This second volume of Leo Levine's history of Ford's 100-year involvement in auto racing covers the 33-year span from 1968 through 2000, the years in which the sport grew from a regional attraction to a national television phenomenon.
Levine goes behind the scenes to chronicle the greatest personalities, cars, and races of the era, from all types of racing - NASCAR, CART, Formula One, NHRA, Off-Road, and others.
The stories and words (via first-hand interviews) of:
- Mario Andretti
- Junior Johnson
- Parnelli Jones
- Bobby Rahal
- Jackie Stewart
- And many others
With an emphasis on Ford's groundbreaking accomplishments, this volume of 'The Dust and the Glory' also serves as a comprehensive history of international racing since 1968. Thus, in addition to the stories of the drivers closely associated with Ford - Cale Yarborough, Dale Jarrett, Mario Andretti, Bob Glidden, and Bill Elliott, to name but a few - the book also provides information on the careers of superstars such as Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon. The results of different racing circuits' major events, and their year-end rankings, are provided for each year.
But 'The Dust and the Glory' is more than a series of dates and facts about racers and their victories. The ideas, the decisions, the foresight - and in some cases, the mistakes - of car owners, engineers, sponsors, and corporate management are also a large part of the story.
Levine explains why Walter Hayes is "the most important man in Ford's 100-year history of motorsports involvement."
Also discussed are topics such as Ford's shutdown of motorsports operations in 1970, the early days of Formula Ford, the company's early 1990s re-emergence in the CART business, and the 1999 introduction of the Focus. Great owners such as Robert Yates, Roger Penske, and Jack Roush are also profiled.
When the first volume of 'Ford: The Dust and The Glory' was originally published in 1968, Leo Levine was fresh from a career as a newspaperman (highlighted by stints with the European edition of The Stars and Stripes and with The New York Herald Tribune) and as a racing driver in Europe and South America. He quit the latter occupation in 1960 when, he says, "Dan Gurney went around me on the outside, going about 20 miles an hour faster." He then spent twenty years with Mercedes-Benz of North America as one of the company's general managers before retiring and returning to writing and the golf course.
