DRUMS, Pa. – Five or six years ago, Richard Golardi told me his idea of writing a book about the history of sprint car racing in Florida, including pavement racing and the Little 500.
He mentioned the book to me at times the past few years and had been putting a lot of time and work into it. There had never been a book written about pavement sprint car racing or the historic Little 500, until now. Golardi has written the first and there are many more volumes to come, as the book starts in 1909 and finishes in 2022.
Golardi has been writing about pavement sprint car racing since 2006 and has been a contributor with me at Hoseheads.com since December 2009. He decided to write this book titled “Racers in the Sun, Volume One” after covering countless Florida TBARA sprint car races and the Little 500, which is run annually at Indiana’s Anderson Speedway.
Golardi interviewed 92 people and gathered more than 95 hours of recorded interviews. He then spent five years writing the book, which also includes stories about other types of racing. The book is not only about pavement racing as the story of Florida’s most celebrated dirt sprint car driver, a wild ride filled with lots of emotional highs and lows, is also featured. It is the story of “The Master of Dirt,” Pete Folse.
If you are a fan of Indy car racing, one of the most popular Indy car drivers from the “Golden Era” chose to work with Golardi and his authorized biography is among the chapters. It is the story of “Ralphie the Definitive Racer,” Ralph Liguori.
There are also many other authorized biographies, based on interviews with legends of the sport, included in this collection. Among those showcased are National Sprint Car Hall of Fame inductees Folse and Frank Riddle.
Readers will also learn about the careers of six member of the Little 500 Hall of Fame: Wayne Reutimann, Dave Scarborough, Jack Nowling, George Rudolph, Robert Smith and Riddle.
Additional biographies detail the careers of Johnny Hicks, Pancho Alvarez, Cush Revette (profiled in an incredible untold story titled “American Sprint Car Drivers in Cuba”), Larry Brazil and Dick Byerly. Tampa’s auto racing history and the story of Tampa’s Golden Gate Speedway are also featured, along with exciting, pedal-to-the-floor stories about sprint car, late model stock car, DIRT modified, NASCAR and Indy car racing.
The book totals 14 chapters with each telling a different story. You can read the chapters in any order based on whatever driver’s story interests you most.
Golardi already has plans and ideas for many more books about Florida racing, with the next volume already partially completed.
Volume One was released May 10 and is available in paperback or Kindle. If you enjoy reading about the history of sprint car racing – whether it’s pavement action, Florida racing or the Little 500 – this is the book for you.
“Racers in the Sun: Volume One” is available from amazon.com.
This story appeared in the June 21, 2023 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
