American Racer
BOOKS
AMERICAN RACER
American Racer Stephen Wright P.O. Box 217 Huntington Beach, Calzf 92648 $22.95
Stephen Wright is a nice English gent now resident over here; for some reason he became interested in restoring old bikes (really old bikes) at which he does a marvelous job. In his travels he kept talking to sundry old souls who used to race here, there and everywhere and in the process of conversation brought out a collection of old photos, etc., plus the sort of memories that one just doesn’t get to hear any more. Furthermore, as these folks are getting on a bit, in a few years nobody will get to hear them. Out of a love of that era and a desire to preserve these memories, Steve has produced quite a largish book (not coffee table but workbench size) of 255 pages approximate which is mostly devoted to full-page photos of men and bikes (Indian, HD, Cyclone, Reading Standard, Excelsior, Pope, Thor, Hender son, Ace, Cleveland, etc., etc.) in the first 40 years of American machines in competition. The long captions and occasional interlarding of text provide more than enough information to tie the photos together and taken all in all, the package is priceless. Board tracks, dirt tracks, sand tracks, the smiling faces of past heroes, they are all there and as spice, accounts of a few old races recounted by people who rode in them.
Steve also picked up a bit of information on Class C (to be covered more thoroughly in a future book, I think) and hillclimbing that is added in and then as an extra, as he is hopeful of UK sales as well, sections on what American bikes did in New Zealand, Australia, and England which won’t hurt anybody to look at. Reproduction is as good as can be expected from those old photos, especially in large size. Lovely. I pounced on it like a duck on a June bug. With my own money.
Henry N. Manney III
