Red Wheels and White Sidewalls: Confessions of an Allard Racer

by Bill Pollack ISBN188897814 7 Published by Brown Fox Books, $23.95

What a cracking read. Bill Pollack was there at the birth of road racing in the US, and won as he pleased in a Cad-Allard and other European hardware. The son of an exotic dancer and a composer, the author’s life story makes for compelling reading: underage midnight cruises (and crashes) in his mother’s Ford, learning to fly a B-26 ‘The Flying Prostitute’ during WWII — a plane that had “a propensity for blowing up at the slightest provocation” — to his racing at venues such as Pebble Beach and Torrey Pines.

Pollack’s engaging writing style is a joy. You derive a genuine sense of the camaraderie — and sheer danger — experienced during the 1950s era, with box stories from the likes of Phil Hill and John Fitch adding to this impression. RH