Why is it so difficult to make a good movie about auto racing? Oh, there was John Frankenheimer’s GRAND PRIX, but that had to kowtow to the Hollywood mindset and had tons of … shall we say, irregularities. There was DAYS OF THUNDER, which while it had great imagery, was not a very good film. And let’s not even mention DRIVEN. Damn, I just did.
But it’s not that difficult to write a great book about auto racing. Two books released in the past two years need to be on every gearhead’s bookshelf: Peter Golenbock’s NASCAR CONFIDENTIAL and the autobiography JANET GUTHRIE: A LIFE AT FULL THROTTLE.
Released in 2004 but only now making it to the top of my reading list, NASCAR CONFIDENTIAL is a book about America’s greatest racing series by sports author Peter Golenbock. He eschews statistics for the human stories behind the races and the sport. Starting at the beginning, he scores interviews with some unusual NASCAR pioneers, including female driver Louise Smith (that’s right, the sport had at least three female drivers on the circuit into the early ’50s); Francisco Menendez, who drove as Frank Mundy; and Judy Judge, the widow of famed driver Fireball Roberts.
Each interview is tastefully done and woven into an historical perspective that outlines how the sport grew from its rough-and-tumble dirt track Southeast origins to easily the first or second most popular sport in America today (football may still beat it out). As we move through the decades, Golenbock highlights some of the lesser-known lights and focuses on some of the lights that have been dimmed. What’s interesting is that he manages to avoid interviewing any of the Pettys or the Earnhardts (or they managed to avoid him). This absence of the giants of the sport isn’t really felt at all, because it’s refreshing to get more information about folks like announcer and past champion Benny Parsons, former great Fred Lorenzen, and views from the eyes of a crew chief like Jimmy Makar or Larry McReynolds. It’s a book that lovingly devotes its pages to the history and evolution of the world’s fastest-growing sport, and concentrates on the people that were to make it so.
And if you like good stories about good people, then you simply must purchase JANET GUTHRIE. Want a real heroic role model for your child? This is the book to provide. It would be a tremendous gift for any young girl, but it would also work for any recipient no matter their age, sex or whether or not they like motorsports. Why? Because Guthrie was a true pioneer in both sports and science. An astronautical engineer by trade, she could not resist the lure of speed and automobile racing. Cutting her teeth in sports car racing, she eventually went on to stock car racing in NASCAR and open-wheel racing at Indianapolis and the IndyCar circuit. Yep, that’s right, kiddies, Danica Patrick isn’t the first female racer at Indianapolis. And Guthrie may have been better.
Facing unbelievably intense sexism, and a case of possible outright sabotage, she fought through the madness, shoddy equipment, and selectively applied rules to carve out a place for female athletes in motorsport. Racers like Shirley Muldowney, Shawna Robinson, Erin Crocker and Danica Patrick all owe her a damn big “thank you.”
And there are two things to note: 1) Guthrie was an excellent racer with real successes to her credit who often raced without significant sponsorship money. If there was someone with her talent in NASCAR today (Erin Crocker, I’m talking to you), sponsors would fall all over themselves to give her the money necessary to win; and 2) Even with all the crap that was dumped on her head, Guthrie persevered through it all with a tremendous grace and style. Faced with out and out hatred, she carries on, doing the best she can, never giving in or up, and emerging from the fracas with a rock-solid character. You just can’t help but respect and like her. –Mark Rose
Buy it at Amazon. And the other one, too.
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