I had the good fortune to hear Garth speak at our small, local Alfa club
meeting last month and to speak with him afterwards. He did indeed race
Spec Miata in our Pacific NW Internation Conference of Sports Car Clubs. I
saw the hood at a local shop wwith his signature. It was somewhat crumpled!
Don Kitch, who is mentioned in the book is a real person and he does run
ProformanceRace Drving School at Pacific Raceways.
Garth told lots of stories about events that the book has triggered in his
life. Two great ones were about the relationship that developed with
Ferrari following the bookd sucess: Getting a 450 and a photographer for a
day in LA and, in Modena getting a one on one factory tour that very
unexpectedly included a tour of the design shop [visitors are never allowed
there!] directed by Luca Cordero di Montezemolo [chairman of Ferrari]
himself.
He is a very friendly and approachable guy. For all you budding authors,
note that his agent at the time could not get the book published as "Who
would read a book written from a dog's perspective?". Big mistake, book is
now in 30 languages and over 10 million copies sold.
Chuck
_______________________________________________
fot@autox.team.net
http://www.fot-racing.com
Archive: http://www.team.net/archive
|