Rapid Response
by Dr. Stephen Olvey
|
2011, 305 pages, color and B&W photos, paperback
forward by Alex Zanardi
|
 In the movie Grand Prix there is an overhead shot of a solitary F1 car racing down a straight, which in nothing more than a two lane country road. A line of telephone poles run parallel about 10 feet off of the racing line. Times have changed, not just in track safety, but also in car design and medical response at the tracks.
This book was originally published in 2006, this edition appeared in 2011 with added new material. Dr. Olvey started his "racing" career when he became the assistant medical director at Indy (his home town) then shortly became the medical director at USAC, then CART. He set the world-wide gold standard for medical support teams for motor sports.
This book reflects the evolution of track safety from the sixties to present. The stories told are sometimes funny, Derek Daly and Rick Mears racing their wheelchairs around the hospital nurses' station, but too often tragic, as Alex Zanardi's crash in 2001. Speedtv.com gives the book a 5 out of 5 lug nut rating. My MGB only has four.
|
