BOOK REVIEW Jacky Ickx: His Authorised Competition History
By Jon Saltinstall
There can be few motorsport careers as challenging to chart as Jacky Ickx’s. A star of Formula 1 and sportscars, there’s even so much else besides in his lengthy and varied competition career, including Dakar victory, tin-tops and even starting in motorcycle trials.
Jon Saltinstall – following on from his similar work on Niki Lauda – took on this mammoth undertaking and the result is his large attractive hardback from Evro Publishing. And for it he’s got the full cooperation of Ickx himself, with the Belgian great even writing the preface.
This book, as the subject himself has noted, is a true encyclopaedia of Ickx’s sporting life, not a typical biography nor a mere statistical compendium. Every one of Ickx’s 573 races, right back to the motorcycle trials, gets a detailed look, including a full section of in-depth insightful prose outlining Ickx’s event and its context. And in the ultimate recommendation of the book’s accuracy, Ickx when fact checking Saltinstall’s draft and racking his memory could not find a single thing to change.
For Ickx fans this is an essential purchase, even at the £95 asking price, but for anyone with passion for motorsport history this book would take pride of place in their library.