Eoin Young (1) (1939–2014)

While Hulme is not much remembered outside of car racing circles, in his prime, he was a Formula 1 champion, and Bruce McLaren's on-track right-hand man. Young had a very close relationship with Hulme, and this is a complete life of the man, warts and all. That he is not better remembered might be a comment on how Hulme, who seemed to want acclaim in his native New Zealand, wasn't prepared to do the work needed to win the spotlight. Gaining some reputation as a dirty competitor also didn't show more help. Be that as it may, the best part of this book is devoted to the Can-Am race car series of the Sixties and the Seventies, and I found a lot of the minutiae to be fascinating. show less

Dwelling more on the good times than the bad, the particular charm of this book is that Young devotes almost as much time to Bruce McLaren the race-team principal as he does McLaren the driver. The title is also a note that the one thing Young is not dwelling on is McLaren's death in a testing accident.

Though I had seen him race a year or two earlier, Amon first grabbed my attention in 1966 whilst driving one of those wonderful M1B McLarens at Snetterton (the book has a picture from that event!). He seemed young and glamorous to a 10 year old, so I tended to follow his career thereafter, yet never really knew much about him except for his infamous bad 'luck' and poor decision making!

It's good, after all this time, to finally come across a book that fills in the many gaps, leading us show more through his life up to the present, though inevitably dwelling mostly on his racing career. It's quite a small book, so there isn't much depth to it (eg Young's description of Amon's own GP team in 1974 is woefully inadequate), but it succeeds in getting across something of the man's character and motivations.

Amon's 'luck' is legendary, and you really do get a sense of doom gradually descending as the book progresses, but overall I would have liked to see more detail and perhaps less reliance on borrowed quotes. Hardly a classic, but a worthwhile read nevertheless! show less

Motor racing