Book
Review:
Winning
A Race Driver’s Handbook
by
George A. Anderson
Guest
Authors:
Carroll Smith, Bertil Roos, Paul Van
Valkenburgh, Danny Collins, Dennis Eade, Tony
Kester, Kathy Maleck, Charlie and Norma
Williams
Published
1993 – Motorbooks International
What
strikes me as different, is this book features many people involved in the sport.
Unlike most “Be A Race Car Driver”
publications this one includes many guest
authors -- making you feel like you are not
flipping pages of a book but rather sitting in
a pub, after
a long race weekend….. just shooting the
breeze with your fellow racers. Yes – couch
racing with friends – a great winter
pastime.
Opinions vary on different subjects and
that in itself makes this a good read.
On the flip side – this book gets
technical to the point of bringing back
horrific memories of Grade 11 Physics class.
Carroll
Smith: “To a mature and disciplined racing
driver, as opposed to someone who drives
racing cars, there is no such thing as
pressure from behind”
Taken from Advanced Techniques, Tactics
and Tricks – one of the best quotes.
The
author himself, George A. Anderson is a SCCA
Driving instructor giving him and insight to
the two grassroots motorsports background of
local club racing events.
Details such as how a race is run,
racing budgets (add even more money if you
want to be leader of the pack) and team
management are important but often left out of
many driving books.
The honesty of how cheating plays an
part in racing is good to hear – yes we’ve
all heard – it’s only illegal if you get
caught” many times.
Not to say that cheating is rampant
throughout club racing but isn’t every racer
in every level of racing trying to get that
one little edge up on his/her opponent?
It’s how far you push the envelope
that is the problem and organizers are
becoming more stringent with rules.
Many rules have probably changed since
the publishing of this book but I’m sure
many have remained the same.
As
I mentioned earlier, this book goes into
detailed racing
(both on a track and in autocross
events) – things that can’t easily be
explained through words and pictures.
For the non-racer this book opens doors
to understanding the dynamics of the sport –
for the professional racer it gives much
needed refresher courses or at least some
different point of views.
Brake bias adjustment, to choosing gear
ratios and shift points – when I say it
covers everything I mean it.
This can give someone without the
experience a bit of a boring read at times but
if you are seriously about WINNING – you’d
never shut the door to learning something
(possibly) new. In 192 pages – there’s
bound to be some helpful advice. Added bonus is a few hot laps around some of the best tracks
around the country.
After
finishing this book
if you cannot understand why a racer
would travel the country, use up their
weekends and bank account for no money or
glory – then you have no reason to be
reading it the first place!! For serious
racerchicks only
To
order this book or get more information on it
- visit www.motorbooks.com |
