Description
2nd hand book in very good condition
By: Roger Clark .
At the height of his career in the 1970s, Roger Clark was unquestionably the finest rally driver Britain had ever produced, someone who could take on and beat the previously-invincible Scandinavians and who. in the environment of rally special stages, whether on rough or smooth surfaces, was as supreme a competitor in his own discipline as had been his illustrious namesake, the late Jim Clark, on the race circuits of the world.
Now both Clarks are gone, rallying's virtuoso the victim in January 1998 of a stroke at the cruelly early age of 58 years. His sudden death was followed by glowing tributes on television, radio and throughout the written media from national newspapers to specialist magazines, and rightly so because Roger Clark was not only a supremely successful motor sportsman, he was also a great, fun-loving character for whom there was widespread affection.
It was his magnetic personality as much as his sporting achievements which caused his autobiography Sideways . . . to Victory! to become such a success following its original publication in 1976, for in his collaboration with author Graham Robson he managed to convey so much of his unique personality through its pages.
It is in a further tribute to the memory of someone who did so much for motor sport. both in what he achieved and the manner in which he achieved it, that MRP is republishing this book exactly as Roger Clark and his collaborator wrote it, and including the Foreword which Stuart Turner wrote at the time he was the author's team manager at the Ford Motor Company. In it Clark tells the story of his rise from the obscurity of minor club competitions into the limelight of international acclaim in a rallying career which took him throughout Europe and as far afield as Australia, Canada, South America and South and East Africa.
It is a story of fascinating variety, laced with major triumphs and at times bitter disappointments, and told with refreshing honesty by a sportsman who never failed to criticise when he considered it necessary, but who also lavished praise on his long-suffering regular co-driver Jim Porter and his long-serving mechanic Norman Masters, to whom he admitted he often gave a difficult time.
Even more than 20 years on. Roger Clark's book must be a great encouragement to those who have yet to make their name in this increasingly competitive and widely followed sport, for it reveals that there was no private backer to ease his path to the top. He began with slow. uncompetitive cars and paid his own way until, by sheer determination and that spectacular and effective sideways driving technique, successes came which were to lead to factory drives with Reliant. Rover and Ford. The message he wanted to deliver was: "I managed to do it. and so can you," and he remains an inspiration for all who seek to follow in his wheel tracks.
