Book picks similar to
Beast: The Top Secret Ilmor-Penske Race Car That Shocked the World at the 1994 Indy 500 by Jade Gurss
non-fiction
motorsport
sports
racing
Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond
Gene Kranz - 2000
As a flight director in NASA’s Mission Control, Kranz witnessed firsthand the making of history. He participated in the space program from the early days of the Mercury program to the last Apollo mission, and beyond. He endured the disastrous first years when rockets blew up and the United States seemed to fall further behind the Soviet Union in the space race. He helped to launch Alan Shepard and John Glenn, then assumed the flight director’s role in the Gemini program, which he guided to fruition. With his teammates, he accepted the challenge to carry out President John F. Kennedy’s commitment to land a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s. Kranz recounts these thrilling historic events and offers new information about the famous flights. What appeared as nearly flawless missions to the Moon were, in fact, a series of hair-raising near misses. When the space technology failed, as it sometimes did, the controllers’ only recourse was to rely on their skills and those of their teammates. He reveals behind-the-scenes details to demonstrate the leadership, discipline, trust, and teamwork that made the space program a success. A fascinating firsthand account by a veteran mission controller of one of America’s greatest achievements, Failure is Not an Option reflects on what has happened to the space program and offers his own bold suggestions about what we ought to be doing in space now.
A Twist of the Wrist: The Motorcycle Roadracers Handbook
Keith Code - 1983
This book contains the very foundation skills for any rider looking for more confidence when cornering a motorcycle. Notes and comments by Eddie Lawson. Foreword by Wayne Rainey.
Stealing Speed: The Biggest Spy Scandal in Motorsport History
Mat Oxley - 2009
This is the compelling story of how one of Japan's biggest motorcycle manufacturers stole a Nazi rocket scientist's engine secrets from behind the Iron Curtain to conquer the world.
Lewis Hamilton: My Story
Lewis Hamilton - 2007
In My Story for the first time Lewis opens up about his stunning debut season including the gripping climax to the 2007 F1 World Championship as well as his dad Anthony his home life and his early years. The only book with the real story as told by Lewis.In his first season in F1 Lewis Hamilton has thrilled the world of motor racing. With victories in Canada America and Hungary and Japan he led the World Drivers Championship right up to the last race of the season. But bare statistics alone do scant justice to the amazing impact Lewis Hamilton has had on the sporting landscape this year. My Story gives the real account from Lewis himself as he sets the record straight about his colourful life on and off the track.Given a grounded upbringing by his dedicated father in unremarkable Stevenage Lewis tells about how he first tried out go-karting while on a cut-price family holiday in Ibiza. In his book he gives the real version of events at a motor sport dinner where as a nine-year-old wearing a borrowed suit he approached McLaren team boss Ron Dennis with the immortal words that were to change his life forever.He rose rapidly through the Junior and Formula ranks dominating every series with his raw speed and canny race craft. Here Lewis candidly recalls those key moments that shaped his career and went some way towards compensating for the sacrifices made by his father Anthony in getting his son to the top.Lewis also charts how he got into the sport and was signed up by Ron Dennis what motivates him who are his closest friends how he copes with the constant travelling and the physical and mental challenges of driving a state-of-the-art Formula 1 car. He looks back in detail at the 2007 World Championship his four race wins the frightening crash in Germany his rivalry with team-mate Fernando Alonso his special relationsh
Rival Sisters: Mary & Elizabeth Tudor
Sylvia Barbara Soberton - 2019
It is the relationship between Elizabeth and her Scottish cousin Mary Stuart that is often discussed and pondered over while the relationship between Elizabeth and her own half sister is largely forgotten. Yet it is the relationship with Mary Tudor that forged Elizabeth’s personality and set her on the path to queenship. Mary’s reign was the darkest period in Elizabeth’s life. “I stood in danger of my life, my sister was so incensed against me,” Elizabeth reminded her councillors when they pressed her to name a successor.It is time to tell the whole story of the fierce rivalry between the Tudor half sisters who became their father’s successors.
Pray: Notes on the 2011/2012 Football Season
Nick Hornby - 2012
Concentrating on a number of significant games in British football during the 2011-2012 season, Hornby chronicles the emotional, political, and societal highlights and woes that played out on the field. There were alleged racist clashes, revealing the deep cultural fissures still present in British life. There was a fairy-tale return for the legendary Thierry Henry, and the terrifying collapse of Bolton's Fabrice Muamba, clinically dead for seventy-eight minutes after a heart attack. Throughout, Hornby delves into the impact of the economy on the beloved sport of Britain. As sheikhs and oligarchs buy and sell teams and players at astronomical financial levels, other teams are left behind to struggle with diminished talent. And as income inequality hits all-time highs worldwide, so it does in British football.It was a season of tumultuous incident and enormous entertainment, a season more glorious than most. By the end, in May 2012, fans of most clubs had been enthralled, appalled, depressed, elated, shocked, and enraged. Along the way, football had somehow managed to encompass politics, high finance, the law, and matters of life and death. Read all about it, and relive it, here.
The 100 Greatest Players In NHL History (And Other Stuff): An Arbitrary Collection of Arbitrary Lists
Greg Wyshynski - 2017
Then check out their other lists and insights from the first 100 years of the NHL, including: - The Top 10 Ways The NHL Will Be Different in 25 Years - The Top 10 Most Questionable Decisions Under Gary Bettman - The 10 Worst Teams In NHL History - And the biggest gripes the authors had with each other’s rankings All of this makes THE 100 GREATEST PLAYERS IN NHL HISTORY (AND OTHER STUFF) a must-read for sports fans who love raging debates and the glorious weirdness of hockey!
That Near Death Thing: Inside the Most Dangerous Race in the World. by Rick Broadbent
Rick Broadbent - 2012
Here, Rick Broadbent gets behind the scenes and into the helmets of four leading racers over the course of two seasons - 2010 and 2011 - following the riders through the numerous vicissitudes of an average season.
From Darkness to Dynasty: The First 40 Years of the New England Patriots
Jerry Thornton - 2016
From their humble beginnings as a team bought with rainy-day money by a man who had no idea what he was doing to the fateful season that saw them win their first Super Bowl, Jerry Thornton shares the wild, humiliating, unbelievable, and wonderful stories that comprised the first forty years of what would ultimately become the most dominant franchise in NFL history. Witty, hilarious, and brutally honest, From Darkness to Dynasty returns to the thrilling, perilous days of yesteryear—a welcome corrective for those who hate the Patriots and a useful reminder for those who love them that all glory is fleeting.
The Inheritance: Poisoned Fruit of JFK's Assassination
Christopher Fulton - 2018
Kennedy. Through Lincoln, crucial evidence ended up in Christopher's hands—evidence that was going to be used to facilitate a new future for America. But the U.S. government's position was clear: that evidence had to be confiscated and classified, and the truth hidden away from the public. Christopher was sent to federal prison for years under a sealed warrant and indictment. The Inheritance, Christopher's personal narrative, shares insider information from his encounters with the Russian Government, President Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump, the Clinton White House, the U.S. Justice Department, the Secret Service, and the Kennedy family themselves. It reveals the true intentions of Evelyn Lincoln and her secret promise to Robert Kennedy—and Christopher's secret promise to John F. Kennedy Jr. The Inheritance explodes with history-changing information and answers the questions Americans are still asking, while pulling them through a gauntlet of some of the worst prisons this country has to offer. This book thrillingly exposes the reality of American power, and sheds light on the dark corners of current corruption within the executive branch and the justice and prison systems.
What Doesn't Kill You...: My Life in Motor Racing
Johnny Herbert - 2016
After becoming British Junior Karting Champion (losing part of a finger in the process), then the Formula 3 title for Eddie Jordan in 1987, he was all set for a glittering debut season in Formula 1 when he was caught in a mass pile-up at Brands Hatch. That horrific crash threatened to end his career, but Herbert made a miraculous recovery, was a hugely popular winner of the British Grand Prix in 1995, and enjoyed 25 years of competitive motorsport, becoming the only British driver to win the 24 hours of Le Mans followed by a Grand Prix. And all that despite driving every pace in extreme pain; in fact, as the first and only disabled driver in F1 history.While chronicling an extraordinary life behind the wheel with cheer and his trademark cheeky humour, What Doesn't Kill You... contains a wealth of stories from the hard end of Formula 1: on Johnny's team-mate Michael Schumacher, legends like Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, his fellow British adversaries Damon Hill, Martin Brundle and Nigel Mansell, and of course all those gruesome accidents. With an encyclopaedic knowledge and love of the sport, Johnny Herbert's autobiography, much like the man himself, delivers brilliance from the back of the grid.
First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong
James R. Hansen - 2005
Armstrong become the first person to step on the surface of another heavenly body. Perhaps no words in human history became better known than those few he uttered at that historic moment. In a penetrating exploration of American hero worship, Hansen addresses the complex legacy of the First Man, as an astronaut and an individual.
Tiny Blunders/Big Disasters: Thirty-Nine Tiny Mistakes That Changed the World Forever (Revised Edition)
Jared Knott - 2020
World History
The Meaning of Tango: The History and Steps of the Argentinian Dance
Christine Denniston - 2007
The Meaning of Tango traces the development of the dance, from its birth in poverty-stricken Buenos Aires, through the craze of the early 20th century, right up to its recent revival today thanks to Broadway shows such as Tango Argentino. It also explains the techniques behind the dance and shows why mastering the tango is more like learning a language than a routine. For beginners or experts, dancers or armchair fans, this wonderful book is the perfect partner for enjoying the world's favorite dance.
Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century Volume 2: The Man Who Learned Better
William H. Patterson Jr. - 2014