"It may seem odd that a Belgian has put together this photo-essay covering the early days of California Sports Car Racing, 1952-1957; especially since by his own admission Tony Adriaensens had never even heard of race venues such as Torrey Pines or Santa Barbara until they cropped up during research for his previous project OttoVu (Octane's Book of the Month, issue 25). But the result is masterful. Adriaensens gathered together photo archives from a number of talented amateurs, who generally shot on vivid Kodachrome - unlike the professionals, whose publications only wanted black-and-white pictures - and it's the very high proportion of superb colour images that make this book.
Race meetings are laid out individually and chronologically, starting with the 4th Palm Springs in 1952 and ending with the 1st Riverside in September 1957, via Pebble Beach, Torrey Pines, Madera, Willow Springs, Bakersfield, Santa Barbara and more, and there are some truly amazing shots - Jim Chaffee's XK120 caught in full colour, losing a wheeland breaking the headlight of Ed Kretz's TR2 as it slew across the track at Paramount Ranch, is just one example. Paddock studies feature strongly, and Adriaensens has a typically European feel for 1950s American culture - he regrets that he wasn't able to find more images of the pointed-bra 'babes' whe were such a feature of the scene back then.
Cleverly, verbatim reports from old race journals are used to provide summaries of the action at each event, while extended captions to the pictures give more detail and background info on cars and drivers. There are also individual chapters on the photographers whose work is featured, and on key drivers of the period.
Almost every page of this mammoth work holds some new treasure - the Alfa Romeo BAT 7 concept car in racing trim; D-Jags and Merc 300SLs with Von Dutch pinstriping; even a Citroen 2CV at Palm Springs in 1956! Weekend Heroes is limited to 1000 copies, complete with 1950s Mobil Pegasus key chain threaded through each book's spine."