I remember running in my very first race in July 1987. Lining up with over two hundred others to run fifteen kilometres was exhilarating and daunting. I hadn’t really known how to train for a race, but there I was. To this day, I still remember the nerves and the excitement. After many races, including marathons and triathlons, I would discover that I was indeed pursuing life. I was running for the small boy inside of me who was beat down by childhood sexual abuse. I was running for the angry teenager in me who saw the hypocrisy of the world. I was pursuing the man I knew I could be! I was tired of running away. This is not a how-to book; it’s a to-do book! I have no magic formula or secret to help you live the life you desire. The truth is that you’ll need to do some work. But the ultimate payoff is achieving your vision, drawn from the life-sustaining energy of the Spirit within you. Living dead is not an option. We are Racing Death in pursuit of a life that will give us abundance and eternal peace.

On March 16, 1988, motorsport legend Mickey Thompson and his second wife, Trudy, were gunned down by hooded assassins in the driveway of their Bradbury, California, home. This shocking and brutal double-murder brought an abrupt end to one of the most extraordinary careers in the history of motorsports, a career that has never been completely profiled—until now. Author Erik Arneson delves into the life and career of one of racing’s greatest innovators and most successful businessmen, while also chronicling the story of his tragic murder and his family’s relentless quest to bring his killer to justice. This is a fascinating account of an amazing life that ended too soon.

Scott, Shackleton and Mawson were the three great explorers of the Edwardian age. Now Beau Riffenburgh tells the forgotten story of Douglas Mawson and his death-defying expedition of 1911-14. A key member of Ernest Shackleton's famous Nimrod Expedition, Mawson led his own Australasian Antarctic Expedition. However, following the tragic deaths of the other members of his sledging party, he was left to struggle the hundreds of miles back to base alone, only to find that the relief ship had sailed away, leaving him to face another year in Antarctica. Having survived with a small band of men against incredible odds, he later led a groundbreaking two-year expedition which explored hundreds of miles of unknown coastline. Mawson's is a story of true heroism and a fascinating insight into the human psyche under extreme duress.

This two-volume encyclopedia is the Daytona 500 of stock car racing books—an essential "Bible" that provides an all-encompassing history of the sport as well as an up-to-date examination of modern-day stock car racing. How did stock car racing become firmly entrenched in American pop culture, especially in light of the lack of interest in motorsports overall as a spectator activity in the United States? And what has been the secret to NASCAR's financial success and growth over the last six decades? Encyclopedia of Stock Car Racing highlights approximately 250 subjects that have defined the sport since stock car racing was first organized. Organized in A-Z order, it covers all of the greatest drivers, such as Richard Petty, Jimmie Johnson, Junior Johnson, and David Pearson; the special races such as the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400; and the famed tracks across the country, from Bristol Motor Speedway to Darlington Raceway to Talladega Superspeedway. This unprecedented resource collects information about every element of NASCAR history in one place: the early personalities who shaped the sport and set things in motion, the past greats who have now retired, and today's rising stars who continue to make stock car racing one of the most popular sports in the United States.

When Mickey Thompson and his wife Trudy were assassinated in their driveway in the pre-dawn hours of March 16, 1988, the salacious details of the crime and the years of legal wrangling that followed made for hundreds of splashy headlines and sexy television soundbytes. After all, the story had it all . . . unknown hooded gunmen riding into a gated Southern California community on bicycles, ambushing their victims and brutally ending their lives while neighbors ate breakfast and read the morning paper. Leaving behind more than $70,000 in jewelry, the killing was an obvious “hit,” and those close to Mickey and Trudy immediately pointed to Mickey’s hot-headed former business partner Michael Goodwin as the mastermind behind the tragedy. Nearly 20 years later, Goodwin was found guilty by a Pasadena Superior Court jury in 2006 of two counts of first-degree murder. The actual gunmen were never identified or apprehended. John Walsh and America’s Most Wanted did multiple episodes leading up to the conviction. Robert Stack featured the murders on Unsolved Mysteries. CBS’ 48 Hours Mystery got in the act. Everyone wanted a piece of the story. A good story, however, has much more than a powerful ending. Who was Mickey Thompson? What made him more than just another victim of violent crime in America? This is what Mickey Thompson: The Fast Life and Mysterious Death of a Racing Legend explores. Mickey was one of the most influential figures in early American motorsports. While he did have loyal and longtime friends, Mickey always did things one way . . . his way. And he did it with speed . . . he did everything with speed. From his 1950s adventures in the Carrera Panamericana, ending with five dead and dramatic pictures in Life Magazine in 1953, through making a one-way run of 406.60 miles per hour at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1960 in his famed Challenger, through multiple trend-setting entries in the famed Indianapolis 500 and into the creation of some of the most popular off-road racing series and motor sportsstadium shows, Mickey’s life was full of “firsts.” And in a world that seems to be moving faster than even Mickey Thompson could have imagined, the complete story of this true American legend is one worth slowing down for.

Who has been the world’s greatest driver, and how do you prove it? With an eye for detail and a flair for storytelling, this book explores motor racing’s rich history in pursuit of the best driver the world has ever seen. Most enthusiasts have a strongly held opinion as to racing’s finest driver over the century of the motor car. By putting aside bias and personal opinion, this book’s exhaustively researched, results-based analysis provides a definitive answer through clear and logical evaluation. These carefully considered, significant statistics, when merged together, reveal with incisive objectivity motor sport’s greatest driver as well as the qualities that define greatness. Contentious? Possibly. Thought-provoking? Definitely. Author Angus Dougall captures many aspects of the motor racing world with a selection of revealing anecdotes on the highlights of racing’s biggest stars, together with stories that bring to life people, places, insider’s opinions of drivers, circuits, constructors, politics, insights, and comments on many of the drivers. For readers wishing to peruse the actual detail, there is a vast array of appendices displaying extensive race results lists, charts on driver performance, and car analysis. Motor racing fans, climb on board and hold on for an intriguing ride to the pinnacle of greatness.

The first organized, sanctioned American stock car race took place in 1908 on a road course around Briarcliff, New York—staged by one of America’s early speed mavens, William K. Vanderbilt, Jr. A veteran of the early Ormond–Daytona Beach speed trials, Vanderbilt brought the Grand Prize races to Savannah, Georgia, the same year. What began as a rich man’s sport eventually became the working man’s sport, finding a home in the South with the infusion of moonshiners and their souped-up cars. Based in large part on statements of drivers, car owners and others garnered from archived newspaper articles, this history details the development of stock car racing into a megasport, chronicling each season through 1974. It examines the National Association for Stock Car Automobile Racing’s 1948 incorporation documents and how they differ from the agreements adopted at NASCAR’s organization meeting two months earlier. The meeting’s participants soon realized that their sport was actually owned by William H.G. “Bill” France, and its consequential growth turned his family into billionaires. The book traces the transition from dirt to asphalt to superspeedways, the painfully slow advance of safety measures and the shadowy economics of the sport.