With the arrival of the driver’s wives into the pit lanes of the F1 road racing courses, the first glamour entered the scene. L-r Nina Rindt, Sally Courage, Bette Hill and Helen Stewart.

‘Road Racing’, a publication by Linda Weldon,  features candid shots of the great drivers from an era when European Grand Prix stars competed head to head with road racing stars from Tasmania as well as North and South America in F1, Can-Am and F5000.

This book, ninety-eight pages of black and white photographs, is dedicated to all the courageous and passionate drivers who were legends behind the wheel and is a compilation of pictures taken at a time when photographers were still able to get very close to the action.

Bruce McLaren looking happy from the cockpit, Chris Amon biting his lip, undoubtedly contemplating his latest disappointment, Mario Andretti and Jacky Ickx between qualifying, Graham Hill always a gentleman, Denis Hulme looking serious and far older than his years, Jackie Stewart smiling at some joke, Stirling Moss looking content and so on. In this publication nearly fifty drivers from that early F1 period are covered.

Before the War, motor racing was purely a man’s sport, but it was in the sixties that something changed dramatically. The weather seemed to get sunnier and the first drivers’ women were spotted in the pits, adding some glamour to the sport. Soon after, at tracks around the world, there were many beautiful women on the pit walls.

Some of these women were talented as well as beautiful and one such was Linda Weldon. A chance meeting with Stirling Moss on her first visit to Riverside International Raceway in 1966 opened the door of opportunity allowing her to exploit her passion.

Moss helped Linda get a pit pass and she spent the rest of the weekend capturing the charisma and raw emotion of that elite club of highly skilled racers. The romance that started that weekend turned into a career as Linda spent the next eight years capturing candid shots that documented an era and revealed the true character of these legends of motor sports. Her photographs show a human element that is so often lost amongst the automotive adrenaline filled events.

Her photos have been published in motor racing magazines, newspapers and numerous other automotive publications. Over the years Linda’s collection of photos collected dust and time took its toll on the old negatives. Recently she decided to go through them before all was lost and give you this self-published collection.

The photos, all in black and white, are not just another hodgepodge of racing action shots. Rather, these are insightful close-up portraits of the drivers of that period, taken in the pits before or between races. The result is a series of casual portraits unlike anything else from that time. Her pictures will undoubtedly bring back to you many exciting memories from this era of Road Racing of the 60′s and 70′s and qualifies as a true collectors book.