Dual book review: American GP champions and Valentino Rossi

Two recent releases from Motorbooks have achieved the nearly impossible, they have aroused my interest in motorcycle racing. Sure, I've been to a couple World Superbike events and have done articles about racers, but my interest has always been more in the riders themselves, not the races per se.

The two books, which I fortuitously read in this order, are Grand Prix Motorcycle Racers: The American Heroes, by Norm DeWitt, and Ring of Fire: The Inside Story of Valentino Rossi and Moto GP, by Rick Broadbent.

The American Heroes

DeWitt's book about American champions of motorcycle Grand Prix racing was a good one for setting the stage. He discusses the first Americans who joined the competition and then devotes chapters to each American champion up till today: Kenny Roberts, Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey, Kevin Schwantz, Kenny Roberts Jr., and Nicky Hayden.

The penultimate chapter covers the contenders who challenged but never reached the top (Mike Baldwin, Randy Mamola, Bubba Shobert, Doug Chandler, and John Hopkins) and the final chapter focuses on World Superbike champs Fred Merkel, Doug Polen, Scott Russell, John Kocinski, Colin Edwards, and Ben Spies.

What worked for me with this book was the way it follows each racer through his career, season by season, telling the tale of how hopes were built and dashed and rekindled. If raw talent were the only factor in winning races the stories woud be very different. Instead, races--and championships--are often determined by mechanical failures or mistakes made by other riders. Seeing it all in continuity gives a much better, broader picture than reading about the season piecemeal, week by week. Of course, if you love racing and you avidly follow it week by week it's a different story. But for those of us who don't, this summation is a better format.

Ring of Fire

Of course, since the beginning of this decade, there is one name that has consistently factored into the fate of the American contenders: Valentino Rossi. With five consecutive world titles from 2001 through 2005, and two more in 2009 and 2009, Rossi has been the man to beat.

While DeWitt's book lays out the facts and chronology, and acquaints you with the names, Broadbent's Ring of Fire does a much better job of bringing the characters to life and putting flesh on their bones. The dust cover sports a blurb from "Legendary racing broadcaster Murray Walker" describing the book as "History that reads like a 'can't-put-it-down novel.'" I might not go quite that far but I wouldn't stop very far short. The book is very readable, and definitely grabs and holds your interest.

What it also does is offer a two-for-one. Essentially, Ring of Fire is a comeback story, but make that times two. There is Valentino Rossi winning five GPs, watching his title slip away for two years, and then reclaiming it. Interspersed throughout, Broadbent also tells the story of Mike Hailwood's comeback at the Isle of Man TT.

Hailwood, of course, "Mike the Bike," was the Moto GP champion from 1962 through 1965 who then went on to race cars. After a much longer time away than Rossi's two losing years, Hailwood decided to return to the Isle of Man in 1978 to challenge a whole new generation of racers. He won easily.

Honestly, I'm not sure that the Hailwood story isn't more interesting than the Rossi story. For Rossi it's a tale of the week-to-week, year-to-year vicissitudes of modern day racing. For Hailwood, the story is the fears, the questioning, the self-doubts connected with once again risking his life on a course that had claimed the lives of so many people--so many friends--he had known. And then the triumph.

So I have to admit, while reading these two books I spent some time browsing the reports of the 2010 GP season, and with the names and the stories now familiar to me, it's all a lot more interesting. I may need to spend more time at the racetrack next year.