BOOKS
More than the usual suspects
Fraud, drug smuggling and worse have all surfaced in our sport. Gordon Cruickshank enjoys some salacious tales from the track
Driven To Crime: True Stories of Wrongdoing in Motor Racing
Crispian Besley
Evro, £40 ISBN 9781910505700
Paddock rumours of skulduggery from mild cheating to murder have always been popular gossip, but Crispian Besley has decided to pin down a bookful of those which have the evidence to prove them. I assume that he and Evro have had some careful conversations with lawyers, though he points out that everything he includes is in the public domain already. Many will be known to racing people, he says, but he reckons plenty will be unknown – and as he has assembled 66 different crimes he’s on solid ground there. Looking at the extent of his references, he has deeply immersed himself in this grubby business.
His introduction quotes this from George Orwell: “Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in violence.” I didn’t expect to see any of the last but it’s here – an appalling serial killer who drove in IMSA. It’s particularly gruesome, and closes with a picture of his dead body.