Customer Reviews

Speedway: Auto Racing's Ghost Tracks

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This book is a follow up to the fantastic book Autodrome. Autodrome described some of the retired racing circuits in Europe with a combination of history and photography.

In this new volume of stories and photographs of former auto racing tracks, coverage spans both North America and Europe. In fact, some of the circuits described in Speeday are duplicates of those in Autodrome. Some of the new tracks covered in Speedway include Chicago, Augusta, Middle Georgia, and North Wilkesboro. Returnees include Avus, Brooklands, Monza, and Montlhéry.

While Autodrome was quite enjoyable, Speedway is a bit of a letdown. Both the photography and track selection for the North America circuits are somewhat poor. Furthermore, rounding out the book with a bunch of the same tracks (albeit with some new photos) from Autodrome seems like a cheap trick. Surely the authors could have found more worth tracks to include like Marlboro Motor Raceway, Riverside, and others?

If you already have Autodrome, then I'd say skip this volume.

SS Collins & Gavin D. Ireland's SPEEDWAY: AUTO RACING'S GHOST TRACKS provides a fine history and survey of forgotten speedways and covers tracks around the world, pairing over 175 images with a historical survey of the great drivers and times of these speedways. Any library strong in race car history will find this a winning discussion.