Racing Reviews

Some really off the wall funny stories, however, it seemed like it was just 'bits and pieces', nothing really complete.

This is a very well written, informative book. I really enjoyed reading the "top ten" for each section. left me wanting more

With the success of the book "Seabiscuit" by Laura Hillenbrand, more books are being issued of some of the great thoroughbred race horses of the 20th century. John Eisenberg, a newspaper journalist from Baltimore, has written a very good biography of Native Dancer, who was the first horse racing hero in the television age. Native Dancer was a huge gray colt who won all but one race in his career, but the race he lost was the biggest one of all, the Kentucky Derby in 1953.

Eisenberg tells the story of Native Dancer similarly to the way Hillenbrand told her story, focusing on the owner, trainer and jockey while weaving it with the personality of the horse and tying it in with the theme of the era (depression in Hillenbrand's case, the discovery of television in the Dancer's case).

The only criticisms are minor. His focus on Native Dancer's loss to Dark Star in the '53 Derby happens in the middle of the book and is so well written that the rest of the book basically pales in comparison. Whether it is fair or not, Native Dancer is famous because of his one loss, so the victories he had after that (including the final two jewels of the Triple Crown) just don't come off as very important.

But this book gave me a great appreciation of Native Dancer. I don't think we'll see a movie of his life like we will with Seabiscuit, but I do hope we'll see more horse racing books from Mr. Eisenberg in the future (he has another that is even better called "The Longest Shot" about 1992 Derby winner Lil E. Tee).

In 1953, Native Dancer, a grey, 3-year-old racehorse bred and owned by Alfred Vanderbilt, captured the hearts and imagination of America and was declared "one of the three most popular figures in the country," along with TV personalities Arthur Godfrey and Ed Sullivan. Winning an incredible twenty-one of his twenty-two races, he was only a few inches away from having a perfect record, losing that one race "by a nose." Horse of the Year in 1954, Native Dancer was an unprecedented choice to grace the cover of Time magazine in May, 1954, just before he retired from racing as a four-year-old.

Author John Eisenberg reports here on the horse, the stable, and all the individuals who were part of his illustrious career, explaining the circumstances which made Native Dancer the darling of the country. Seen by more race fans than any other racehorse in history, thanks to America's recent discovery of the joys of television, he stood out visually from the pack and became "America's first matinee idol." When he began racing in 1952, World War II had been over for only a few years, and the fifties were a decade in which "institutions were to be admired, not challenged." Americans "saw their country as wealthy and invincible," and Native Dancer became a symbol of this power. He was, in fact, so big and so powerful that when he ran, "you could draw a horizontal straight line from his airborne back feet to the tips of his forelegs," his stride measuring an incredible twenty-nine feet.

Having thoroughly researched every conceivable aspect of his story, Eisenberg writes with the journalistic brio of a true lover of horse-racing, and makes the horse, his stupendous bursts of speed out of the pack in the final seconds of his races, and the people surrounding him live again. Through newspaper accounts, photographs, step-by-step reconstructions of the races, interviews with the participants and their heirs, and personal stories by people who remember the horse and his quirks, he turns back the clock to a simpler era and recreates the spirit of the fifties when all the world looked bright. Though Native Dancer was never as lovable as Seabiscuit (and, in fact, once bit off the finger of someone he did not trust), he was a huge and positive presence, an immensely powerful racer who had a tremendous desire to win and the intelligence to know how hard he had to work to accomplish that win. Mary Whipple

I disagree in a way with Mr. North Salem. Hasnt he ever heard that everything old is new again? I have spent recent time in the West Village, and the scene is the same with a different list of characters. RACING SEPTEMBER takes you there. Loved the action and the true dialogue. Book style reminds me of early Elmore Leonard.

This book takes you on an enjoyable trip back in time, the fifties, the Beats, the gungy poets, the coffee shops and bars, and that center of all Bohemia, the New York West Village. The author has a very real affection for this world and I suspect he may have lived much of it. Summer of 1957 when our teenage hero, Danny, escapes his home in New Jersey for the lure of the Village. Here he falls in love. With an actress. Who goes to California. Danny must have her and is off on his cross country quest. On a motorcycle. Racing September. (Thats when school starts) This is an amiable, enjoyable book. Whats it all about? Being human I guess. And being young.

I like the book that Iread ,it tells about how to become a rally
racer.It tells what kind of cars to use, and how to make them into
rally cars.They show where rally races take place.Sonetimes the mainstreet in your town could be part of the track.A rally race
could take place any where.

I enjoyed this book a lot and the pictures are great. Explains rallying in a simplified way.

While, I'm sure a lot of what Dr. Walker writes about is groundbreaking stuff and no where else will you find the detailed decriptions of winds at various major racing locations, I found this book very technical and difficult to read. I was constantly referring to the glossary to see what terms meant. I finally went and bought Wind Strategy by David Houghton and High Performance Sailing by Frank Bethwaite, both of which I found easier to read.

Worth at least ten places at last week's 60th anniversary Lightning regatta at Skaneateles in the New York Finger Lakes region. ( 175 or so boats in three fleets, 87 boats in our fleet)

All those little thermal downslope lifts coming off the side streams... 180 degree wind shift from downslope thermal to gradient wind right before leeward mark....just exactly as Walker described !

Alexander P. Vucelic (first season skipper)

trish has just won the triple crown on her father's horse spitfire only to find out that during the race her father has died of lung cancer trish now must turn to god for the strength she needs to carry on if you are reading this review and you have just experinced the death of someone you love you need to read this book and out of the mist also in this series i have written a review on that book even though messed up on it you need to read these books they are good books you can get them off of this website or from your local christian book store

This book really showed the love Trish and her father had for each other. The way she not only had to give up her father but her beloved horse too was really almost unbarible for her, and the auther really deminstrated this by the way Trish reacted. It is trully a remarkable story of love and betral of the one person who Trish thought would always be there, God. And then how she learnd to trust him once again. I tip my hat to the auther, job well done.

This book makes a great addition to anyone's GT40 collection. Friedman's pictures document not just the races, but a fair amount of the preparation necessary to get the cars in shape for competition.

As a pervious review mentioned, the coverage stops right after Ford's 1967 Le Mans win, thereby totally ignoring the JWA/Gulf era, but in all fairness, Shelby wasn't involved in those years. This is a book about the *Shelby* GT40 afterall.

I especially enjoyed some of the coverage of the GT40's competitors: Ferrari, Chapperal, and Porsche. This made the book just a little richer.

I became a fan of the Ford GT's on a sunday morning in June of 1966. I was 13 years old. Up early before my parents I turn on the T.V. to try to find some cartoons and lo and behold there in living color is the 24 hours of Le Mans. I did'nt really know much about it though the name Le Mans did mean something to me. I was enthralled. As the Ford Mk.II's finished 1,2,3, I became a Ford fan forever. This book recaptures those days and Ford's epic assault on Le Mans in pictures and captions. From the beginning of the program to the all-american victory in 1967 by Dan Gurney and A. J. Foyt in the Mk.IV. My only complaint is that the book ends abruptly with that victory. Boom. But like the jacket says, "to take a look inside is to take a trip back in time." And what a time it was.

Heir to the Revlon fortune, and with a movie star mother, Peter lived a charmed life but was killed at the height of his career. Written with Leon Mandel (current publisher of AutoWeek) this book follows Revson as he wins Grands Prix on 2 continents, races at Indy, and finds time for lots of friends and ladies in the racing world. A real guy who lets it all hang out and tells it like it is, or was.

I have read many bios on auto racing drivers and this one remains my all-time favorite. Peter was a remarkable person in a grueling and demanding profession. Leon Mandel writes of Peter with wit, charm, compassion, and a remarkable insight into the demands placed on a driver by sponsor, teams, family and friends. We get glimpses of the interaction between crew and driver, driver and owner, etc. Peter is gone too soon but this bio stands as a tribute to his skill and bravery. It is also a fine piece of writing and Leon Mandel deserves much praise for this excellent work.

NASCAR has become the greatest spectator sport in America. The top ten most-attended sports events in 2000 were all NASCAR races, and of these races the 500 mile race at Daytona International Speedway is the crown jewel. For 10 days the town eats, sleeps, and breathes NASCAR motor racing. This book captures in pictures the start of the NASCAR season, including the IROC Firebird races, the Craftsman Truck series, the Busch series, and the main event - the Daytona 500 Winston Cup race. Its an excellent photojournal of modern-era racing from the perspective of the crews, the drivers, the fans, and just about everyone else, but like most photojournals there isn't much information about the history of the sport or any other useful reference information. Still, the people who buy this book probably already know the history of NASCAR racing anyway.

The pictures and storys in this book are some of the best. If you love NASCAR you will love this book. It travels with some on the biggest names in NASCAR over the 2000 Daytona Speedweeks.

Louis Stanley was a major player in the golden age of auto racing, and has intriguing things to say about people and events that I haven't read anywhere else. I'm glad I bought it, and recommend it. However, the book reads as if it was written quickly and carelessly. Sentences are incomplete, or have very odd grammar. Short sections about particular drivers end so abruptly that you find yourself checking to be sure you didn't accidentally skip a page -- as if he intended to go back and complete a paragraph, but forgot to. With the aid of an editor to catch these things, and make him go back and finish up, this book could have been five stars. Still, it's a worthy addition to any F1 fan's collection.

Back in the 50s and 60s, Louis Stanley annually produced a book-length review of the Grand Prix season. These books were frank, gossipy, opinionated, well-written, and nicely illustrated with Stanley's black-and-white photographs. This new book is very much in that tradition.

Now well into his 90s, Stanley has produced perhaps his final book, a comparative look at the Grand Prix scene then and now. Although Stanley is grateful for the safety innovations that have prevented the wholesale carnage of yesteryear, his sympathies lie clearly with the drivers and traditions of the glory years. Stanley shares the feeling of many that big money has tarnished the sport and eliminated much of the comaraderie and plain old fun that existed even during the years when death on the track was all too common.

Readers of this book will once again see the images of legends like Graham Hill, Count Wolfgang von Trips, Masten Gregory, Jimmy Clark, and Stirling Moss. Whether you agree with him or not, Stanley's pungent pen-portaits are always entertaining, and I smiled to see personality characterizations from his earlier books reappearing here, not always about the same person to which they were originally applied!

So, I admit, there are times when Stanley shows his age. The writing is sometimes a bit rambling and the transitions abrupt, but the photographs take you back too a simpler time and a nobler time. The old BRM chief has given us one last tribute to the sport he loves.