Schlegelmilch Sportscar Racing 1962-1973

The photography of Rainer Schlegelmilch is renowned in motor racing circles, in a career spanning over half a century, with a number of books featuring his work to his credit. Since the early seventies he has concentrated mainly on Formula One, but prior to that he attended numerous international sports car races, like Le Mans, the Targa Florio and even the Can-Am series in the USA, and this book is a journal of that period from 1962 to 1973. It is presented essentially in a circuit-by-circuit format, rather than a chronological order, which provides one with an insight into the changes that occurred, not only to the cars, but to the circuits, safety features, fashions, etc through the decade.

The foreword is by six times 24 Hours of Le Man's winner Jacky Ickx, titled “The Splendour of Endurance Racing”, whilst the text is in eight languages by respected motoring writer David Tremayne This concentrates on some of the main protagonists of the era, like Enzo Ferrari, Ferdinand Piech, John Wyer, and drivers like Phil Hill, Henri Pescarolo, Jo Siffert, and Pedro Rodriguez. With a photographer of such calibre, the book is definitely picture-led, featuring a wealth of stunning period images predominantly in colour, but also a number of evocative B&W images. They feature not only images of the cars in action, but in static pose in the pits and paddock, with numerous ambience images of the drivers, pit crew, wives, girlfriends and spectators, a truly kaleidoscopic view of the endurance racing scene of the period.