BOOK REVIEW

Daring Drivers, Deadly Tracks

Brian Redman (with Jim Mullen) Published by Evro Publishing RRP £50

If you enjoyed the recent article by Brian Redman in the March 2 issue of MN about his three favourite racing cars, you have to have this, which quite simply is one of the best motor racing books to have been published in recent years.

From the 1960s through to the end of the 1980s, Brian was a works driver for Porsche, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Jaguar, Aston Martin, BMW, Chevron and Lola in sportscar racing and for six different Formula 1 teams. He won the Spa 1000Km on the original road circuit four times, the Targa Florio, the Nurburging 1000Km on the full Nordschleife and the Daytona 24 hours.

His co-drivers may have included the likes of Jacky Ickx, Jo Siffert and Pedro Rodriguez but Brian’s pace and consistency were fundamental to their successes. Let’s not forget that Brian also won three US Formula 5000 Championships, in the process defeating Mario Andretti, James Hunt, Jody Scheckter, Al Unser and Tony Brise among many others.

Although this 300-page book covers the whole of Brian’s professional career it has imaginatively avoided a potentially tedious chronological approach.

Beginning with Spa-francorchamps, the chapters cover individual circuits, races and topics such as Formula 5000, including deliciously evocative descriptions of driving cars like the Porsche 917 or Ferrari 312P on the great circuits.

Mario Andretti has written the Foreword and Sam Posey the Afterword, while Brian’s wife Marion, whom Brian married in 1962 before he became a professional, contributes a revealing Epilogue.

In years to come, if it isn’t already, this book will surely be regarded as a motor racing classic.