This book presents the first 50 years of the history of the Misano World Circuit “Marco Simoncelli”.
This historic track – the “Autodromo del mare” or seaside circuit – has witnessed unforgettable chapters in the history of motorsport, on two wheels and four, from the very first season in 1972 when the facility was inaugurated, through to the present day. The texts and the extraordinary photographs accompany readers along a thrilling exploration of the history of a circuit that has hosted the world’s greatest riders and drivers from every decade.
In a chronological narration that sets out from Emilia-Romagna’s Motor Valley of the early 20th century, the book describes the principal races held at the Misano circuit, from the pioneering 1970s with the unforgettable duels on two wheels involving the likes of Giacomo Agostini and Renzo Pasolini to those on four wheels featuring Italian and international drivers. Then came the 1980s, with the motorcycling World Championship arriving on the Riviera together with F.2 and F.3 single-seaters and sports prototype and GT cars. The 1990s instead heralded the Superbike championship and the Super Turismo touring cars. The new millennium has seen the circuit develop into an avant-garde facility on all fronts, capable of hosting international events and prestigious collateral events.
The volume is edited by Marco Montemaggi, coordinator and author of numerous books on Italian industrial culture and, in the motor industry, former director of the Ducati Museum and former scientific curator of the Motor Valley project. A scientific committee made up of highly experienced authors and personalities such as Andrea Albani, Davide Bagnaresi, Marco Masetti, Luigi Rivola and Sergio Remondino contributed with passion to the creation of the volume, assisted by many of the protagonists of Italian motorsport, always close to the Misano World Circuit.
Raoul ‘Sonny’ Balcaen grew up in Los Angeles at a time when it became the epicentre of American motor racing, nurturing a vast talent pool of people whose influence has echoed through to today.
As a teenager, he successfully competed with his home-built Top Fuel dragster during the formative years of the sport. With Lance Reventlow, he worked on the famous Scarab sports cars and was standing in the dyno room when the team’s all-American Formula 1 engine was fired up for the first time. A period as Jim Hall’s crew chief and a close association with Carroll Shelby added to the know-how that guided him towards becoming a successful entrepreneur and led to all that followed.
- Aged 17, Balcaen built his own Top Fuel drag racer, the ‘Bantamweight Bomb’, which he developed relentlessly and drove to many successes.
- His role in the fabulous Scarab sports cars — the landmark all-American racers — and insights into life with their creator, the incomparable Lance Reventlow.
- Working as crew chief to the brilliant Jim Hall, preparing and running his Lotus Eleven and Lister-Chevrolet long before the famous Chaparrals emerged.
- A second spell with Scarab, this time with the Formula 1 project — the first American Grand Prix car — plus a special job for Reventlow converting a Scarab sports racer into a street car.
- Onwards into setting up his own successful business, IECO (Induction Engineering Co), to create and sell high-grade performance and appearance accessories, with Chevrolets — especially Corvair and Vega — featuring strongly.
- His many-faceted dealings with Carroll Shelby, leading to consultancy and even assignments as occasional Shelby American company pilot.
- Along the way we meet many other big names of the era, including Chuck Daigh, Bruce Kessler, Warren Olson, Dick Troutman, Tom Barnes, Phil Remington, Ken Miles, Leo Goossen, Jim Travers, Frank Coon, Ed Donovan and Pete Brock.
This engaging memoir is the very personal history of a momentous time and place in which we meet a who’s who of West Coast road-racing heroes.
Pre-order now for early 2023 delivery
Can-Am! The words are still magic to a generation of road racing fans to whom the Canadian-American Challenge Cup series represents the pinnacle of the sport they love. And who is to argue? Taking over from the USRRC (United States Road Racing Championship), as the feature sports car circuit in North America, from 1966 through 1974 the world’s best drivers and the world’s best racing teams put together cars that followed the rule of the Can-Am series: no rules! Anything went, as long as it had two seats and enclosed wheels. These “rules” set the stage for years of ground-and-pulse-pounding cars powered by bigger and bigger engines and daredevil drivers competing in front of motorsport’s biggest crowds. Years later the names still carry weight: drivers like Dennis Hulme, Bruce McLaren, Dan Gurney, Jackie Stewart, Mark Donohue, George Follmer. And what cars: McLaren, Lola, Porsche, Ferrari, and Shadow. But who was behind those awesome machines and drivers? Who could keep them going when the torque shook loose engine bolts? Who could spend an entire low-paid off season in small, cold and drafty race shops looking for an extra edge in performance and reliability? Who could toil in uncomplaining anonymity behind the scenes while the cars and their drivers basked in the considerable glory that went with Can-Am racing? The men portrayed in One Last Turn.
One Last Turn presents the first look at the men (and in those days they were all men, young men) who made it all work. The mechanics who towed the mighty cars on pick-up trucks and worked on them between races and between heats in the blazing sun and pouring rain on muddy grassy fields, who drove 90 miles per hour on the era’s two lane roads, towing a 2000 pound race car to make the next race’s starting grid.
Illustrated with many never before seen photos of the cars and people who made Can-Am great, this is the book that fans of the series have been waiting for.
The men who kept the machines on the track during the Can-Am years
Hilarious and poignant never-before told stories behind the scenes during the Can-Am years.
- Hard cover with dust jacket
The high-octane, Seabiscuit-meets-Scarface story of how Randy Lanier became a 1980s international sports star, soaring through the ranks of car racing while holding a dark secret: he was also one of the biggest pot smugglers in American history
As a kid, Randy Lanier dreamed of achieving four-wheel glory at the Indianapolis 500, but knew he’d never be able to afford the most expensive sport on earth. That all changed when he bought a speedboat and began smuggling pot from the Bahamas. Fueled by what would become a historically massive smuggling operation, he started racing cars and became an overnight sensation. For Randy and his teammates, money was no object, and bigger hauls meant faster cars. At every event they attended, they were behind the wheel of the best machinery, flaunting their secret in front of huge crowds and live television cameras. But no matter how fast they drove, they couldn’t outrun the law. As Randy came ever closer to reaching his dream of high-speed glory, one of the biggest drug scandals ever to hit the professional sports world was about to unfold.
Set in the 1980s Florida of Miami Vice, this is the unbelievable, unforgettable, unparalleled story of an ordinary guy whose attempts to become famous doing the thing he wanted most—become a world class race car driver—devolved into a you-can’t-make-this-up tale of one of the biggest crime rings and drug scandals of the 1980s. Now, with the help of New York Times bestselling author A.J. Baime, Randy tells the whole truth for the first time ever, a gripping narrative unlike any other, a sports story for the ages, and shocking a true crime epic.
The 1950s was a golden era for Detroit, reflecting the endless optimism and futuristic view in America following World War II. Car designers and stylists were inspired by current day fighter jets, space age technology, and chrome. Their creations sported great chrome grilles, bullet-nosed bumpers, enormous tail fins, cockpit-styled dashboards, and frames as big as aircraft carriers. The allure and emotional appeal of these cars has been well document in countless books over the years. But without exception all of these titles look fabulous 50s vehicles as the sum of their parts. None focus specifically on what many consider to be the most distinguishing aspect of many of the cars from the fabulous 50s their front grilles. Great Grilles of the 50s provides a close-up view, both visually and in narrative form, of the best and most dynamic grilles of the era. This 11 x 8.5 inch coffee table size book features 104 all color pages on acid free paper with library quality binding.
From sporting single-cylinder bikes of the 1950s to high-performance sportbikes of today, this updated edition of The Complete Book of Ducati Motorcycles showcases Ducati’s entire output.
Though legendary today, Ducati motorcycles began rather modestly, selling motorized bicycles to impoverished residents of post-World War II Italy. Today, Ducati is Europe’s premier manufacturer of high-performance street motorcycles whose recent sales have risen year after year. Its svelte, hyper-accelerating sportbikes are two-wheeled wonders fluent in the language of speed.
The Complete Book of Ducati Motorcycles, 2nd Edition details the Bologna-based company’s amazing chronology, from the 1950s to present day. Presented chronologically and in encyclopedic form with gorgeous photography and insights from Ducati expert Ian Falloon, the book offers motorcycle enthusiasts a close look at the craftsmanship, power, and beauty of these extraordinary motorcycles. The book features all of the motorcycles from Ducati’s storied history through 2022, including:
- Sporting singles of the 1950s and ’60s
- The groundbreaking Desmodromic 750 Super Sport
- The iconic Mike Hailwood Replica
- The stunning, Superbike-dominating 916
- Today’s hip Scrambler and epic Panigale superbike
This information-packed, lushly illustrated oversize volume is a must-have for all Ducatisti and a great gift for any motorcycle enthusiast.
The OFFICIAL 2012 Race Video 2 disc DVD
Reno 2012 – After the tragic events at Reno 2011 the future of the World’s Fastest Motorsport was unknown. Thankfully, through the tireless work of the Reno Air Race Association, the Cities of Reno and Sparks, the State of Nevada, and many others who devoted their time and efforts assured that the world’s most unique racing event would continue, at least for this year.
2012 was a year of rebuilding, not only for the Reno Air Race Association, the race teams, and the fans, but also for the video production team. This year we have two goals with the official DVD and HD Blu Ray video production. The first is that if you were here in attendance we wanted to provide you with a memory of what you experienced as well as to take you to some places that you weren’t able to get to, behind the scenes and up close and personal with the pilots, crew and performers. Secondly, if you weren’t able to attend the event in person, we wanted to provide you with something that would allow you to experience for yourself what it was like to be here with as many of the sights, sounds and smells that we could capture and contain with the capabilities of today’s video distribution technology.
This year’s video production is a tribute, a tribute to everyone that was affected and touched by the events of Friday September 16, 2011.
We kick things off with some thoughts from key individuals that give some insight in this area over the last year. We will feature an interview with each of the racing class President’s talking about the planes, the pilots, the course and how they’ve prepared for racing in 2012.
You’ll see highlights of all the medal races for each of the 6 classes and hear from each of the winners about how it was out on the course for each of them during the race. Included will be air show performances and interviews with Clay Lacy and Joe Clark flying the Lear Jet, Jim Peitz doing aerobatics in a very unassuming looking Bonanza, Kent Pietsch thrilling the crowd with his dead stick performance and landing his Interstate Cadet on the top of a specially modified truck bed as they both move down the runway.
The Patriot Jet Team excites the crowd with military precision putting their L-39’s through a great routine celebrating the red, white and blue of America. David Martin, always a crowd favorite, flies an amazing and award winning routine in his CAP 232 and shows why he has won both individual and team medals in multiple World Aerobatic Championships.
We’ll get a look at the F-22 Raptor, the U-2 as it flies by and some of the other crowd pleasing aircraft that were part of this year’s Reno 2012 air show performances, and even some that weren’t!
In addition to some other pleasant surprises you’ll find on the video we’re including a very special interview with Mr. Robert “R.A. Bob” Hoover and Mr. Clay Lacy sitting down together to talk about their first meeting, becoming great friends, and working together over the year’s.
You don’t want to miss hearing from Bob Hoover, also known as “The Pilot’s Pilot” and from Clay Lacy who, as far as we can best determine, has the greatest number of flight hours of any living human today, and he continues to increase that each time he takes to the skies today!
Run Time 6 hours
THE COMPLETE 6-DISC COLLECTOR’S SPECIAL EDITION BOX SET INCLUDES:
- The film DVD: Winner of 7 film awards! A period drama set in the 50’s hot rod era. 128 minute runtime, widescreen – all region 24p NTSC – compatible with pal systems. Includes bonus features and Director’s commentaries! Subtitled in 8 foreign languages, including Spanish, French, Italian, German, Finnish, Swedish, Dutch and Danish. Both Stereo and Surround Sound mixes included.
- The film double album soundtrack: Disc One features 19 exciting 50’s tunes from the film, perfect for cruising! Doowop, rockabilly, swing and ballads to keep you company. Disc Two features the haunting music of composer/recording artist FAITH GRANGER (“Alternate Faith”) with short excerpts from the film dialogues, so you can relive those great moments.
- “AGAINST ALL ODDS, THE MAKING OF” 3-discs bonus DVD set: Featuring a disc loaded with DEUCE OF SPADES BONUS FEATURES (8 cast interviews, 13 deleted scenes, the cars of DEUCE OF SPADES, and one very funny blooper reel) and the 2-discs anticipated documentary mini series “AGAINST ALL ODDS, THE MAKING OF DEUCE OF SPADES”. This entertaining, educative and inspiring documentary features never-seen-before behind the scenes footage showing guerilla filmmaker Faith Granger and her cast, in action. Watch the making of some of the key scenes, get up close and personal as the filmmaker shares her amazing journey and ‘tells it like it is’: From horror stories to miracle stories, this is as real as it gets. Special guests include world renouned car celebrity GENE WINFIELD, American Hot Rod foundation curator/historian JIM MILLER, Emmy award winner PATRICK CYCCONE, lead actor Timothy Luke and many more.
- A beautiful color slip case to store and display the above items.
The complete history of BMC – British Motor Corporation – and a comprehensive directory of the marques and models that made up the whole. Following the historic amalgamation of Morris Motors Ltd and the Austin Motor Co Ltd in 1952, through to the merger with British Leyland in 1968, The Cars of BMC details the company’s origins, its achievements and its legacy, and provides a close look at the many car models that were produced during its heyday.
Valentino Rossi’s retirement brings down the curtain on an incredible career in the MotoGP motorcycle world championships.
With his nine titles, including seven in the premier class, he is widely regarded as the greatest motorcycle racer ever, and his 26 seasons of Grand Prix racing make him unique across both motorcycling and Formula 1. Rossi has been captivating fans since he won his first Grand Prix at the age of 17 and even in his final season, at the age of 42, he has been riding faster than ever.
In Valentino Rossi: All His Races, by top journalist Mat Oxley, each and every one of these races comes under the microscope, complete with perspectives about Rossi’s achievements, the controversies, his character, and analysis of his bikes. This is a Valentino Rossi book like no other, with photos by Henk Keulemans, who was shooting grand prix racing when Rossi’s father Graziano was winning races.
- Early days, from karting and minimoto bikes to a first GP win, on a 125 Aprilia in the 1996 Czech GP, then onwards to claim the 125cc world title in 1997.
- Moving up to the 250cc class in 1998 brought four consecutive end-of-season wins riding for Aprilia, followed by a decisive title in 1999 with nine victories.
- Grabbed by Honda to race its super-successful NSR500, Rossi graduated to the ‘class of kings’ for 2000, almost becoming champion that season — but the following year he sealed
- MotoGP, for 990cc four-stroke bikes, took over and Rossi immediately reigned supreme aboard his Honda RC211V, securing back-to-back titles in 2002 and 2003, before a surprise departure to uncompetitive Yamaha.
- Rossi rates his first year with Yamaha, 2004, as his best: defying expectation, he won first time out on the YZR-M1 and took a fourth successive title with nine wins.
- In six more seasons with Yamaha, 2005–10, Rossi collected three more championship crowns, his 2008 success especially sweet because it involved a fightback after two leaner years.
- Rossi’s move to Ducati looked to be an appetising all-Italian prospect but his two winless seasons there, 2011 and 2012, were disastrous.
- A return to Yamaha never quite recaptured his greatest glories, but Rossi was championship runner-up three times and came very close to another title in 2015.
Beautifully designed and comprehensively illustrated, this book is the complete record of Valentino Rossi’s remarkable career in motorcycle racing.
Freestone & Webb was a great name in British coachbuilding for some 35 years, but as demand for coachbuilt car bodies dried up in the 1950s, the company became the first of the Big Five remaining specialists to close down.
They had started in the early 1920s, as the motoring scene was settling down after the upheaval of the First World War. Early devotees of lightweight Weymann construction, they soon earned the approval of the nearby Bentley company because their bodies did not unduly hinder the performance of these great sporting chassis. Before long, Rolls-Royce models were also being provided with stylish and well-made Freestone & Webb coachwork, and so were many leading foreign chassis, such as Mercedes-Benz and Packard.
Although the partnership of Messrs Freestone and Webb was dissolved before the 1930s had got under way, the company survived the bleak years at the start of the decade and continued to build both arrestingly beautiful bespoke bodies and distinctive coachwork in small-volume batches. Most notable in this period was their razor-edge style, which was rapidly copied by many other coachbuilders and would remain influential into the early 1950s.
Like others, the company struggled to get back into the game after an enforced layoff during the Second World War. But with the aid of good designs and fine workmanship, they survived into the 1950s with their reputation intact. Sadly, their continued survival could only be a matter of time, and Arthur Webb was already looking to sell the company when he died in 1954. Freestone & Webb continued gamely for four more years, experimenting with new designs and going out in a blaze of glory with their extravagant Honeymoon Express for a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud.
This is the story of a great British coachbuilder, told with the aid of meticulous research and with great affection for the grandeur and style that its products still represent.
n the most glittering era of sports car racing, the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Lola T70 and its descendants radiated star quality.
These big racers, both brutal and beautiful, graced the Can-Am stage in North America as open spyders and the world sports car championship as closed coupés. Powered by big American V8 engines, they were massively fast and exceedingly popular, both with fans and the racers themselves. In this important new book, which has taken Lola enthusiast Gordon Jones three decades to complete, the racing history of the T70 and the Can-Am models that followed — from T160 to T310 — is exhaustively recorded, complete with a superb array of over 600 photographs. All sports car devotees will treasure this labour of love.
In this gripping memoir, Nick Fry, the former CEO of Brawn GP, reveals how he found himself in the driving seat for one of the most incredible journeys in the history of motor sport. At the end of 2008, Nick, then head of Honda’s F1 team, was told by his Japanese bosses that the motor company was pulling out of F1 in 30 days. This was a disaster for the team’s 700 staff, for Ross Brawn, who Nick had recently recruited as chief engineer, and for the drivers, Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. But in a few short weeks, Nick and Ross would persuade Honda to sell them the company for £1 (plus all the liabilities). Just 13 weeks later, the Brawn GP team, led by Nick and Ross, would win the first Grand Prix of the 2009 season, and go on to win the Driver’s and the Constructor’s Championship, with a borrowed engine, a heavily adapted chassis, and, at least initially, no sponsors. Nick gives an up-close-and-personal account of how he and Ross turned disaster into championship glory and laid the foundations for what was to become the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team. Along the way he gives the inside track on the drivers, the rivalries between teams, on negotiating with Bernie Ecclestone, on hiring and working with two global superstars: Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton—and offers a unique and thrilling perspective on an elite global sport.
On December 22, 1964, at a small, closely guarded airstrip in the desert town of Palmdale, California, Lockheed test pilot Bob Gilliland stepped into a strange-looking aircraft and roared into aviation history.
Developed at the super-secret Skunk Works, the SR-71 Blackbird was a technological marvel. In fact, more than a half century later, the Mach 3–plus titanium wonder, designed by Clarence L. “Kelly” Johnson, remains the world’s fastest jet.
It took a test pilot with the right combination of intelligence, skill, and nerve to make the first flight of the SR-71, and the thirty-eight-year-old Gilliland had spent much of his life pushing the edge.
In Speed one of America’s greatest test pilots collaborates with acclaimed journalist Keith Dunnavant to tell his remarkable story: How he was pushed to excel by his demanding father. How a lucky envelope at the U.S. Naval Academy altered the trajectory of his life. How he talked his way into U.S. Air Force fighters at the dawn of the jet age, despite being told he was too tall. How he made the conscious decision to trade the security of the business world for the dangerous life of an experimental test pilot, including time at the clandestine base Area 51, working on the Central Intelligence Agency’s Oxcart program.
The narrative focuses most intently on Gilliland’s years as the chief test pilot of the SR-71, as he played a leading role in the development of the entire fleet of spy planes while surviving several emergencies that very nearly ended in disaster.
Waging the Cold War at 85,000 feet, the SR-71 became an unrivaled intelligence-gathering asset for the U.S. Air Force, invulnerable to enemy defenses for a quarter century.
Gilliland’s work with the SR-71 defined him, especially after the Cold War, when many of the secrets began to be revealed and the plane emerged from the shadows—not just as a tangible museum artifact but as an icon that burrowed deep into the national consciousness.
Like the Blackbird itself, Speed is a story animated by the power of ambition and risk-taking during the heady days of the American Century.
- Full track breakdown using the principles taught in the Science of Speed Series.
- A bonus “Corner Close-Up” on the back for extra in-depth analysis of the most difficult and complex section.
- Available as a laminated, double-sided hard copy.
- Full track breakdown using the principles taught in the Science of Speed Series.
- A bonus “Corner Close-Up” on the back for extra in-depth analysis of the most difficult and complex section.
- Available as a laminated, double-sided hard copy.
- Full track breakdown using the principles taught in the Science of Speed Series.
- A bonus “Corner Close-Up” on the back for extra in-depth analysis of the most difficult and complex section.
- Available as a laminated, double-sided hard copy.
Laguna Seca Road Course Track Notes
Full track breakdown using the principles taught in the Science of Speed Series.
- A bonus “Corner Close-Up” on the back for extra in-depth analysis of the most difficult and complex section.
- Available as a laminated, double-sided hard copy.
- Full track breakdown using the principles taught in the Science of Speed Series.
- A bonus “Corner Close-Up” on the back for extra in-depth analysis of the most difficult and complex section.
- Available as a laminated, double-sided hard copy.
