Bohemian rhapsody: My Travels on Racer Road book review

Book of the month

“In the everyday world there are jobs you enjoy,” writes Pete Lyons. “Hopefully, you even like the people you work with. But you don’t go in every day for your own pleasure… Sometimes, though, whether through clever planning or stubborn persistence or plain dumb luck, you get into something you really love to do, something you feel you were made to do, and which also provides a livelihood.”

That happy place is precisely where the author found himself in the late 1960s as he racked up the miles covering Can-Am – and from what we can glean from this monster 560-page memoir “dumb luck” had plenty to do with it. Not that we should resent his fortune. Through the Can-Am years and a heady four-year spell covering Formula 1, Pete Lyons was (and remains) motor racing’s best and most inspiring photojournalist. They don’t make them like Pete any more. Then again, racing now is a different world and he’d struggle to live and work as he did then. He’d have a lot less fun too. Pete had the best of it – even if, to his credit, he states “overall I do think racing is better nowadays”.

This is a long and self-indulgent memoir, but he’s unapologetic about that. Much like his epic mid-70s grand prix reports for Autosport, it’s the detail that makes the difference, especially in Pete’s signature cheerful tone. Written in eight parts and 74 chapters (!), we learn much about his idyllic childhood and beloved family, especially father Ozzie, a Rolls-Royce enthusiast who also shot and wrote about motor racing for magazines. Lyons was clearly blessed, particularly because he lacked the normal parental pressures to settle down, find a trade and stick to it. By the 1960s, a natural wanderlust led Pete to “Adventures in Wonderland” – a trip to England and Europe that ended up lasting more than two years.

Nothing about Pete Lyons is conventional – Denny Hulme thought he was a hippy! – and perhaps that’s why his photos have as much impact as his words. Most of the pictures here are his own, and from his earliest experiences of motor sport his work shows a delighted eye for context. By the time he fell into the nascent Can-Am scene, which he admits was the making of him, those instincts for seeing the bigger picture and looking up from his lap chart to see, smell, hear and feel served him oh so well.

Always enraptured by early, plentiful and rich experiences of F1, Pete landed full-time work in F1 for both Autosport and Autoweek between 1973 and ’77. We journey with him every step of the way, on his beloved motorcycles, Volvo – and the red Corvette he shipped to Europe to drive from race to race. What a choice!

Then finally we learn why he quit. Turns out you can only take so much of a good thing. Tired of his nomadic existence, he was also peeved at F1 abandoning the Nürburgring, the nit-picking over rules and increasing politics. His exit was our loss – but in this memoir he’s giving us so much back. You’ll love it.

My Travels on Racer Road
Pete Lyons
Evro Publishing, £70
ISBN 9781910505878

Scalextric Ford Capri

Everybody’s favourite slot-car maker has a new range of classic vehicles to ram around your living room. While you can take your pick from a Brabham BT46, Lotus 79 or Ford Mustang, our pick is this 1980s Graham ‘Skid’ Scarborough Capri.
£56.99, available at the Motor Sport Shop

Zucarto artworks

Retro racing art… at John Lewis?! That’s right, the high-street giant has done a deal with Zucarto Art Studios to stock a range of its old-school posters. From Monaco 1935, above, and Le Mans 1959 to the achingly cool Porsche 911 RSR at Daytona in 1973, just grab them all. Supplied framed.
£120

LEGO Technic wall mounts

Few things beat the feeling of finishing one of Lego’s monster Technic sets (they’re not for kids, you know…) but we’re constantly faced with the issue of where we place them after completion. Wicked Brick has you covered with a range of themed wall mounts.
From £34.99

F1 Hot Wheels

If there’s one toy brand we can’t get enough of, it’s Hot Wheels. Its 1:64-scale cars just got even better with the announcement that the entire F1 grid will be recreated. The Red Bull is available now; Williams and Mercedes will be on sale from spring. The rest will follow through the year.
£2.30

Children’s F1 book

If you have youngsters just getting into F1 this is the perfect book to turbo charge their interest. Written by Motor Sport columnist Karun Chandhok with super illustrations it tells the story of F1 via its key drivers, teams and tracks all peppered with thrilling facts.
£9.99

Signed Alain Prost McLaren

Alain Prost stands as a McLaren giant, scoring 30 GP wins and three world titles while with the Woking team. This 1:12 model of his 1989 MP4/5 features all period-correct stickering. It’s hand-signed by the man himself.
£795, available at The Signature Store

The Collector

Signature business

Psst… fancy some insider knowledge? Let’s talk about the inner workings of the signed collectibles industry. First off you need a suitable candidate,
like a world champion from the past such as Jody Scheckter, inset. It’s getting harder and harder to have sessions with current F1 drivers. They’ve usually handed their commercial rights to the teams they’re contracted to, or sell via their own channels. Then you need to give them something to sign, such as posters, helmets, models… or we create something – perhaps a limited-edition print.

Then comes the approach. We have two ways, either direct because we know the driver and have a relationship with them, or through a driver’s management. We recently did a signing with a former F1 world champion in Italy, which we arranged through his manager.

We know we’re heading to Italy so we need to take enough items to make it worthwhile. For this recent one we had around 400 items, most of which we sourced, but some were also third-party items which we would take to be signed for a fee. As this was a private signing, the driver’s minutes are being compensated, so they take their time to sign things clearly.

Transport; do we put 400 things into a van and drive? Can we pack them into suitcases to fly? Or should we privately ship them ahead of time? We opted to fly.

Then there’s the preparation. If we’re having 400 helmets signed, it makes no sense taking the helmets, so off come 400 visors (which will need re-fitting once complete) and print 400 certificates of authenticity. The time soon mounts up!

Our sessions last about 90 minutes, and happen in a controlled environment. Some drivers like to keep an item or two as a token, and we’re always happy to negotiate. The one thing that’s not a trade secret? All that work is seriously worth it to create a great run of signed collectibles.

Andrew Francis is director at The Signature Store. thesignaturestore.co.uk