Sports car racing in camera

1960-69
Paul Parker

Parker’s latest work is this stunning selection of photographs from 1960s sports car racing. Each year is introduced with 500 words chronicling where the dominance lay that season and who the major challengers would be. In the foreword, David Piper reminisces about his time in the sport and enlightens us on the merits of “starting money, prize money and bonuses based on results”. Parker goes on to explain in the introduction that it would be impossible to treat this work like his two previous F1 in Camera books as sports car racing was so much harder to annotate due to the plethora of rule changes, the bizarre points systems and the hundreds of sub-divisions to them. With this in mind the (slightly uninformative) Teams, Drivers and Results section at the end of each year can be ignored and the real reason for buying this book appreciated. Some of the images have indeed been seen before; however, with so many hidden in private collections it is a testament to the research that went in to compiling this work that so many fascinating photos have made their way into it. From wonderfully atmospheric shots of the Targa Florio racing through forgotten Sicilian towns to ‘in the pits’ shots at Le Mans, each photo is accompanied by useful and insightful captions. If you have even a passing interest in 1960s sports car racing or you know someone who does, then you may well have one Christmas present solved. EF

Published by Haynes, ISBN 978 1 84425 400 2, £30.00