Thanks Chip...for explaining better than me. Now that it's clear that it's me doing the book sets, are the orders going to fall off a cliff ???
Thanks to Dave and Chip, there's been a great response to this project that was one year in the creation (the 2010 GT1 World Championship), but a further 3 years to completion, as life has gotten in the way of me making this a reality. These sets represent the culmination of my work with Matech in 2010, with the very best of my photographic work laid down in print, rather than on a hard drive and monitor. Jose, the design engineer and race engineer spoke about 6000 words to me as he turned the draft pages to add some technical aspects to the images. Last night, I completed my final telephone interview with Thomas who was race driver for the team and operations manager back at the factory, and who many of you met at both Le Mans and at VIR. I've now about 7 hours of conversation to type up and insert into the book. This makes it without doubt, the most complete document of the the modern era racing with the Ford GT.
Please note though...that this set of 3 books is about the 2010 GT1 World Championship. It is not about the team's entry and participation at Le Mans, that many of you sponsored and joined the team in France for. However, the book does reference Le Mans in some of the technical commentary that Jose gives, as the car was designed first and foremost around racing at Le Mans, and the aerodynamic development had Le Mans as the primary concern. In addition, the homologation of the car with both the FIA and the ACO meant that the car was eligible for both the GT1 World Championship and Le Mans, subject to minor changes.
It's important that people recognise that this book is about the World Championship and not Le Mans, as I don't want people to buy this set of books thinking they would be seeing the Forum sponsored car at Le Mans. While the forum didn't sponsor the team during the GT1 season, you were certainly at the forefront of my mind, in terms of keeping you informed. During that season, thanks to the great time everyone had at Le Mans with the team, a few of you came out again to support Matech in this Championship, namely Joe and Sandra Dozzo in Portugal, Dave Bannister and his father, with Camilo at Nurburgring, and Ray Hofman to Spain. And in the final race in Argentina, while Joe Dozzo may have been unable to join us in person for the race, his was unbelievably generous in sponsoring the team at that most difficult of times. One day I might explain what he did for us. To you all, we thank you. And I thank you, for being the friends and family of Matech, and me
I met many of you at Le Mans and more new faces at VIR. This is one of the few forums I visit several times a day, to follow what you are all up to.
So, to finish....these book sets are incredible. I'm so very proud of what I have achieved with them, and I am 100% confident you will be over the moon with the products. If you have any questions about the books, please feel free to ask on this thread or drop me a PM and I'll get back to you asap.
Thanks,
Steven