CIRCLE OF IMPACT
This article is from our archives and has not been updated and integrated with our "new" site yet... Even so, it's still awesome - so keep reading!
Published on Sun, Aug 30, 2009
By: The LACar Editorial Staff
Book Review
CIRCLE OF IMPACT
You've heard stories about guys who always wanted to be race drivers, got to be
one, figured out how to win, then got hurt just before his big break. Well
that's only a small part of Bob McCoy's lifeline as you will find in his
recently released biography Circle of Impact, The Wild Life and Times of Hot Rod
Hero, Bob McCoy.
Bob McCoy drove sprint cars in the days when the road to Indianapolis required
success on dirt ovals across the nation. His official racing career started in a
jalopy with a first lap end over end flip down the front stretch of Balboa
Stadium in San Diego. The 18-year old McCoy was hauled off to the hospital, but
couldn't wait to get back to the track for more - a theme to be repeated several
times throughout his life.
Circle of Impact chronicles Bob McCoy's life and times in a romping, engaging
manner. This is a very personal account well told. Good luck when trying to
count the multitude of photos both color and black and white. Many familiar
faces, terrific race action shots (many with McCoy on his head), and images of
McCoy's famous artwork can be found. With a book like this, there is something
new every time you pick up the book.
McCoy developed skills as an artist at an early age and it was through this that
he gained access to the people heading the auto racing scene of Southern
California in the mid-'50s. He built and detailed his own 1940 sedan hot rod as
a teenager. By the late 1950s, hardly a month went by without one of Bob McCoy's
paint jobs on the cover of Hot Rod, Car Craft, or some other enthusiast
magazine.
Lynn McCoy, Bob's wife, compiled the stories and wrote them in such a way that
you will at times be rooting for him to succeed and other times just wishing
he'd get out, learn his lesson, move on. Any author that can pull you in this
well has done a fine job.
Artist, racer, rodeo rider, mob enforcer, Indian reservation volunteer. It's
cliché, but Bob is the real McCoy. Circle of Impact takes you on a wonderful
ride.
Circle of Impact
The Life and Times of Hot Rod Hero, Bob McCoy
foreword by Parnelli Jones
hardcover, 346 pages, hundreds of b/w photos, dozens in color
2009, Curt Boyer production
available through www.BobMcCoyArt.com
$60 postpaid - well worth the price
