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What: American Sports Car Racing in the 1950s

Authors: Michael T. Lynch, William Edgar and Ron Parravano.

Publishers: MBI Publishing Co., Osceola, Wis. ($39.95)

Elliott Forbes-Robinson’s shared win in the Rolex 24 at Daytona last weekend was a sad reminder that the glory days of sports car racing are all but forgotten. Forbes-Robinson’s father was the first manager of Riverside International Raceway when it came on the scene in 1957. The Daytona 24-hour race is about all that’s left from an era when sports car drivers were leading candidates for driver of the year.

That was back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, when NASCAR’s Winston Cup was just picking up steam and Indy cars were little more than the Indianapolis 500. The great races of America were filled with Porsches, Ferraris, Maseratis and the American Cobras, Scarabs and Ol’ Yallers. Before road courses were built in Southern California, the foreign machines ran on the dirt at Carrell Speedway, an oval track in Gardena.

Two of the authors, Edgar and Parravano, are sons of pioneer racers. Lynch is a motor-racing historian. In addition to personal anecdotes, the tabletop book is loaded with priceless pictures from private albums. One in particular is the first published shot of James Dean at the Santa Barbara races in 1955, the last race he drove before the motion picture idol was killed while driving to a race in Salinas.

As Carroll Shelby wrote in the foreword, “That was really and truly some of the best times in my life, and it’ll never be replaced. It was an era that’s gone and won’t ever be back again.” But “American Sports Car Racing in the 1950s” will at least keep the memories alive.