[a teeny bit of wear at spine ends, Christmas gift inscription (non-authorial) on second front endpaper; jacket shows just a trace of surface wear, minor wrinkling surrounding top of spine]. (B&W and color photographs) "For 20 glorious years, from 1951 to 1971, dirt track racing lured some of the best racers and biggest characters to unpaved tracks scattered across the country. Rodger Ward, A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Tony Bettenhausen, and Parnelli Jones are just some of the great drivers who accepted the dirt track challenge, piloting Kuzmas, Meskowskis, Watsons, and Kurtis-Krafts faster than conditions or physics would seem to allow. Laid out sideways, foot on the floor, engines screaming, dirt flying, cars tearing around the rutted track, this was racing at its raw and raucous best. Veteran racing writer Joe Scalzo chronicles the kings, jesters, miracles, and disasters of dirt track racing's greatest era."