ROAR OF THE ROAD: The Story of Auto Racing

The early races, the Grand Prix circuit, the sports car routes--the ""most exciting"" singled out by the author and routinely presented. The opening chapters about the development of competition deal primarily with the first few Paris-centered trials, and treat mechanical innovations summarily. Seven Grand Prix circuits are seen via the year of a particular winner--Hawthorn at the French, Fangio at the German and Italian, Brooks (substituting for Moss) at the Belgian--but the characterizations have none of the turn-by-turn detail of Borgeson's Grand Prix Championship Courses and Drivers (1968). The Sports Car section includes the Le Mans, Mille Miglia, Targa Florio, and Sebring roads, again with one or two known figures in the driver's seat. Short blurbs on the Indy and stock cars, midgets and drag racing conclude. ""The hope that springs eternal in a race driver's breast"" will be let down by the flat-to-gushy treatment.