Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans
By Albert Baime
My friend and former NART driver Allen Markelson recently sent me this book by Albert Baime, of whom I had never heard, because it quoted my father from the eulogy he delivered at the Ken Miles service. When I saw the title, I thought, “I know all about this and have researched some of it in detail,” but since Allen had taken the trouble to send it, I turned to the first page and started to read. Some hours later I was still reading! And on into the night!! I managed to finish it in one gulp. This is truly the very best book about racing I have ever come across. Even though it’s about real events, it reads like a novel.
I found very few mistakes, but among them was noting that Shelby’s last race in 1960 was the Times Grand Prix whereas it was the Pacific Grand Prix at Laguna Seca. Probably Baime got this from Shelby’s own book, The Cobra Story. (Shelby recently asked me to have a revised edition published with the error corrected.) Also, Baime didn’t seem to know about the close relationship Carroll had with Jim Hall. Understandably, perhaps, he also left out reserve driver Ed Hugus’s midnight drive at the 1965 Le Mans when he replaced Masten Gregory, whose glasses had misted due to the fog.
I learned a lot of things I didn’t know, and was particularly enthralled with Baime’s accounts about John Surtees, one of the few of those involved I didn’t know.The goings on within the Ford and Ferrari organizations of which I was unaware were also interesting.
Miles’s death in 1966 was a very personal tragedy for my family and me. Ken was a close friend and my dad’s best friend. I had dinner with Ken and Mollie Miles a month or so after Le Mans. I’d heard he was quite angry about the outcome, but it wasn’t his nature to brood about the past. He was optimistic about whatever the future might bring, and we had a jolly time together.
Other than the Miles debacle and tragedy, the only thing depressing about the book is its recounting the demise of so many drivers, but that’s the way it was then! Shelby and I have only discussed the Le Mans finish once, but one thing he said was, “Not a day goes by that I don’t think about Ken Miles.” I do appreciate the credit given Miles, and feel Baine may have a future as a novelist.
Published by Houghton-Mifflin.
