Robert Daley’s name is pretty much unknown in racing circles these days, but he was at Zandvoort that afternoon in 1960 when Dan Gurney’s BRM P48 lost its rear brakes, plunged headlong into the sand dunes and killed a spectator. Daley overheard Gurney say as he surveyed the tragic scene, “This is a cruel sport.”
Daley covered Formula One for The New York Times from 1958 through the end of 1964, and wrote three books about it: “Cars at Speed” (1961), a collection of F1 driver profiles; “The Cruel Sport” (1963), featuring Daley’s dramatic black-and-white race photography; and a novel, “The Fast One” (1978), its two main characters bearing strong resemblances to Phil Hill and the late Alfonso de Portago. In 1965, he wrote the original screenplay for “Grand Prix,” which was later rejected. Today, he is perhaps best known for his detective books, including “Prince of the City,” “Target Blue,” and “To Kill a Cop.”
