The Place

Does anyone know of a decent book(s) on the history of the sport?

This is the book Mick Walker finished just before he passes away not long ago.

Of course there is also "Hold On!" not exactly a history of sidecar racing but by our very own Stan Dibben, an excellent read but I think out of publication now, available as ebook.

And Moly's book The Racer's Edge.

Also the first of the two Colin Seeley books "Racer..and the rest" are full of history from his era (60's) ISBN 0-9544357-1-0 .
And the George O'Dell book "Sidecar Championship" ,although mainly about George's career also has a section on the history of the World Championship , ISBN 0 600 38304 3

ronno wrote:Also the first of the two Colin Seeley books "Racer..and the rest" are full of history from his era (60's) ISBN 0-9544357-1-0 .
And the George O'Dell book "Sidecar Championship" ,although mainly about George's career also has a section on the history of the World Championship , ISBN 0 600 38304 3

Thanks. Ordered the George O'Dell book. The Colin Seeley item was listed on Amazon at $586.69.....used!

steve-e wrote:This is the book Mick Walker finished just before he passes away not long ago.

Which is good if you want to know about the riders but rubbish if you want to know anything about the passengers

Agreed

steve-e wrote:And Moly's book The Racer's Edge.

Ordered this the other day. Got email today saying delivery date 27th!

ronno wrote:And the George O'Dell book "Sidecar Championship" ,although mainly about George's career also has a section on the history of the World Championship , ISBN 0 600 38304 3

Can recommend this, very interesting read.

Dave Molyneux book arrived early, so started that now

steve-e wrote:This is the book Mick Walker finished just before he passes away not long ago.

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I'm currently reading this. Great book so far, have just covered Eric Oliver and Cyril Smith.

I didn't realise there was such a gap between the sidecars first appearances at the TT (1923) and their return on the Clypse course in 1954! Also answered my question about the title of the book!

steve-e wrote: ↑Thu Sep 17, 2015 8:58 pm Of course there is also "Hold On!" not exactly a history of sidecar racing but by our very own Stan Dibben, an excellent read but I think out of publication now, available as ebook.

And Moly's book The Racer's Edge.

Hello Steve, The book my father and I published last year 'Enterprise on the Edge' (2018; Australian Scholarly Publishing) has all the "Hold On!" material and much more, including a biography of my Grandfather Cyril Smith. To really understand Cyril's motivations, it's important to more fully appreciate his Army career. Though I wish I'd seen Mick's book because that fills in some of the blanks on his education. I only got to see it a couple of weeks or so ago when we visited Roger Oliver - who has a two copies replete with as many signatures as he can get! I didn't know Cyril had a degree in Engineering for example, which explains quite a bit in itself. That said, I think Enterprise on the Edge corrects some errors in Mick's biography too, so 'swings and roundabouts' I s'pose. Cheers, and 'thanks too for the add I think they say on Facebook, Mark

Another possible worthy addition might be the 1999 Motocourse publication , '50 Years of Moto Grand Prix' ,ISBN 9781874557838,originally £30.... although obviously heavily biased towards solo classes , the sidecars are not forgotten with a separate 10 page section by Mick Woollett ,covering 1949 - 1996 including articles on Eric Oliver and Helmut Fath, with the appendix including the championship points table also for each year 1949 - 1996.

Eric Oliver article added to this
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=37761

Also worth having this for statistics from 1949 - 1975 , not much editorial but each year has a snapshot of each season , including 2 photos, and top 6 results from every GP, then appendix with top 5 from each year.