Open wheel Racers:

Myself, Having been born and raised in the Santa Clara valley, I thought I had heard about all the auto racing that took place in that Valley?

Well Dennis Mattish has gone to extreme lengths to collect as much information along with some very good pictures as there is out there. More than any one man could hope to find on the subject of Auto Racing in the city of San Jose and  its outlying areas of the Santa Clara Valley for sure!

I had heard several stories of tracks in San Jose and the surrounding area; but he has gone in depth to a few others I had never even heard about. He has included a two page inside cover map of those tracks locations written about in this book. This map includes no less than 14 venues used from 1903 to 2007.

Dennis a veteran photographer and writer in fine standing in the racing photographers and writing world has done a remarkable compilation of the Racing History that took place out there. If it had four or even two wheels Dennis dug out the information on them and has them covered in this great book.

From Barney Oldfield trying to set records at Agricultural Park in San Jose circa 1903. (He didn’t get the record he was after that year due to mechanical malfunctions that day). He did however return to the San Jose area as a race official in later years.

Mattish goes on to include some of the most famous drivers of their own eras. Some included in the book are, Ralph Depalma, Bill Cummings, AJ Foyt, Parnelli Jones and in its last few years on the racing map, Kasey Kane, Sebastion Bourdais and many more.

However not to leave out those from the San Jose area itself, some of whom were Earl Cooper, Babe Stapp, Joe Leonard, AJ Almindinger Willy T Ribbs and Scott Speed. Those were just a few of the greats to race in the area mentioned in this book. There are way more mentioned in the book.

How about a dog racetrack turned into a Midget racing facility. From its pictures it was a very nice facility for the fans. They even had gambling there at one time, with lots of police raids that finally shuttered that place for good! It is mentioned in the book.

Yes there are pictures in there to go along with almost all the stories. Some in later years in glorious color. Statistics? You want statistics well if they aren’t listed as winners in there they probably didn’t win any races in the area. Lots of race dates along with who won them are in there. It covers almost every races winner over the years at the many tracks out there. There are listings of the hundreds of just midget race winners from 1934 to 1997 at various tracks scattered through out the San Jose, Santa Clara valley region.

Race cars from speed record cars to Indy Big Cars on down to the Mighty Midgets to the evolution of the Jalopies that ended up Being the modern day Sprint Cars in one vein and the ultra fast Supermodifieds that run only  on pavement tracks.

The modern day Indy Cars even had a short reign on the streets of down town San Jose from 2005 to 2007, they are also covered.

If you enjoy auto racing and like to read its history of the San Jose area this is a must have book. There will probably never be another book as in depth on this subject as this one is.

Hey now I have to get back to it, because it is going to take me some time to get through it all!

aXe

This is what Steve Lewis had to say (in a letter) to Brent Kaeding after touring Kaeding Performance and  picking up a copy of the book .

Thank you for the great book. I had a long wait at the airport on Saturday and so I was able to spend time enjoying reading through all the chapters. The old San Jose Speedway was a special place for sure and the author certainly captured the essence of the drama, action and fun that we all had there.

Sincerely

Steve Lewis

Publisher

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