Book Review – Rapid Response
Rapid Response: My Inside Story as a Motor Racing Life-Saver
By Dr. Stephen Olvey, Haynes Publishing, Somerset, UK; $29.95
Dr. Stephen Olvey served as Championship Auto Racing Teams’ medical director from 1979 to 2003. This very moving memoir of his years leading the charge for motor sports safety in the series at the pinnacle of open wheel racing in America recaptures an exciting era in the development of technology, both in motor racing and in sports medicine. With professionalism, sincerity, empathy and humor, Olvey recounts the challenges, rewards and devastating losses of forwarding safety in the sport.
It opens with Alex Zanardi’s shocking crash at Lausitzring in Germany just days after 9/11, setting the tone for the book. Olvey then backtracks to his boyhood, growing up in Indy and going to the track every May. His first race was in 1955. For those of you unfamiliar with Indy history, that was the year the great Bill Vukovich lost his life on his way to his third consecutive Indy 500 victory.
Olvey was a pioneer in safety and sports medicine. His challenges, battles, struggles, sorrows and successes are not only inspirational, they are the history of CART itself.
They are also my history. I have had the distinct honor of knowing Olvey during most of his tenure with CART, and have heard many of these stories directly from him and Dr. Trammel. I have certainly interviewed and written about everyone in his book (during the CART era; Vuky was before my time!), and many of them are (or were) my friends. I was at most of the races Olvey writes about and I personally witnessed many of the incidents he tells of (and several others he doesn’t mention). For me, it is a bittersweet reminder of the history of my own life in motor sports. Reading this book brought back memories of my life the last 25+ years.
Some of it is funny. The stories of Emerson Fittipaldi, whom I know very well, really capture who he is and are hilarious. Some of it is sad. There are so many deaths, so many accidents. I admit to breaking down in gut-wrenching sobs during the chapter on Greg Moore. That one touched my husband Chris and me very personally, as Greg was like our son. That was Chris’ team and I had just written a profile of Greg for On Track before he was killed. We were flown to the private funeral in Vancouver, BC. It was one of the toughest times of our lives.
Despite another shunt in nearly every chapter, there are many racing accidents Olvey didn’t cover. He didn’t mention Scott Pruett or Scotty Brayton or Jovie Marcelo or Stan Fox: the list of omissions goes on and on. Most surprisingly, he didn’t mention Nelson Piquet. Surprising because that one shook the motor racing world and because Dr. Trammel, who features so prominently in the book as Olvey’s partner and as the “magician” orthopedist who has reconstructed so many racing drivers he’s lost count, performed another miracle by saving Nelse’s feet. Nelson himself is a miracle in many ways (and I’m not just saying that as someone who used to date him!). If you saw the photos of his car stuffed into the fourth turn wall at Indy, you’d be surprised he has any legs at all!
However, I suppose there was enough death and destruction to satisfy the most morbidly curious racing fan, including me. The book is so engaging and so easy to read (despite abominable punctuation!!!) that I put it down only twice. The first time was early on, because the butcher’s bill became too much, even for me. The second time was after the Greg chapter, when I couldn’t deal with all the painful memories.
Still, it’s such a good tale of an era in racing. At the end of the book, Olvey captures the state of American open wheel racing today very well, without bias. Just as life for all Americans changed after 9/11, so too has motor racing changed.
It all started with “the split” in 1995, when Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George formed a break-away league, but, as Olvey’s book reminded me, we (CART) remained very strong until about 2001. Then things fell apart. CART is gone, sunk into bankruptcy, resurrected as Champ Car by “the three amigos.” Sadly it’s not the same; it’s a mere shadow of the former glorious racing body.
For anyone interested in the evolution of safety in motor racing, this snapshot in time of CART’s headiest and best years, despite some of the worst tragedies, Olvey’s book is a fantastic read. Everyone applauds the bravery of the drivers. I have long advocated for recognition of the men and women behind the scenes: the mechanics, the support staff and the safety crews. Salut, mon amis!
