Reviews for How to Get Started in Motorsport

The average rating for How to Get Started in Motorsport based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-12-14 00:00:00 Pascal Schoon To be honest I wasn't expecting too much from this book, having paid only £1.99 for it in a bargain book shop, but I was aware of the main author through various car magazines, so took a chance! The book begins at the beginning of the Grand Prix championship in 1950, a time when drivers were seen as expendable, with WWII having ended only 5 years earlier, it is perhaps understandable, even if it's not acceptable, that this attitude was common place, but even after the "summer of love" nothing had changed, in fact if anything it was worse! After an frightening accident had befallen Jackie Stewart at Spa, he felt things had to change, in 1970 Jochen Rindt became the first and so far the only posthumous F1 World Champion, despite this Jackie Stewart's safety campaign was met with much opposition and name calling, his courage was even questioned! The book details the difficulties that Jackie Stewart faced from fellow drivers - they couldn't see he was looking after their welfare - callous circuit owners, who didn't see the value in safety improvements, and officials that were out of touch. People may have seen the BBC documentary Grand Prix The Killer Years, which covered the same ground, in fact much of it seemed to have been lifted straight from this book, but where in TV land everything seemed to be rosy in the garden from 1976 onwards, nobody died at a GP that year, conveniently ignoring that although Niki Lauda had survived his fiery crash at the Nurburgring - he had being given "the last rites" in his hospital bed - it was nothing short of a miracle! The TV documentary ends here, job done, whereas the book carries on, and although much if what is covered in the book is well known, much of isn't, such as the dreadful negligence that left Philippe Strieff paralysed, data recorders showing that an accident that left Jos Verstappen just bruised, would have killed him a few years earlier, if you're an avid F1 fan, you may realise that it's not just luck we have to thank for GP racing having no driver fatalities since 1994, if only the same could be said for marshalls, safety is indeed a science!

Review # 2 was written on 2017-04-05 00:00:00 Joanne Crockett One of the best books, even though i now what NASCAR is.