Auto Racing in the Shadow of the Great War PDF Download

Author: Robert Dick
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476631557
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 447

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Book Description
From 1915 through the early 1920s, American auto racing experienced rapid and exciting change. Competition by European vehicles forced American car manufacturers to incorporate new features, resulting in legendary engineering triumphs (and, essentially, works of art). Some of the greatest drivers in racing history were active during this time--Ralph DePalma, Dario Resta, Eddie Rickenbacker, the Chevrolet brothers, Jimmy Murphy. Presenting dozens of races in detail and a wealth of engineering specs, this history recalls the era's cigar-shaped speedway specials and monumental board tracks, the heavy-footed drivers, fearless mechanics, gifted engineers and enthusiastic backers.

Author: Don Radbruch
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476613753
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
Prior to World War I, auto racing featured expensive machines and teams financed by auto factories. The teams toured the country, and most of the races were held in large cities, so the vast majority of Americans never saw a race. All this changed after World War I, though, and in the 1920s and 1930s there were approximately 1,000 dirt tracks in the United States and Canada. The dirt tracks offered small-time racing—little prize money and minimal publicity—but people loved it. This pictorial history documents dirt track racing, with what are today called sprint cars, around the United States from 1919 to 1941. Information on dirt track racing in Canada during this time is also provided. Regionally divided chapters detail the drivers, tracks, and specific races of each area of the country. Some of the drivers went on to win fame and fortune while others faded into obscurity. Tracks included well known facilities as well as out-of-the-way sites few people had ever heard of. The cars ranged from state of the art machines to the more common home built specials based on Model T or Model A Ford parts. Taken together, the drivers, tracks, and races of this era were instrumental in making auto racing the popular sport it is today.

Author: Adrienne J Venditti
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781796010787
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 840

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Book Description
This book is dedicated to the man whose life inspired me to tell his story. His name is D. Anthony Venditti, widely known as the Godfather of Stock Car Racing in New England. It is also dedicated to my mother, with her eternal love and devoted support of her beloved Anthony, her family, and racing. She and the Godfather enabled and empowered our family to persevere in the sport. This is to all those with unending convictions in the Godfather and to the Seekonk Fraternity of racing. This book is a pictorial and a closer look at the life of the Godfather. He was the youngest promoter in motor sports in the United States in the 1940s. And as a twenty-five-year-old, he planned, engineered, and built his speedway. He was young and full of ambition. It was his dream, an American dream, to build, open, and operate his speedway at the end of World War II, in 1946. Yet when in his advanced years, he then became known as the oldest living promoter in stock car racing. He consecutively ran his race plant each year, faithfully opening his facility, without fail. He never missed a season under his reign-an unheard-of feat of forty-five years as a stock car racing promoter. Seekonk Speedway continues to run without any ambiguity by the same family. The speedway is proudly still in business all these seventy-three consecutive years of racing in the books. Anthony is celebrated and acclaimed for his pioneering in the American sport of auto racing, awarded RPM's "1978 Promoter of the Year." It was with great adoration of the sports community that he is acknowledged for his forethought and far-reaching ideas of innovation pertaining to mechanical engineering, safety features in facility construction, and administrative procedures. Mr. Venditti is attributed to numerous awards for his devotion for the betterment of the sport of auto racing.

Author: Art Evans
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476676704
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
"This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny," said President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the young Americans who grew up during the deprivation of the Great Depression and later served during World War II. The 23 described in this book went on from military service to make their mark in auto racing, particularly in the sports car scene of the 1950s and 1960s. Ken Miles and Vasek Polak were not Americans during the war but later went on to become citizens. Carroll Shelby was not only a great driver but also created cars that are still manufactured. John Von Neumann and Vasek Polak were instrumental in helping to establish Porsche as a marque in the U.S. John Fitch, Ed Hugus, Chuck Daigh, Bill Stroppe, Max Balchowsky, Jay Chamberlain, Jim Peterson and Paul Newman were heroes in the war before succeeding in businesses and motorsports.

Author: Sigur E. Whitaker
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786498323
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
The world of Champ Car auto racing was changing in the 1970s. As cars became more sophisticated, the cost of supporting a team had skyrocketed, making things difficult for team owners. In an effort to increase purses paid by racing promoters and win lucrative television contracts, a group of owners formed Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) in 1978. Soon after, CART split from its sanctioning body, the United States Auto Club (USAC). Though Champ Cars ran on numerous tracks, the Indianapolis 500 was the payday that supported most teams through the season. From the beginning, CART had most of the successful teams and popular drivers, and they focused on driving a wedge between the track owners and the USAC. Over the next 30 years, the tension between CART and USAC ebbed and flowed until all parties realized that reunification was needed for the sake of the sport. This book details the fight over control of Champ Car racing before reunification in 2008.

Author: Pete Lyons
Publisher: Evro Publishing Limited
ISBN: 9781910505496
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book reveals the story of Man of Mystery Don Nichols's Shadow, the only US-based team to win a Can-Am championship, and one of only three to win in F1.

Author: Griffith Borgeson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Automobile racing
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
The complete story of the men, the machines, the tracks, the engineering and the feats of the great yeats between the wars when American racing cars achieved classical perfection.

Author: Chad Wayne Culver
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1467138290
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
Sit back and buckle up for a fast-paced thrill ride into Delaware's rich racing history! The earliest Delaware drivers raced on dusty tracks carved into a farmer's field. Characters like Johnny Martin and Paul Walker helped establish racing in the state shortly after World War II. The latest generation races at the famed Georgetown Speedway and Delaware International Speedway, and drivers, owners and promoters like Ricky Elliott, Curt Michael and Brett Deyo make racing the thriving sport it is today. Through interviews and extensive research, author, Delaware native and racing historian Chad Wayne Culver has captured the stories of some of the state's best-known racing legends.

Author: Robert Dick
Publisher: McFarland & Company Incorporated Pub
ISBN: 9780786418893
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
The history of the Mercedes provides the thread for this book that narrates the early history of automobile racing from the beginnings in 1895 until the First World War in 1915 when racing temporarily ceased. The book focuses on the races themselves, the drivers and mechanics, the engineers in the background and the technical progress of the cars. Automobile racing had its origins in Paris, and French marques and the Automobile Club de France were dominating the scene. But in 1901 a foreign troublemaker emerged, the Mercedes. This German machine was to play a leading role, its career and evolution becoming an image of the whole period. The individuals who built and drove these early racers laid the foundation of a new industry, conceived the modern, high-performance engine, and gave magic to a series of races, which drew ever more spectators and thrilled entire nations. This richly illustrated history answers many questions from this time in automotive history. Early chapters discuss the marketing of the original Daimler engine in France, the position and influence of Emil Jellinek and Wilhelm Maybach, and the great town-to-town and Gordon Bennett races. Later chapters focus on the French Grand Prix, the great crisis of 1909, the voiturette movement, the Mercedes and Benz successes in America, including the record attempts of the Blitzen Benz, and the role of Ernest Henry in the development of the revolutionary Peugeot. Final chapters describe the career of the 4.5-litre Mercedes and its impact on future designs.

Author: Mike O'Leary
Publisher: Motorbooks International
ISBN: 0760321779
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
Kansas-born Rodger Ward was a P-38 fighter pilot in World War II, then made his name in racing by starring on the budding Southern California sprint car scene. He raced from 1948 - 1966 and he was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1992. This work embodies the post-war era of open wheel racing in the US.