Archive for Author 'Donald Capps', only excerpts shown, click title for full entry.

Caesars Palace Grand Prix

by Randall Cannon

Las Vegas may be popular with gamblers but it wasn’t with racing drivers. The circuit was boring and flat as a parking lot, in fact it was a parking lot. And run counter-clockwise, and, oh, that heat. There is always talk of bringing racing back to Vegas—and this time without the Mob! The Mob?

The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today

by Thomas Ricks

Many factors affect national security. Among the less obvious, at least to civilians, is the culture of the military itself.

Return to Power: The Grands Prix of 1966 and 1967

by Michael Frostick

On the face of it, an interesting era in racing and an author who would pen many worthy tomes. Alas, this isn’t one of them.

Driven: The Men Who Made Formula One

by Kevin Eason

A colorful look by a long-time observer at the forces that turned a sport into a circus in which staggering amounts of money are to be made by those few who already have money—or genius or luck or connections—to even get a seat at the table.

1994: The Untold Story of a Tragic and Controversial F1 Season

by Ibrar Malik

A veritable Annus Horibilis. If you paid attention you probably have an opinion or three. So did the author, but he ended up revising some of them in the course of writing this book! Will you?

Cars at Speed, Classic Stories from Grand Prix’s Golden Age

by Robert Daley

Two of the serious must-have racing reads are under this author’s byline. They are among his earliest work and possibly even more thrilling to read today—because no one does it like this anymore—than they were then.

Napalm: An American Biography

by Robert M. Neer

Horrible stuff. And horribly effective. This is a disturbing examination of the disconnect between technocratic progress and morals and the laws of war. What ends justify such nightmarish means?

The Grand Prix Saboteurs

by Joe Saward

The idea of racing drivers having a side gig as secret agents seems the stuff of fantasy—but it really did happen. Telling that story was long overdue—but the book has become a victim of almost two decades worth of research struggling to remain intelligible.

Stardust International Raceway

by Randall Cannon and Michael Gerry

Legendary drivers, the FBI, Howard Hughes…it’s a big story but the track was short-lived and pretty much forgotten until two local boys with racing interests put this fine book together.

Ferraris in Australia in the 1950s and 1960s

by Barry Farr

Some US metropolitan areas have larger populations of Ferraris than the 65 examples of sports, race or road cars that went Down Under between 1952 and 1972 when the Australian Ferrari Register was founded. The author is a native and a Ferrari owner and so has the motivation and the connections to trace the cars.

Born to Be Wild

by Randy D. McBee

Bikers—menace to society or upstanding citizens? Want to look at motorcycling from a scholarly point of view? If class, race, gender, sexual orientation, stereotypes, and politics interest you as much as cubic inches and spark plug gaps, this is the book.

Shutter & Speed

by Gary Critcher

If the title puts “photography” and “racing” into your mind you’re on the right track. Lots of behind the scenes stuff in this first of two compilations.