I’m not one to be sucked into a book. But on a recent holiday this one kept me interested and glued to the end until.
Ring of Fire by Rick Broadbent was just that enthralling and entertaining as well as a little bit shocking.
There are basically two eras of motorcycle racing and behind the scenes gossip going on throughout the book, in parallel, which is the clever bit as you don’t want to put in down.
These eras are the 1960’s with Hailwood and Ago as the main subjects which also described in detail Hailwood’s return in 1978 to the Isle Of Man. Then there’s the early 1990’s being acted out using Rossi, Biaggi and Gibernau and some fascinating behind the scenes gossip of what they all thought of each other, no surprises there except some very detailed growing up from Casey Stoner travelling with Chaz Davies in a trailer.
If you want a really good read covering behind the scenes gossip and nostalgia of the Hailwood and Agostini battles and parties, I couldn’t recommend a better book. Buy it at the airport before a holiday in the sun or just buy it anyway to keep up the collection it’s superb.
Superb but only wished the author looked back at the 1970’s and 1980’s also. Now that would be a good read of Sheene, Roberts, Luccinelli et all. Maybe that would be too close to the bone.
Ring of Fire, the Inside Story of Valentino Rossi and MotoGPis published by Bantam