Go Like Hell

"Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans", by A.J. Baime is worth a read.

A.J. Baime deals with the epic battle between Ford and Ferrari with a sensitivity to context and a sympathy for the characters involved that elevate what some might consider just another car book to literature.

Several characters get star billing; Carrol Shelby, John Surtees, Ken Miles, and Enzo Ferrari. Sketches of Henry Ford II and several Ford managers are fairly well fleshed out. And there's a wonderful cameo appearance of our native son, the Kansas City Flash, Masten Gregory.

But the beauty of the book is A. J. Baime's capturing the zeitgeist of racing in that era (and it touches on almost all aspects of big league racing in the day).

Deep technical specs are avoided - but where technology provided an edge it's explained. (In particular Ford's use of data logging, one of the first cases of it's use in motorsports.) But the characters come to life and jump off the page.

One reviewer mentioned that there would be great heros and villians in the book. I didn't find any villians though. Rather, I saw fear, lives, huge egos, and money ground into dust in the high speed crucible of international motorsports.

Peugeot Prevails

That was the preview from EuroSport for this year's race, but the results are in:

Audi is eclipsed at the 77th running of the Le Mans 24 hours. Peugeot's push to the first podium step took three years this go around, Peugeot's last overall win coming in 1993.

There's an old salt about racing that says while the American's enjoy the spectacular the Europeans revel in the epic. There is nothing else that compares with the French road race at Le Mans as an epic battle of man & machine against time and each other. But in the end at Le Mans you have to defeat time and entropy before you can beat your human opponents.

Nowhere else is the saying, "to finish first, you first have to finish", as apropos. Le Mans is grueling, unforgiving of the unprepared, and can test the will of the strongest. It is, quite possibly, the premier race in motorsports.

Run by the Automobile Club of the West (ACO), the race features four classifications of cars (two prototype and two sports car classes). It has been won overall by diesel prototypes for four years running.

Rules for next years race will open the door for hybrid systems, keeping the ACO in the forefront of technical innovation. Le Mans will continue to be important and relevant.

Truth in 24

ESPN is running the story of the Audi Le Mans Prototype diesel. Two hours of wishing I were in France this June.

This is a well told racing story from the 'stick and ball' network. Speed could use some good competition.

And how about a little linkee goodness: Truth in 24