“The Cruel Sport”
For the past few weeks I have been reading a book loaned to me by the all-powerful Tim Belknap, City-Editor of the mighty Mezz.
The book is “The Cruel Sport” by Robert Daley, about Formula-One Grand-Prix auto-racing. Belknap, like me, is a car-guy; enamored of Formula-One Grand-Prix racing as it was in the ‘60s.
The book was published in 1963, which makes it out-of-date; but it was — and still is — a classic.
The title, “The Cruel Sport,” comes from Dan Gurney; a comment he made as a dead spectator was removed from a crash he had, wherein his car spun into the crowd and scythed a spectator.
Gurney is ex of the post-war southern-Californy hot-rod scene, who went on the become a race-driver. He raced a long time — won Le Mans with A.J. Foyt, and I think the Daytona 500 once, He eventually fell to manufacturing racecars, one of which he won a Grand-Prix with. I think it was Belgium in 1967; his car had a three-liter V12 Weslake engine.
His cars also dominated Indianapolis for a while, although by then he had quit driving. Bobby Unser won the Indy-500 in one of his cars, which were called “Eagles.”
Gurney’s swan-song, I think, came in Can-Am, driving a McLaren M8C powered by an aluminum Chevy Big-Block.
But Gurney was contracted to Firestone-tires, and the McLarens were on Goodyears. He only raced McLarens a few weeks.
It was nice while it lasted. He was racing the ultimate hot-rod. A model of his McLaren is in our living-room.
As a 1963 book, “The Cruel Sport” treats Formula-One Grand-Prix auto-racing as it was when Da Cronies and I first visited the U.S. Grand Prix at Watkins Glen in 1964.
Formula One were still the tiny 1.5-liter cars until the formula was increased to three-liter motors, I think in 1966 or ‘67.
Who knows what they are now? Plus the cars have gotten so insanely fast in corners passing is near impossible.
But in 1963, the cars looked a lot like what ‘70s Formula-Ford looked like: tiny cars with skinny tires; and the limits-of-adhesion of those tires weren’t much.
What was appealing was the high-strung motors they had — I remember this from that first Grand-Prix.
The book does a stellar job of depicting the whole Grand-Prix scene — particularly the insanity of working for Ferrari. It also is the time of Jimmy Clark — one of the greatest Grand Prix drivers ever; perhaps the greatest — and the departure of Stirling Moss, who Daley thinks was the greatest. (I’m still partial to Mario Andretti — I saw him drive at Watkins Glen in a Formula-5000 with a small-block Ford V8. He was the only one that could take a certain corner flat-out. Everyone else was jukin’-and-jivin’ all over.)
Unlike so many race-drivers, Andretti is still alive. So is Gurney.
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The book is “The Cruel Sport” by Robert Daley, about Formula-One Grand-Prix auto-racing. Belknap, like me, is a car-guy; enamored of Formula-One Grand-Prix racing as it was in the ‘60s.
The book was published in 1963, which makes it out-of-date; but it was — and still is — a classic.
The title, “The Cruel Sport,” comes from Dan Gurney; a comment he made as a dead spectator was removed from a crash he had, wherein his car spun into the crowd and scythed a spectator.
Gurney is ex of the post-war southern-Californy hot-rod scene, who went on the become a race-driver. He raced a long time — won Le Mans with A.J. Foyt, and I think the Daytona 500 once, He eventually fell to manufacturing racecars, one of which he won a Grand-Prix with. I think it was Belgium in 1967; his car had a three-liter V12 Weslake engine.
His cars also dominated Indianapolis for a while, although by then he had quit driving. Bobby Unser won the Indy-500 in one of his cars, which were called “Eagles.”
Gurney’s swan-song, I think, came in Can-Am, driving a McLaren M8C powered by an aluminum Chevy Big-Block.
But Gurney was contracted to Firestone-tires, and the McLarens were on Goodyears. He only raced McLarens a few weeks.
It was nice while it lasted. He was racing the ultimate hot-rod. A model of his McLaren is in our living-room.
As a 1963 book, “The Cruel Sport” treats Formula-One Grand-Prix auto-racing as it was when Da Cronies and I first visited the U.S. Grand Prix at Watkins Glen in 1964.
Formula One were still the tiny 1.5-liter cars until the formula was increased to three-liter motors, I think in 1966 or ‘67.
Who knows what they are now? Plus the cars have gotten so insanely fast in corners passing is near impossible.
But in 1963, the cars looked a lot like what ‘70s Formula-Ford looked like: tiny cars with skinny tires; and the limits-of-adhesion of those tires weren’t much.
What was appealing was the high-strung motors they had — I remember this from that first Grand-Prix.
The book does a stellar job of depicting the whole Grand-Prix scene — particularly the insanity of working for Ferrari. It also is the time of Jimmy Clark — one of the greatest Grand Prix drivers ever; perhaps the greatest — and the departure of Stirling Moss, who Daley thinks was the greatest. (I’m still partial to Mario Andretti — I saw him drive at Watkins Glen in a Formula-5000 with a small-block Ford V8. He was the only one that could take a certain corner flat-out. Everyone else was jukin’-and-jivin’ all over.)
Unlike so many race-drivers, Andretti is still alive. So is Gurney.
posted by BobbaLew at 6:41 AM
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