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Race Across the World: The incredible story of the world's greatest road race - the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon
In 1968, ninety-eight competitors stormed out of London on the world's greatest automotive adventure, the London to Sydney Marathon, the most ambitious and epic car race ever staged.
Four weeks later they arrived in Sydney-or at least half of them did. The others lay in ruin along its 10,000-mile route. Unimaginable now in either concept or execution, the marathon captured the rapt attention of the countries through which it passed, and of the world, as it created front-page news. It was more than a car race, more than a rally, more than the trials that opened up outback Australia only a decade before: it was the world's most gruelling test of driver and vehicle.
For Australians, the race became a focal point of the rivalry between local car-manufacturing giants Holden and Ford, as the Monaro Coupe and the iconic Falcon GT went head to head. Neither was to win, but the story of their duel is motor-sporting legend.
John Smailes was a young journalist at the time, covering the race for the Sydney Daily Telegraph. Fifty years after this extraordinary race was run, John's dramatic, compelling and utterly fascinating story-drawing on his own first-hand, eyewitness account and enhanced by in-depth interviews over the intervening years with all the race's key participants-brings the marathon vividly to life.
Four weeks later they arrived in Sydney-or at least half of them did. The others lay in ruin along its 10,000-mile route. Unimaginable now in either concept or execution, the marathon captured the rapt attention of the countries through which it passed, and of the world, as it created front-page news. It was more than a car race, more than a rally, more than the trials that opened up outback Australia only a decade before: it was the world's most gruelling test of driver and vehicle.
For Australians, the race became a focal point of the rivalry between local car-manufacturing giants Holden and Ford, as the Monaro Coupe and the iconic Falcon GT went head to head. Neither was to win, but the story of their duel is motor-sporting legend.
John Smailes was a young journalist at the time, covering the race for the Sydney Daily Telegraph. Fifty years after this extraordinary race was run, John's dramatic, compelling and utterly fascinating story-drawing on his own first-hand, eyewitness account and enhanced by in-depth interviews over the intervening years with all the race's key participants-brings the marathon vividly to life.
352 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 7, 2020
Fascinating retelling of the story of the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon fifty years on.
It was an event of the time, simpler days of pre-GPS, 24/7 internet news coverage, with no concept of health and safety and before sophisticated rally car construction.
Instead the event was put together to highlight the quality of the British motor vehicle industry (lol) and sponsored by newspapers in UK and Australia when they were still the major news media.
Almost 100 cars set out on what in hindsight was a mad race from London to Bombay via Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Then across the Australian continent against the clock. A mixture of the best rally drivers in the world in factory teams, privateers and some mad-camp adventurers heading into the unknown. It simply couldn't happen today. Too many rules and regulations.
I remember the race from my childhood. It was thrilling and this book doesn't disappoint capturing the absurdity of the event, the characters competing and the extraordinary climax where winners and losers weren't determined until the outskirts of Sydney.
It was an event of the time, simpler days of pre-GPS, 24/7 internet news coverage, with no concept of health and safety and before sophisticated rally car construction.
Instead the event was put together to highlight the quality of the British motor vehicle industry (lol) and sponsored by newspapers in UK and Australia when they were still the major news media.
Almost 100 cars set out on what in hindsight was a mad race from London to Bombay via Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Then across the Australian continent against the clock. A mixture of the best rally drivers in the world in factory teams, privateers and some mad-camp adventurers heading into the unknown. It simply couldn't happen today. Too many rules and regulations.
I remember the race from my childhood. It was thrilling and this book doesn't disappoint capturing the absurdity of the event, the characters competing and the extraordinary climax where winners and losers weren't determined until the outskirts of Sydney.
November 10, 2023
(7.5/10) I was hoping for wacky/terrifying stories of silly shit that happened in a lawless 1960s road marathon, and those are contained in this book. The baseline experience is consistently entertaining, and the narrative of the competition side is reasonably compelling.
Stylistically, the book is very much a factual account of what happened. That's not to say it lacks romanticism - it doesn't - but the prose very much comes off as a list of information thrown at you all in a row, barely organized. You get one-three paragraphs on one anecdote, and then we lurch to the next one, no link or connective tissue in most cases. The effect of this can be disorienting, but also very funny, giving the effect of "and in the crash, navigator and part-time alpaca farmer Jim Jimson suffered long-term spinal injuries. Oh no! Anyway..."
This sense of an information barrage also occurs within paragraphs - the book is prone to bundles of impenetrable car jargon. Like, I get it, the target audience is motoring enthusiasts, but I think this book can be enjoyed by a general audience, and it would probably have benefited from just a modicum of explanation at times. It is also prone to long lists, and long digressions of questionable relevance. In an endearing way, I found it very easy to imagine some of the digressions being delivered in the voice of Abe Simpson.
This brings me to my last observation: this book is undeniably written by boomers, for boomers. Mercifully, Smailes keeps whatever opinions he has on women or minorities to a minimum, so I really didn't find it a turn-off, but you can definitely hear a tone lifted from an editorial in The Australian in some of his passages. In particular, like all car enthusiasts, he clearly has a dim opinion on a lot of government regulations, or at a minimum, romanticism for a less controlled time. 'Those were the days when you could blast down a motorway doing 120 on one hours' sleep, now that's the kind of real adventure we don't have anymore.' Yeah, 'cause people DIED, John. That's why they made laws about it. All the death and serious injury they kept doing.
Stylistically, the book is very much a factual account of what happened. That's not to say it lacks romanticism - it doesn't - but the prose very much comes off as a list of information thrown at you all in a row, barely organized. You get one-three paragraphs on one anecdote, and then we lurch to the next one, no link or connective tissue in most cases. The effect of this can be disorienting, but also very funny, giving the effect of "and in the crash, navigator and part-time alpaca farmer Jim Jimson suffered long-term spinal injuries. Oh no! Anyway..."
This sense of an information barrage also occurs within paragraphs - the book is prone to bundles of impenetrable car jargon. Like, I get it, the target audience is motoring enthusiasts, but I think this book can be enjoyed by a general audience, and it would probably have benefited from just a modicum of explanation at times. It is also prone to long lists, and long digressions of questionable relevance. In an endearing way, I found it very easy to imagine some of the digressions being delivered in the voice of Abe Simpson.
This brings me to my last observation: this book is undeniably written by boomers, for boomers. Mercifully, Smailes keeps whatever opinions he has on women or minorities to a minimum, so I really didn't find it a turn-off, but you can definitely hear a tone lifted from an editorial in The Australian in some of his passages. In particular, like all car enthusiasts, he clearly has a dim opinion on a lot of government regulations, or at a minimum, romanticism for a less controlled time. 'Those were the days when you could blast down a motorway doing 120 on one hours' sleep, now that's the kind of real adventure we don't have anymore.' Yeah, 'cause people DIED, John. That's why they made laws about it. All the death and serious injury they kept doing.
September 1, 2023
A good writer can write about taxidermy and make it fascinating. Smailes is such a writer since I had no interest in reading about road races until this turned up. Though it helped that I grew up in Australia and drove the kind of cars mentioned. For an event from so many years ago, 55, this was a book I had to pick up every time I sat down for a cuppa so it only took two days to wallow in a world perhaps less fractious than now, less polarised and with fewer restraints on crossing borders.
Definitely a good read.
Definitely a good read.
September 21, 2020
Interesting history and day-by-day description of the greatest Rally event in history. However, would have used some more pictures. The length of individual chapters and "subchapters" was inconsistant.
November 12, 2018
Pretty boring, to much details on results etc, not enough fun anecdotes
December 6, 2018
A lovely recollection of a great event. For anyone who enjoy motorsports history this is a must.
5 stars from me.
5 stars from me.
January 28, 2020
I remember watching and reading about the London to Sydney as an 11 year old. It was great to be able to read the full story of this historic event. Well written and very enjoyable.
March 26, 2020
Got a bit lost when reading it with endless lists of drivers' names and not which cars they were in, but overall interesting writeup of a race half a century ago
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews