SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - Books Reviewed: Triple Champion, Jackie Stewart

Winning is Not Enough By the man himself and very recently released, this is a must have for anyone interested in the life of Sir Jackie Stewart. In 500 pages Jackie tells of his experiences in motorsport, business and personal life.

The book comes with a visual book enhancement DVD containing many wonderful scenes from his racing days. If you go to the link above you can watch some of the material online.

Did you know that Sir Jackie was appointed honorary deputy sheriff in Indiana, when he helped the local police apprehending a car thief? You can read about the episode and marvel at the account as the thief was held in check by Jackie forming a gun shape with his hand and pointing it at the culprit.

I was intrigued to learn that Jackie mentions eight different and discrete phases in cornering and I'm terribly frustrated that he doesn't name and reveal them. So Jackie, if you're reading this, please get in contact, eh?

The book is easy to read and of the kind that you simply cannot put down as the author never ceases to interest you and hold your attention. Jackie is never lost for words or wit. If you compare "Winning is Not Enough" to "Faster: A Racer's Diary", also by Jackie Stewart, it is fascinating to observe the differences in writing style and the maturity that naturally comes with 37 years of added experience.

Winning Is Not Enough: The Autobiography (UK Edition) by Sir Jackie Stewart
ISBN-10: 075531537

A Restless Life
by Timothy Collings and Stuart Sykes

In this biography of Jackie Stewart, World Champion in 1969, 1971 and 1973, we follow the wee Scot from his early years in Dumbarton, Scotland, working in the family business’ garage. Part of his job was to deliver cars to customers after they had been bought or serviced, and Jackie recons that this early driving on Scottish twisty roads helped develop his driving instincts.

Jackie's first sport was clay-shooting, and he narrowly missed being a part of Scotland’s Olympic Team. After that disappointment, Jackie followed in older brother Jimmy’s footsteps and took up motor racing, much to his mother’s dismay. Years later, When Jackie told his mother about his retirement as an active driver, apparently she acknowledged for the first time that he had been earning his living as a racing driver with the words, “And you’re well out of it”.

The book follows Jackie’s career in motor racing, how he very nearly signed on to drive for Ferrari, his years in “retirement” and finally his support of son Paul’s motor racing in single seaters, which in turn grew into Paul Stewart Racing, when Paul stopped as a driver in order to concentrate on helping and honing talents such as Gil de Ferran, David Coulthard, Dario Franchitti, Jan Magnussen and others.

Finally, the Stewart Racing Team was formed, and the book chronicles the pressures, lows and highs, during that period, including the family's battle with cancer which afflicted Paul, Jackie and Helen, Jackie’s wife since the early sixties.

One of the many memorable passages from this book relates how racing weekends with the Stewart Grand Prix Team usually concluded, with Jackie driving very fast to the airport while Stuart Sykes acted as co-driver, read the maps, and gave directions.

Jackie, with his always smooth and precise driving style was once instructed to change lanes several times on the freeway, at the very latest possible moment. So late in fact, that you and I would probably have considered it much to late to actually be able to change lanes. The former World Champion did make the lane changes, but in such a way that the co-driver remarked that had he been driving instead of Jackie, Jackie would undoubtedly have told him off for making such a maneuver. The reply to that from Jackie was that indeed, he would have remarked unfavorably on such a maneuver had Stuart Sykes been driving, but at least Jackie had performed the maneuver very smoothly and precisely.

Jackie Stewart: A Restless Life by Timothy Collings and Stuart Sykes
ISBN-13: 9780753509456
ISBN: 0753509458

Jackie Stewart - Triple Formula 1 World Champion:
The Official DVD Biography
by Mark Stewart DVD cover

A good video companion to “A Restless Life”, "World Champion" is Mark Stewart’s tribute to his father. This remarkable DVD includes some truly great footage from Jackie Stewart’s career and interviews with sons Mark and Paul, Jackie’s wife Helen, Derek Gardner, Sean Connery, Billy Connolly, Jackie himself, and Ken Tyrrell, the latter visibly weakened from his terminal illness, giving his last interview before passing away a few months later.

Emerson Fittipaldi appears in the video offering great insight as he notes that the Tyrrells Jackie drove were not the fastest cars on the grid. He also mentions that Jackie nearly took Emerson off once, during the slowing down parade lap. With a warm smile in his eye Emerson afterwards told Jackie that in the future, he’d have to take extra care when he was around Jackie.

Another, not-to-be-taken-too-seriously remark from “Emmo” was that he had noted Jackie was fast and he had long sideburns. There had to be a connection! So in order to be faster, Emerson decided to grow longer sideburns!

The interviews are very moving, personal and highly informative, highlighting the family spirit of the Team Tyrrell in the early seventies, and throughout the viewing of this DVD it is clear to see that a special place is held in the survivors' hearts for one person who paid the ultimate price in racing, Jackie’s teammate Francois Cevert. Francois, you are still missed.

Finally, at an event celebrating Britain’s motor racing heritage, we see the old team was assembled at Silverstone, some 30 years after they conquered the world. Designer, mechanic, team manager and driver, and of course, the old Tyrrell, looking cleaner and newer than it had looked when it was racing in earnest.

Jackie would have liked to give it the "Welly", or the boot, he claimed, to recapture some of the old feeling, but he was sure Ken would not have taken kindly to it, perhaps even given him one of his renowned "froth jobs" had he done so.

Jackie Stewart - Triple Formula 1 World Champion: The Official DVD Biography
Amazon UK ASIN: B0002XOYZM

Faster: A Racer’s Diary
by Jackie Stewart and Peter Manso Faster: A Racer's Diary

If you can find "Faster" on the net or in a second-hand bookshop, it comes highly recommended. This is the classic account of what it was like to be inside Jackie Stewart’s helmet and driving suit during the 1970 Grand Prix season. “Ghost writer” Peter Manso ensures that it is an honest, brutal, tragic but also very readable book taking you inside the world of this sport when “motor racing was dangerous and sex was safe”.

Concluding the previous season by winning his first world championship, 1970 was the year that Team Manager Ken Tyrrell had to use the March chassis that proved to be uncompetitive. French industry giant Matra wanted the team to run their V12 engines in Matra chassis, and while Ken and Jackie did not object to the chassis being built by Matra, what they really wanted was the Cosworth DFV engine. Consequently he decided that he would have to construct and build his own cars in the future.

In the famous woodshed in the Tyrrell timber yard, the Derek Gardner designed Tyrrell 001 was secretly being built while the team raced the interim car.

Fighting to defend his championship in the sometimes unreliable and not-too-fast March, the summer months of 1970 proved to be some of the bloodiest in the history of the sport. During this time, every four weeks, a driver died from racing or testing accidents. Sometimes the drivers were close friends of the Stewarts. The accounts from the aftermath of such tragedies is horrific reading, ranging from how to take approach the wife or girlfriend of a deceased driver, to analyzing the course of events and the gory details to explain what lead to the drivers' untimely deaths.

Events such as these only strengthened Stewart’s conviction that safety measures were in dire need to be substantially improved.

When the Tyrrell 001 was finally raced, it proved to be a very competitive car and once early reliability issues were solved, in it’s different evolution stages it went on to help Stewart win his second (1971) and third (1973) Drivers World Championships as well as the Championship for Constructors in 1971.

The basic car design remained the same, although improved and refined, until the 007 was introduced in 1974.

Faster: A Racer's Diary by Jackie Stewart and Peter Manso
ISBN-10: 0446761842

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