by Paul Gohde
Within the public-driven world of the Indy 500 and NASCAR, the title Ken Miles might not have rung a loud bell for some racing followers, however within the Sixties at endurance races just like the Daytona 24 and Le Mans twice across the clock, Miles’ title and the outcomes had been magical. Again and again, he and his long-distance Shelby Ford teammates stood on the rostrum as a mess of drivers from totally different racing disciplines got here collectively to guide Carroll Shelby’s Fords Cobras, Mustangs and particularly the Ford GTs to dominant victories.
Shelby American crew photographer / author Dave Friedman takes the reader of “Ken Miles: The Shelby American Years” into the pits and race tracks, crew conferences and personal moments and lead driver / check driver helped the crew to a worldwide dominance in endurance racing Racing.
Shelby had employed Miles earlier than the 1963 season to prepare extra professionalism inside a crew that had the vehicles however in some way could not race and win with the opposite well-known organizations.
In Friedman’s in depth overview, he recounts Miles’s direct affect on the crew that drove to the USRRC Championship in 1964, successful 8 out of 10 races, securing the producers’ championship that season.
Ford transferred its nascent GT-40 program from its Advance Automobiles division to Shelby’s management in December 1964, however after an unsuccessful first season on endurance racing, the crew clicked and captured the 1966 Le Mans crown jewel.
Right here Friedman combines his storytelling pictures with a revealing phrase description of how Miles and co-driver Lloyd Ruby had been robbed of this victory by Ford crew politics; a victory that in later years was rightly earned by Miles’ crew.
Sadly Miles did not have one other likelihood to attempt once more at Le Mans as he died in a horrible accident when he was killed on Nov.
Writer Friedman does a wonderful job bringing the long-distance fan into the guts of the game; particularly together with his 357 images. However the 240-page, landscape-format quantity additionally shines and leads the informal sports activities automotive fanatic deeper into the generally angular, usually merciless world of sport.
“Ken Miles: The Shelby American Years” can be a wonderful Christmas current that can preserve the reader busy leafing by and digesting the images for a lot of hours.
To order: Contact Automotive Tech at www.cartechbooks.com or name 1-800-551-4754. Additionally accessible on Amazon.
Paul Gohde heard the sound of racing vehicles early in his life.
Rising up within the suburbs of Milwaukee, north of Wisconsin State Truthful Park within the Fifties, Paul had no thought what “that noise” he heard a number of instances a yr was. Lastly, on the suggestion of mates of his mother and father, he was taken to a number of modified inventory automotive races on Thursday night on the outdated quarter-mile discipline monitor that was within the infield of the 1-mile oval – and he was thrilled.
The primary Milwaukee Mile occasion he attended was the 1959 Rex Mays Basic, received by Johnny Thomson within the pink Racing Associates lay-down offy constructed by the legendary Lujie Lesovsky. After getting the winner’s autograph within the field, the 100-mile Gohde did not see Hank Aaron hit a house run at County Stadium and he was hooked once more.
Paul started competing within the Indianapolis 500 in 1961 and noticed AJ Foyt’s first Indy win. He started protecting races as a reporter / photographer for Racing Wheels newspaper in Vancouver, WA in 1965, and his first race was Jim Clark’s historic Indy win. The 1967 Hoosier 100 was his first main race entered for them.
He’s a retired middle-class instructor, avid collector of classic racing memorabilia, and a tour information at Miller Park. Paul loves touring deserted racetracks each right here and in Europe, with the Brooklands circuit in Weybridge England being his favourite. You might be married to Paula and have three grown kids and two cats.
Paul loves the range of all racing sports activities, “an element that primarily captivated me”.
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