The Golden Years of Motorsport in Eastern Canada and the USA
By Lionel Birnbom
This book is not meant to be a narrative of the history of racing in North America or of a racing series. There are many other books that cover the racing scene adequately. It seeks to be a photographic journey through the earlier years of the sport as seen through the lens of a self-taught, freelance photographer-journalist whose work has appeared in numerous Canadian automotive magazines and newspapers, Road & Track, Car and Driver, Vintage Racecar, Motor Sport, Autosport and Competition Press etc., and many hard-cover books, including two Can-Am books by Pete Lyons and The Chequered Past by David A. Charters.
The book’s first section covers the early years when amateurs competed for the pure love of racing, The second section begins in the early 1960s when the sport transitioned into a more professional era after money poured in and altered motorsport forever.
The photos in the book cover the cars—some of them very bizarre renditions in the early days, and the drivers—Briggs Cunningham, Moss, Clark, Gurney, G.Hill, Brabham, Stewart, Ickx, Amon, Andretti, Hulme, Lauda, Hunt, Penske, Jim Hall, McLaren, Surtees, Prost, Villeneuve and all the giants of the sport. The photographic journey also covers the racetracks, from obscure Canadian tracks like Green Acres, Harewood Acres and St. Eugene, to the newer road circuits like Mont Tremblant and Mosport as well as The Glen, Lime Rock, and the Montreal F1 circuit. The book is a time capsule of motorsports history, and fans of racing in North America will appreciate the jump back to the past.
Available from www.lionelbirnbom.com for US$125.00, plus s&h US$25.00.
