Back on Track by Alessandro Silva

I apologise for starting a new thread instead of using the existing one for books, but this book is too important to risk getting lost in the general discussion there. The moderators can merge the threads if they disagree.

Long term members of the forum will know the author through his posts here and won’t need me to add anything about his knowledge and the thoroughness of his research. A few may have his book on OM cars.

The book deals with Racing in the 1940s - 340 races at 180 different venues, 626 drivers with their complete racing records and a list of 720 other drivers mentioned in the text. All cars that took part in the 340 races are listed by make and serial numbers with complete racing appearances. This is a badly under documented period of motor racing history but the book does much more than fill a gap. It seriously raises the bar for this type of racing history. If you have any interest in this period of racing you must have this book. If you do not have that interest, get it and you soon will have.

There are 1080 pages and 1073 images. The text is in English written, as far as I can tell, with the accuracy and precision that one would expect from a professor of mathematics. The design and production quality are superb with quality paper and a robust slipcase.

The acknowledgements mention, among othesr, Adam Ferrington, Richard Armstrong, Mattijs Diepraam, Jean-Maurice Gigleux, Tony Kaye, David McKinney, Barry Lake, Doug Nye, Rob Young, Aldo Zana and TNF itself.

It is produced in 300 numbered copies, all signed by the author. I don’t know whether there is a UK distributor; I ordered mine from the publishers, Fondazione Negri. They can be contacted at info@negri.it. I found them helpful and prompt to deal with.

The cost is 180 euros, shipping to the UK was 20 euros. It is not cheap but true quality never is.

Thanks for the tip Roger.  Sounds like a Must Have...but try as I might I haven't yet found the title - nor how to order it - on that Negri website.

 

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 15 April 2019 - 20:16.

I didn’t use the website. I sent an email to info@negri.it saying I wanted to order the book and asking how I should pay for it. They replied with the IBAN, I initiated the transfer and they acknowledged.

Understood.  Thank you.

 

DCN

 

That looks like a dream come true. Thank you Roger.

Mouth watering...

Hope one day I'll be able to pay for one, it seems amazing!!!!!!

Mine arrived this morning, copy number 20. I am still literally paralysed by the amount of information that Alessandro Silva has been able to unearth on the darker four years of the century as far as motor-racing is concerned. A thousand and eighty pages of relevant information! 

Not that this is a surprise at all -we had a glimpse of this work published at 8W sixteen years ago (!) - but it watered my eyes to see, on this also very special day for Leif Snellman (20 years of The Golden Era on the Net) that dreams can come true.

 

We are not orphans any longer as far as these years 45-49 is concerned. We now need to read, to learn and to claim ownership of the heritage that our authorities just swept under the carpet...and that was it. 

 

Thank you, Alessandro Silva, thak also the (crazy) Italian editors, god bless them.     

Help!. I own up to being something of a duffer when it comes to todays technology. I have looked at the Negri website instructions on buying books and they advise you to click the appropriate title for details of payment etc. However the 'Back On Track' title is not listed. I have also contacted them and been given a Bank Transfer number which is something of a mystery to me. Has anyone managed to pay by debit card I wonder?. Any advice would be welcome, this looks too good to miss. .

Here's a simple guide from Barclays; similar instructions should work for any bank.

 

https://www.barclays...nts/send-money/

 

If you don't do online banking there is a paper-based option.

 

Or, if you have a Paypal account, you should be able to pay them that way - just ask them which email address it should go to.

Thank you very much Vitesse2. Much appreciated advice. .

Just ordered mine. Thanks to Roger Clark for telling us how to do it.

Just bringing this back to the top to mention that Alessandro's book is selling far faster than was originally expected. I suspect the 300 signed copies will sell out by the end of the year.

 

It has now made its way into some of the specialist booksellers - in the UK both Chaters and Hortons have it, as do Motors Mania in France and Autonet in the Netherlands (and possibly others elsewhere). You can see some sample illustrations and pages on Chaters' website. However, from Fondazione Negri's point of view, I believe they would still prefer to sell direct if possible, since this will mean they will hit their break-even point (and even profit!) more quickly.

 

I ordered using Paypal and it arrived from Italy in just over a week; in effect five working days, as I ordered on a Friday evening and it was delivered yesterday, the day after the bank holiday.

 

As Doug said above - just dig deep and buy!

Seconded - a wonderful piece of work, filling in a huge gap in published motor sporting history.  I just e-mailed Negri in Italy querying availability of the book and was contacted by return.  A few days later I was immersed in it (the freshly-delivered book I mean).  Very efficient.

 

And worth every penny.

 

DCN

Edited by Doug Nye, 11 May 2019 - 22:16.

Same nice experience ordering it and a fabulous treat going through it. What a remarkable work!  If you can buy only a book this year do go for this one,  it definitely justifies its price.

I am also impressed by the book and service. I hope they sell out of the print run to encourage them to put out more similar works.

I've just received mine, copy 73 / 300. I have also ordered it from Fondazione Negri - prompt and effective service.

 

What an astonishing piece of work. Just speechless. 

 

Frankly speaking, it is the most expensive book I've ever purchased. However, I didn't hesitate to purchase it when I read this thread some days ago. Worth every single euro. If you have to buy a recently-published book, this is the book.

 

 

Narcís.

Edited by a_tifoosi, 18 May 2019 - 09:13.

I'll gladly join in the praise-singing, now that I have my own copy - what an awe inspiring book! I ponied up an extra EU 100,- to lump in Alessandro's other two books, about Nando Minoia and OM, respectively, and now eagerly await next week's free time to peruse them thoroughly! At first glance, all three look like a very good investment indeed - the bilingual text of the two older books and, especially, the non-racing content of the OM book notwithstanding; these are such niche subjects that you simply cannot forego the chance to get some A-1 content, and the price is still very reasonable! As for the quoted shipping costs and delivery time, if you live in the EU you can get the book much faster, and cheaper - I paid 14 Euros p & p for all three books combined, and they arrived within three days. Order directly at Fondazione Negri info@negri.it, the service is simply excellent!!

I don't know whether Alessandro still follows this bulletin board, but if he does, I'd like to query something he wrote in "Back on Track", namely his assertion that "Raph" Bethenod not only had "a brief stint at American Midget racing in California" (p26), but was "the winner of a Midget indoor race at Los Angeles in early 1946" (p27). I thought I knew a fair bit about Midget racing in California, but this came as a complete surprise to me, and I must say that I find it VERY hard to believe, for a number of reasons: for one thing, indoor racing isn't very popular in Southern California, with year-round outdoor racing possible which is prefered by both competitors and spectators for obvious reasons. There have been repeated attempts over many years to promote indoor racing in Northern California (San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and Sacramento), but I don't think I have ever heard of an indoor midget track in L.A.

Secondly, indoor racing on those extremely short tracks (usual lap distances are 270, 230 or even only 160 meters!) is a category so far removed from European road racing that it is almost inconceivable that a driver trained in the latter sport will be able to compete, let alone win without years of practice. Even professional American racing drivers, with many years of experience in US short track racing, have found it difficult to race indoors, where up to a dozen cars spin around those tiny ovals every seven or eight seconds - Mario Andretti, for instance, a driver who can hardly be accused of lacking versatility, has never won an indoor midget race in his long career, and he's just the most famous name in a very long list. With that in mind, the appearance of a European Grand Prix driver at an American Midget track, especially one who had already raced at the famous Vanderbilt Cup races back in 1936, would surely have been used in pre-race publicity, but searching area newspapers does not yield any results containing various permutations of his names.

All of which is hardly conclusive evidence to the contrary, but it makes me wonder whether Raph actually learned something else while in America, namely the bragging about non-existant racing deeds in far-away locations, which was a frequently practiced form of self-promotion in North America during much of the thirties, forties and fifties - Europeans may be well aware of the fact that the Andretti brothers, for instance, used to claim to have started racing Formula Junior cars in Italy before moving to Pennsylvania in 1955 (which is nonsense, of course), and there are numerous other examples of this in evidence (for more detailed info on this practice, I recommend reading the article "Getting a Ride in the Fifties" by Eddie Sachs, in Dick Wallen's "Fabulous Fifties").

I must say that scientific annotations in general are a bit of a pet hate for me, as they make for very hard reading, and yet, while there are many footnotes, cross-references and source attributions in "Back on Track" (reducing the appeal of the book a great deal, in my humble opinion), none of them refer to this particular piece of information. Alessandro, if you read this, would it be possible to point me in the direction of the source for this claim, so that I may be able to perform further research to either refute or confirm the story? That would be much appreciated!!

Based on all of the positive reviews here I too ordered a copy of this book.  It certainly has not disappointed.  One difference that I might advise to North American buyers is to consider buying from Chater's, rather than directly from the publisher.  Doing this saved me USD 50 (total cost of about USD 250, rather than about USD 300), plus I literally had the book the day after I ordered it, as they sent it out via DHL Express.  Perhaps best of all, their packaging was truly exceptional so I received it in absolutely perfect condition.

Hello all   My brother , Steen Sandorff Pedersen, from Australia, recently received a  copy of this Wonderful book : Back on Track.  To his surprise there is mention of a Salmson that he now owns in which we have been doing  endless research on for many years.   I include a  photo from the book. The Salmson he owns is pictured here  (As this is my first post I am experimenting to see if it works).The Driver of the Salmson was Leon Boucard. And is talked about throughout the book.  If anyone has any more information on the driver of this car.Or this photo We would be delighted to hear.  I will start a new topic in this forum one day soon. We nick name the Salmson the Baby Blue Whale.  Thank you, debbiep

 

The photo did not load so I will use it as my avatar or profile picture till I work out how to post photos    

Edited by mdfe, 28 August 2019 - 08:45.

Your photo has loaded OK for me, Debbie, although it’s a bit fuzzy.

Your photo has loaded OK for me, Debbie, although it’s a bit fuzzy.

Thank you. I was not sure it loaded for others. I only copy and paste but I will read how to load photos on forum.

I got clearance from 'Management' to buy the book in order to soften the blow of becoming an octogenarian at my last birthday and it has more than done the trick. The late 1940's is where I came in as far as motor racing is concerned and I am amazed at how much I have learned, the details of the South American races are of special interest to me. My only problem is getting the book back into its slip case whenever I manage to drag myself away from the information packed pages. When I was a kid, I had a book titled 'The Wonder Book Of Motor Racing' but that title now belongs to this new wonder book. Sadly, Simon Taylors HWM history now looks like an unlikely candidate for a 90th birthday wants list!. .