Missing your bike racing already? With a bit of luck, maybe Santa will bring something to help get you through those long, dark, winter months. Every winter there are a whole glut of bike racing books on the market and to help you decide which one you’d best like to find in your Christmas stocking, here’s five of the best out this year…
Motocourse
For some bike racing lovers, the annual Motocourse book is as synonymous with Christmas as turkey, socks and The Great Escape.
Now in its 43rd year, the annual features a round-by-round review of the MotoGP and superbike world championships, as well as chapters on the American and British superbike championships, as well as the Isle of Man TT Races.
Written by veteran racing journalist Michael Scott, with photography from the Gold & Goose agency, Motocourse has gained an enviable reputation for providing not just the story of the races, but the stories behind the story. There’s a good reason why Motocourse is so popular. It’s a book you’ll be coming back to years and years later.
A must have for collectors of the series and fascinating for the more casual fans, it’s available priced £40 from www.motocourse.com
MotoGP Season Review 2018
Staying with MotoGP, the official season review is another visual feast for race fans with detailed race-by-race analysis, technical insight and reviews from all the support classes.
Sanctioned by Dorna, the company behind MotoGP, the official review has a new author for 2018, with Mat Oxley taking over from former BT Sport commentator Julian Ryder. A former racer himself (and a TT winner no less) Oxley is considered by many as the most insightful journalist in the Grand Prix world today.
The 208 page tome costs £35 and can be ordered from: https://shop.motorsportmagazine.com/product/View/productCode/MGPREV18/motogp-official-season-book-2018
Dream. Believe. Achieve. My Autobiography
Fancy some inspirational reading to motivate you into the new year? Dream. Believe. Achieve. is Jonathan Rea’s autobiography, somewhat fittingly released at the end of a season in which he rewrote pretty much every record in world superbike history.
The book charts Jonathan’s rise from a bike mad kid brought up in the Irish road racing paddocks to a four time world champion and while there’s plenty of racing tales to be told, the 320 pages focus as much on what’s going on behind the scenes, his motivations and the family life that has made him one of the most down to earth bike racers of all time.
Available from all good bookshops, or direct from the publishers, Harper Collins, at: https://www.harpercollins.co.uk/9780008305086/dream-believe-achieve-my-autobiography/
Road Race 2018
Written by TT programme editor Stuart Barker, a well renowned journalist best known for his biographies of Barry Sheene and Evel Knievel, Road Race 2018 claims to be the world’s first annual focussing solely on pure road racing and covers the four biggest international events – the North West 200, Isle of Man TT, Ulster Grand Prix and Macau Grand Prix.
The coffee table style book delivers full race reports, interviews and exclusive features but, as always in the world of road racing, it is the jaw dropping photography that will keep you coming back for more.
Senior TT winner and Mountain course lap record holder Peter Hickman has contributed the foreword, and it can be purchased through Amazon for £30 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Road-Race-2018-Season-Review/dp/0993014526/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543402241&sr=8-1&keywords=road+race+2018+season+review
Seeing Red
British superbike fans are also well catered for this Christmas, with the latest instalment of Seeing Red – the annual photographic review by photo agency Double Red.
The Lincolnshire based snappers have been producing the annual since 2003 and this year’s edition follows the tried and tested format with reviews of each round, technical insights and plenty of humorous, and never before seen, behind the scenes images.
Champion Leon Haslam adorns the cover of the book, which can be purchased directly from the publishers for £30 from www.britishsuperbikebook.co.uk