AMERICAN GRAND PRIX RACING: A CENTURY OF DRIVERS & CARS


By Tim Considine.
Published by Motorbooks International.

This is by far the best motor racing book that you'll ever find written by an ex-member of the original 'Mickey Mouse Club'. I don't wish to in any way diminish Tim Considine's achievements by saying that, but given that I'll probably never get the opportunity to write something like this again, I simply couldn't resist. For the record, Considine also starred in the TV series 'My Three Sons'.

He turned away from television to become a full-time writer quite some time ago, and if 'American Grand Prix Racing' is anything to go by, then the motorsport world is all the better for it. More than 80 motor racing books have now found their way onto my desk and, in review form, onto your computer screens in this column over the past three and a half years, and after a while it's natural that bits of information start to overlap here and there. This book was very different.

Sure, I knew something about America's history in Grand Prix racing. I was familiar with the Gordon Bennett Cup and Vanderbilt Cup races from the years when the sport itself was still in its pre-adolescent stage. Through reading about Richard Seaman, I was familiar with Whitney Straight. I knew about the varying successes enjoyed by the likes of Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, Richie Ginther, Masten Gregory and Mario Andretti in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, and the less-than-successful McLaren exploits of Michael Andretti in 1993. But until I sat down with this book, I had no clue just how staggeringly much I didn't know.

In other words, this book may well plug holes in your motorsport library that you probably didn't even know existed, and for that reason alone it is more than worth the cover price. I've just noticed that I have inadvertently paraphrased part of Phil Hill's forward, in which he comments that the book filled a lot of gaps in his knowledge of the early exploits of his GP compatriots. Sounds like I'm in good company...

Considine assigned himself the task of researching and accounting for every American link with Grand Prix racing since motor racing's inception. As one progresses through the book, it's hard not to feel that this was one of those projects where every new discovery suddenly creates a whole new avenue that needs investigating. It has all come together, though, and the end product was one of the most enlightening – and therefore interesting – books to have come this way for some time.

All major angles of American involvement in Grands Prix are chronicled, from the first drivers to venture across the Atlantic with a pair of racing goggles in their suitcase, to the different races run under the Grand Prix banner on American soil, to American forays into Grands Prix as constructors. The tale is related chronologically and is interspersed throughout with sidebars containing biographies of major players as they first begin to make their presence felt on the racing scene.

As already stated, I knew absolutely zilch about many names on the surprisingly long list of American GP drivers, particularly those predating WWII, so these mini-biographies were an especially welcome addition. Even better are the photographs, which have been selected to include virtually anyone and anything that rates a mention somewhere through the pages. Primarily black and white (although there is a colour supplement), the shots are well selected, clearly reproduced, and accompanied by informative captions (you'd be amazed how common second-rate captions actually are).

There is also a healthy sprinkling of first-hand accounts from those who were on the scene - some of which were told to Considine personally, and others that were derived from other sources. Equally pleasant was the fact that it was so tough to find something to complain about. Some time ago I remember reading a reference to a couple of apparent errors in the book, though I have to say that I didn't find anything too glaring with the exception of the very occasional typo.

A bibliography would have been a very welcome addition, but the inclusion of an appendix detailing every result for every American GP driver went a long way toward compensating for the disappointment. Not surprisingly, there is any number of great fireside stories in this book, but I thought that this one - an account of Whitney Straight's younger brother Michael's first and only race, the 1934 South African Grand Prix - was particularly worth sharing:

"In 1934, traveling to South Africa from England was no small feat. [Guilio Ramponi, head mechanic] was sent ahead by ship with the machinery, but Straight, accompanied by valet Dewdeney, Dick Seaman, and younger brother Michael Straight, was determined to fly his own plane to East London, South Africa. In his 1983 biography, 'After Long Silence', Michael Straight noted that instrumentation in their twin-engine De Havilland Dragon was spare – an altimeter, a tachometer, a compass, a faulty airspeed indicator, and no radio. On Christmas vacation from his first year at Cambridge, the younger Straight had been 'persuaded' by Whitney to come along and race his Railton-modified Hudson-Terraplane ...

"The journey was certainly as dangerous as the race. Taking off and landing in darkness, their twin-engine biplane pushed its way through headwinds to average a paltry 60 miles per hour to Marseilles, the first of a series of overnight stops. Cairo was next, then, on the morning of the third day, they reached Salisbury, Rhodesia, with the intention of leaving immediately for Johannesburg. But there was a problem. In Salisbury's thin air, Whitney Straight was unable to lift the Dragon off the runway.

"The biplane jumped an irrigation ditch, tore through a wire fence, finally coming to a crashing halt on the plain. Luckily, no one was hurt, but there was considerable damage to the lower wing. After two days of shoring up and patching, Straight just managed to get the Dragon airborne and after another day-long flight, landed at East London, the site of the race, where hundreds of South Africans greeted them with welcoming banners ...

"Nevertheless, Whitney worried about possible anti-outsider tactics during the race. On the handicap system, Michael's Railton-Terraplane, Dick Seaman's blown MG, and Whitney's Maserati were the fastest cars. They would start at the back and would have to work their way through the entire field. 'The main concern was they they'd ... that a couple of them would jam us' (wrote Michael). 'Whitney insisted on having guys posted around with flags to wave them to the side if they tried to block us. But, of course, they didn't.'

"Barely 18 years old, in a foreign country, and on the brink of his first race, Michael was understandably nervous. Because of their delayed arrival and hours lost the next day waiting for a swarm of locusts to move on, there was little time for practice. The course itself was daunting, 15 miles around, part tarmac, part dirt., with particularly dangerous sections winding around the face of rocky cliffs. To spare both driver and car, Ramponi wouldn't let Michael start the engine until just before he was flagged away. By that time, 15 other cars had started.

"In 'After Long Silence', Michael humorously recalled his first racing moments. "'Now!' Ramponi shouted. I heard him from a great distance. The Railton seemed to start up on its own. I lost my sense of limits when the flag fell. As we rounded the first corner, I felt the inside wheels of the Railton lift off the road. That brought me to my senses. 'Easy,' I said to myself. 'Easy!' I passed one car on my first lap – smashed flat into a rock face.' "In fact, young Straight passed many cars, some of them evidenced only by skid marks leading over a cliff ..." (p. 55-6)

This book is as equally suited to cover-to-cover reading as it is as a reference work, and deserves a place on the shelves of anyone with a motorsport history library. If your birthday is approaching then start dropping subtle hints. If not, then treat yourself; I don't think you'll regret it.