Coastal 181 - Book Review

jimdonnellyonwheels.com

Florida open cockpit racing,
writ large and exceptionally
April 7, 2024

Every so often, you run into a book that’s perhaps not as well known as it ought to be. That’s underlined when the book in question is a racing history that involves Florida, our third-largest state, and a place where cars have been in competition since the dawn of the 20th century. A lot of that history took place on short ovals, dirt and paved, and involved drivers in that most primitive and exciting of classes, Sprint cars. The Sunshine State has a very rich open-wheel history, and finally, here’s a book that tells the story with remarkable skill.

Racers in the Sun is an intensely detailed, delightfully written tale in a sprawling 569 pages, authored and published by Florida racing historian Richard Golardi, which covers an impressive amount of breadth in terms of the time period and variety of driving stars that are outlined chapter by chapter. The best-known may be Ralph Liguori, who made it all the way to Indy cars, but the lineup of Florida stars also includes Robert Smith and the Hall of Fame drivers Pete Folse and Frank Riddle, the latter of whom was a repeat winner of the prestigious and historic Little 500 for Sprint cars in Indiana. The self-published work retails for $32.00 and can be found at Coastal 181, which sells a whole lot of impressive books on short track competition. Know what’s most enticing about this book? As the cover proclaims, it’s only Volume One.

hemmings.com

Jim Donnelly, Hemmings Motor News, Sept. 30, 2024

Despite it being our third-largest state, Florida has historically come up short when it comes to preserving and venerating its motorsport history, aside from NASCAR. And in the roaring world of Sprint car racing, Florida has a rich history dating back to the 1940s, involving Hall of Fame drivers who have largely gone unrecognized until now. Racers in the Sun is a 569-page softcover accounting the legend of Florida Sprint racing on both dirt and asphalt, told through the biographies of the luminaries who contest it to this day.

Author Richard Golardi intimately knows and loves his subject matter, having spent years developing this book, relying on research that incorporates extensive oral history on some of the very best. Its pages contain authorized biographies of Pete Folse and Frank Riddle, both enshrined in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Iowa. Riddle was a multi-time winner of the famed Little 500 in Indiana, a race in which Florida drivers have traditionally excelled, and which is discussed in depth here. Other careers delineated include those of Wayne Reutimann, from a famed racing family; Larry Brazil, Pancho Alvarez, and the immortal “Ralphie the Racer” Liguori. Venues, including the legendary Tampa Fairgrounds, also get their due. What’s most impressive about this excellent work of history is that it’s self-published; one guy did all this, and admirably well.