Derek Daly

Serial Survivor
A blend of entertaining storytelling, brutal honesty and high drama, Irish racing driver Derek Daly’s memoir is a page-turner. 


A blend of entertaining storytelling, brutal honesty and high drama, Irish racing driver Derek Daly’s memoir is a page-turner. His meteoric rise from a modest background in Dublin to the heights of Formula 1 is a story of relentless determination and unbridled talent, but when he reached motor racing’s pinnacle — ultimately with the top-notch Williams team in 1982 — his success story started to unravel, partly because of numerous and sometimes horrifyingly spectacular crashes often caused by car breakages. He made a clean break and went to America, where he raced Indycars and sports cars before metamorphosing into a hugely popular TV commentator, interviewer and pundit. Now, in his own words, he has put the entire rollercoaster of his life into a spellbinding autobiography that all racing fans will love.

Key content
• After starting out with a secondhand Formula Ford car bought from Eddie Jordan, Derek laboured in an Australian iron-ore mine for six months to earn the money to buy a more competitive racing car.
• The plan worked and he became Irish Formula Ford Champion in 1975, then went to England and won numerous races in 1976, including the prestigious Formula Ford Festival.
• Stepping up to Formula 3 in 1977, he continued his winning ways and became British Formula 3 Champion driving for larger-than-life Irish team owner Derek McMahon.
• Two seasons in Formula 2 brought more successes, including three victories, but early attempts to break into Formula 1 were mired in frustration with teams that struggled, namely Hesketh and Ensign.
• Tyrrell offered better prospects for 1980 but some big crashes — notably at the start of the Monaco Grand Prix — and numerous car failures blighted his season.
• Derek finally landed a top seat for 1982, with Williams, only to find that sub-standard treatment and the team’s fading competitiveness prevented him from fulfilling his potential.
• Making a dramatic change in his life, he went to race in America in Indycars, but a huge accident at Michigan in 1984 — his car crashed into the perimeter wall at 217mph and disintegrated — left him severely injured and facing a long recovery.
• A racing swansong came in sports cars, with Jaguar at Le Mans and Nissan in America, the latter bringing consecutive victories in the 12 Hours of Sebring, in 1990 and 1991.
• Staying in America, Derek went on to a decades-long career as a motorsport TV broadcaster alongside business ventures and keynote speaking.

Contributor: Maurice Hamilton (Foreword by)

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