicle. The book should be called "Racing Brake Systems," as I've found this to the the information that really helps me. Good for both the beginning racer as well as the seasoned racer. Plenty of great tips, and lots of things I've never thought of before. Very useful.

Positive: for the most part accurate and complete. Lots of European racing, nice pictures, heavy coverage of 80's OPC racing. All in all very few errors. Charlie Strang was one of the main references.

Negative: Some photo captions are switched, some are just plain wrong, some photos are poor quality scans, some are placed for book layout and are out of sequence to the text, some have been altered to suit the text. Book was originally written in French, the translation suffers at some points. No coverage of small boat racing after 1960...no Quincy Loopers, no Crescent CSSH, no modern König, Yamato, Arens, Rossi alky stuff. A few errors due to poor research. Some omissions of motors included in Desomnd's earlier books.

Kevin Desmond has done well to begin and end his history of outboards with electrics motors.
While Desmond focuses on exploding engines, as he must to be historically accurate, he begins with Gustave Trouve on the Seine River in Paris in 1880.
Trove's 11-pound motor was placed in a boat 18 feet long. He achieved a speed of 6.7 mph. This was the first outboard motor of any kind.
Toward the end of the book, Desmond writes "At the very beginning, "the world's first outboard was electric...With increasing concerns for the environment, a small and eccentric number of people have thought the impossible - that one future solution for the outboard sport would be to run again battery-electric motors."
Desmond's attractive book is a well-written and well-researched history. It would be a valuable addition to any nautical library

This short albeit complete book explains many of the basic sailing techniques and tactics that Glenn Bourke used while winning his three world championships. Some of the techniques differ from those suggested by other books (Tillman), but it is difficult to argue with his undeniable success.

A basic knowledge of sailing is assumed, and terms are rarely defined. Some of the tactics employed seem a little unsportsman-like but none really violate the letter of the law. The author's approach to winning can be summed up in his own words, "when you're out there to win you have to be totally selfish and look after number one." Although I and many other sailors wouldn't agree with his philosophy, we do understand his competitiveness and zeal to win. Employing some of his questionable tactics are thus up to the individual. Even if you wouldn't use his suggestions, you should at the very least read up on them so that you can guard against them while you race.

Aside from the questionable tactics, this book does provide you with an excellent basis on how to sail well in a laser. If you follow the many techniques he mentions you will drastically improve your sailing skills. Furthermore you get a glimpse into the life of a fairly interesting character and his take on world championship racing.

This is just an excellent book and has all the information that a laser sailor who wants to be a top one! The three times world champion Glen Bourke shows how a professional sailor should be like!

This is a great book for learning about working with composites out of the home workshop whatever you're doing. Although the title of the book is "Competition Car Composites," only the last chapter deals specifically with the auto racing field. The book is broken down into chapters dealing with the materials used in composites, the tools and equipment, the methods, etc. There is also a chapter that talks about the equipment available to industry and professionals.

Simon McBeaths book clearly explains the different fabrics and outlines the equipment and procedures to start experimenting with composites yourself. The equipment assumes you are working out of the home shop, though there is a chapter on expensive industrial techniques. The book is a little on the wordy side for quick reference when working on a project.

My 6th grade son hates to read but loves Nascar. This was one book he had fun reading. The 60 pages are full of interesting info and good photos. He wrote a good book report about it.

The biography of Dale Earnhardt is the best book I ever read. Ever since I heard about his death I realized who he really is. This book teaches me many facts about Dale Earnhardt's life of being a stock car racer. Not only does it teach me about Dale Earnhardt, it also teaches me about his competitors and how they lost to the champion. Like all biography, this book has information about his life as a child, like where he grew up, how his childhood was and. It also teaches you about his racing career, tells you about all of the championships he won, and how his family was with him racing. Believe it or not, thanks to this book I have a new person to be a fan of, this book told me about his two sons who also race. Another thing is that this book helps me under stand the racing that he did, like what the flags were, penalties, etc. All in all this biography of Dale Earnhardt teaches me about the legendary Dale Earnhardt and then some.
By, Andrew