Mario Andretti
said of
Closing Speed
author Ted Wes
t, "I've known Ted forever; our paths ran together for many years. He worked hard to earn the respect he gets, and
I'm sure the enthusiast world will now enjoy his fiction
."
One of racing's "young lions," Ted West used his keen sense of observation and his immense writing talent to define the endurance
racing war between Porsche's 917 and the Ferrari 512
immortalized in
Steve McQueen's
Le Mans
.
Sent to Europe by
Road & Track
in 1970 at age 27, West quickly came to know the racers, their women, and the complex lives they shared at
Brands Hatch, Monza, the Targa Florio, Spa, the Nurburgring
, and
. Their lives were
as dramatic off the track as their racing was on it
West's friend, Porsche and F1 racer Brian Redman, has noted that of the racers who filled the 1968 Monaco Grand Prix starting grid
two-thirds of them were dead
by 1972. The stakes were never higher.
In 1970, with cars reaching 248 mph at Le Mans,
racing was at its fastest, most exciting, most competitive
... with an underlying gravity that was both
breathtaking and horrifying
is a vivid and ultimately heartbreaking portrait of racing in Europe in 1970 -- Porsche vs. Ferrari -- when
competitive pride
,
sexual desire
racing fate collided head-on