100 Years of the Ulster Grand Prix book review

One of my treasured books as a young lad was The Boys’ Book of Motors (it’s still on the shelf behind me). As well as the various four-wheeled excitements I was gripped by the pictures of pre-war bike racing around the Isle of Man. The machinery seemed so unsophisticated and the open road so dangerous that I might have ended up a bike fan instead of a car devotee, so the early pictures in this history of the Ulster Grand Prix, subtitled A Century of Road Racing, grabbed me immediately.

It seems remarkable that this event, which still runs on closed public roads, could have continued for 100 years and it’s even more remarkable that the book’s author Norman Windrum has attended three-quarters of them. His first was 1947, aged 10, and he’s been at every running since. But like all fans of this blood-curdlingly risky event (average laps around 136mph) he was devastated when the centenary racing was cancelled due to economic woes, replaced by a simple parade. Having weathered the troubles of 1969 which nearly ended the event, it would be a shame if simple finance gave it the coup de grâce.

Windrum writes engagingly about the shift from the Clady to the Dundrod circuit and about the heroes of the event – champions Mike Hailwood and John Surtees, Tom Herron and his 1978 triple victory, Ron Haslam, and the triumphant Dunlop dynasty, most of whom he’s seen in action – but also the organisational and sponsorship problems which have been constant. Even the supporters’ club rebelled one year. In some ways it’s not so much the safety aspect of racing between kerbs and lamp-posts that makes the event’s survival remarkable, precarious as it remains, as the relentlessly uphill organisational battles it has faced.

Nevertheless, huge crowds have flocked to watch “the world’s fastest road race” over the years, and the book’s many photos show what a popular draw it was (and what a boost to Northern Ireland tourism industry). As well as using the event’s colourful programmes to separate chapters, Windrum devotes a chapter to the history of these programmes, which in early years served as much as tourist guides as event listings. Extensive results appendices complete a fine record of 10 decades of two-wheeled drama. GC

100 Years of the Ulster Grand Prix Norman Windrum Blackstaff Press, £20 ISBN 9781780733050

January 2023 book reviews in brief

70 years – Pebble Beach concours d’Elegance

Various

You may not agree with the statement here that compared to Pebble Beach “all other concours are second-rate”. Some feel the event has encouraged the desecration of tired but original cars into chromed show queens in search of the ‘100 point’ status that multiplies a car’s value. It’s certainly the longest-running and glitziest concours and has the most romantic setting, and as this history shows, over 70 years most of the world’s beautiful cars have visited. There’s a lot of self-congratulation here but it’s a handsome year by year record of fabulous machinery. GC

Hothouse Publishing, from £70

The Yorkshire rally mafia 

Jonathan Pulleyn 

You may only recognise  a few names in this niche bunch of biographies, but the memories make  for a lively read – for example, the co-driver who after they lost their windscreen adopted a cardboard box with a slit to look through, or the time  a Land Rover full of soldiers in a forest met a big Ford heading towards them  at 90mph towing a caravan (caravan rallies were a thing at the time). A foreword by David Richards confirms the rich heritage of the county and the camaraderie of its rally brotherhood. GC

CJ Publications, £50

ISBN 9781399917346

Trackside 

Philip Newsome 

Racing drivers who are also dentists. It’s a short list, and yet that’s what lured Philip Newsome into motor sport photography – he’s a dentist too. Luckily he broadened his range, with the results in this book of photos ranging from F1 through beach racing to historics. He likes a quirky shot too – André Lotterer with his Leica, under Montlhéry’s banking, painting the Macau barriers. Pleasant browsing. GC

Blue Flag Press, £38

ISBN 9781739706104