Читать книгу Carroll Shelby: A Collection of My Favorite Racing Photos - Art Evans - Страница 7
Preface by Art Evans
ОглавлениеAs you read this book, remember that there are two authors: Carroll Shelby and I. Shelby’s words are in italics, while mine are not. Carroll Shelby and I were close friends for many years. I called him “Shel.” A few years ago, I made arrangements for him to publish a book about his family. Then he wanted a new edition of his book The Cobra Story and I helped him with that. So we started talking about a publishing partnership. Our first was my book The Shelby American Story.
Then he decided that he wanted to try to memorialize the story of his life. During his later years, however, his eyesight deteriorated and he found it difficult to read. But he did enjoy looking at pictures. So we started working together gathering photographs to tell his life story. His daughter, Sharon, contributed a number of them from his early life. And there were many in the archives of his companies.
In addition, many friends contributed photographs that they had taken or that were from their collections: Paul-Henri Cahier, Ginny and John Dixon, Bob D’Olivo, Will Edgar, Cliff Emmich, David Evans, Joel Finn, Dave Friedman, Jim Gessner, Carl Goodwin, Vince Howlett, Steve Johnson, Allen Kuhn, Pete Lyons, Karl Ludvigsen, Don Meacham, Peter Miles, Bill Neale, Willem Oosthoek, Lynn Park, Ken Parker, John Persselin, Rich Sparkman, Jim Sitz, Tracy Smith, Bob Tronolone, and Gordon Whitby. I think I speak for Shel when I say, “Thank you all.”
Also my sincere thanks to the staff at CarTech for the outstanding job they have done in bringing Shelby’s story to life.
So we started to put together his picture story, his scrapbook, as it were. Unfortunately, Shelby died before we finished. Nevertheless, after a period of mourning and depression, I completed it. I wrote some of the text. For the rest, I recorded Shel and used his words; in these cases, it’s in italics.
Special thanks to Ginny Dixon (proofreader par excellence) as well as Tracey Smith, John Dixon, and, most of all, Don Klein, who is one of the very best motorsports journalists; all have reviewed this story.