Real Road Racing, The Santa Monica Road Races

Real Road Racing tells the tale of the Santa Monica Road Races. These annual races were held between 1909 and 1919 on the actual city streets (ok, they were dirt roads) of Santa Monica. Drivers such as Barney Oldfield, Ralph DePalma, Earl Cooper, and Terrible Teddy Tetzlaff raced along Ocean Avenue to Wilshire Boulevard, then over to San Vicente and back to Ocean.

This is the first book dedicated to these events and contains race details, descriptions, and over 150 astounding vintage photographs and maps.

Extensive use of contemporary news reports highlight the text and add a degree of color that would be otherwise unattainable. Remember, in the teens, there were no radios or television to assist in reporting. Written language was thus more colorful and descriptive. The authors have made great use of this throughout the work.

Modern Santa Monica residents may well shudder at the thought of speeding racers attracting crowds of nearly 100,000 people to their town. But through the success of these races, Santa Monica was able to stave off annexation into the big nasty conglomeration that has become Los Angeles. Real Road Racing chronicles the growth of Santa Monica, auto racing as a sport, and the political aspects of the speed game that many attribute only to the modern era.

To describe this as a softcover book does the work a gross injustice. Artist Neil Nissing has taken an old 1913 race photograph and colorized it. He then added multiple design elements to help set the period of these events. The cover is indeed flexible, but it has edge flaps for all peripheral text, and is fully laminated. There are 153 photographs, numerous maps, and 140 pages.

Harold Osmer is a self-published author of two books relating to Los Angeles racing history.

Phil Harms has been collecting vintage race photos and stats for over 40 years - longer than his partner has been alive!