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I am shane l1 imd events coordinator, i produce hundreds of author events each year i am personally to be bring this event to cite will be taking questions from the audience periodically throughout the event so please type your questions as a comment and i will read them to neil as they come up and we get comments i will also provide links to how a jewish driver beat hitlers best in the comment still see that as well. They were the likeliest rene dreyfus International Driver on the racecar circuit and then banned from the fastest cars by the mid 1930s because of his jewish heritage. Charles, headed down on his luck automaker was desperately trying to save his company as the world teetered towards the brink. And lucy shall, the mccarran to reclaim the glory of her driving days. Not to germinate launches campaign of racial terror to question the world towards war, these three misfits banded together to challenge hitlers dominance at the apex of motorsports, the grand prix. Their quest for redemption culminated and a remarkable race still talked about in racing circles to this day. But which, soon after it ended hitler tried to erase from history. Bringing to light this glorious area and to define it faster and with the most inspiring upsets of all time it is symbolic blow against synopses during the darkest hour. Mitchell, the New York Times bestselling author says it serves as a full thought throttle reminder of the power of heroes to inspire us to during dark times. Neil has brought to life a gripping expertly tale of an un likely band of dreamers who pushed everything to challenge people. A. J. Author of goat like hell says sports, politics and passion collide in the sizzling book. Bringing the excitement of motor racing on a page is no easy task, but neal bescomb succeeds. A victory over the 90s as a for us all. Tonight, neal bescomb, the Award Winning author and your times bestselling author, the perfect mile among others and he grew up here and st. Louis so welcome from the far and now i would like to bring neal into the conversation. If you all over your watching could give a hearty round of applause for neal bescomb. Guest hello everybody, thank you shane for that great introduction. I went to say for anyone watching, and whos not from from with auto racing with cars, for me personally that was such an incredible and very easy, not easy, but very enthralling read and i appreciate the comparison to boys in the vote, and to see biscuit. For other sports i dont know anything about. I think this was very appropriately matched with those books. Now i will let neal talk a little bit about the book, and tell you once we have questions. Two thank you again shane, its nice to be talking to fans, as i am natively from st. Louis. I came to write faster, i was in new york at a very good friend of mine i was staying with tasked me a press release the key to the wall street journal at attorney past ms. Press release he had received about this car, until little known car that had been resurrected, found in a prime chateau abandon, but by this american millionaire and restored and then raised. It wasnt just the sort of peculiarity is probably the best word of what this car looks like. Kind of look a praying mantis on wheels. The baxter itself, those profiled at the concorde was the car, soon after the nazi invaded paris, hitler sent many of his henchmen to find the car and have it destroyed. He also sent individuals ss officers the Automobile Club of france, all of the records there were stolen, taken by the non seas and destroyed, and have never been seen since. I was very intrigued by the story of what this car could have done to engender such a response from hitler. What was it about . What was it about the event and the grand prix that made it so important . As i began to unfurl the story about rene dreyfus, who was a jewish driver, and learn his back story kind of the fact he was a reluctant hero, his father was a conservative jewish faith, his mother was catholic, he did not release of scribe to any one religion or another. As he said driving with his religion. But suddenly in the mid 30s, and in 1938 he found himself forced into this position of being the symbol of the jewish people against the nazi. That is a story at its heart coupled with the fact it had this tremendous female heroine, lucy shall at the heart of it. She was the rich american who could very well have just sort of wild away her days in paris and new york. And instead she was as very brave and brazen individual who became one of the earliest speed queen female race car drivers. She was one of the best monte carlo racecar drivers. And then she decided at a certain points in 1936 to take on the germans. And she would support and lead the development of the racecar and a team to defeat the nazi. I was putting much done at that point. And then began over the course of roughly two years, researching this really known story. Theres very few mention of any books. Its one of those stories you have to dig up from the past. Interviewing family members, going all over france in europe and elsewhere discover the people who were involved in the story and on earth what exactly happens, what happened and who these individuals were and what motivated them. So its a tremendously fun book. I would not even call myself a car guy at the beginning of writing, faster, but after studying three years in this world, and having the experience of even driving this restored car, i would call myself a car going out. I would love to answer questions and make this as interactive as possible this is my first ever bookstore virtual event, so i appreciate everyone coming. He went i do have a couple of questions i wanted to ask for my reading. The first, it struck me so much was how dangerous racing was, and how many people perished from these races. Whether it be spectators or the drivers, or the mechanics, the race officials, for the number staggering to you . Or was it just notable to me from the reading . Guest no, it was actually staggering. A long time ago i wrote a book about the building of skyscrapers in the development of that in new york in the 20s. I was alarmed at that point about how many people perished but nothing compared to the dangers of these racecar drivers. This period of time many called the golden age of racing was one of the deadliest times. Cars had really gone from going at the very best 100 Miles Per Hour over the course of a race and going 200 miles an hour with no advancement whatsoever, really and safety. Today, people still die and racecar driving today, but they are in cages, theyre wearing fireproof close, they have helmets, they are very insulated. At this time the 30s, even though the cars were going so much faster, they did not even wear harnesses or seatbelts. They literally had to brace their legs against the side of the cop fit, the driver seat in order to stay in the car sometimes. They had no helmets they had a cloth cap and that was about it. And of course no cage or anything like that. It would not be uncommon for drivers for one or two drivers to perish every single weekend in the grand prix. It was absolutely devastating, and deaths, as rene dreyfus said he became intimately aware of it. It follows you in as your companion in the car. It was just something you had to expect, so it is a very lethal sport at the time. And became even more lethal as countries began staking their National Pride on how fast their cars would go thats at the heart of what its about its that nationalism that ended up infecting grand prix racing as much as it did the olympics in 1936. Host another thing that i notice, was the big comparison made to the time and current. I know there are a lot of comparisons, or a lot of things that may or may not disagree with, but you did make some very spot on comments about the Racial Disparity that was happening then. Another thing, im surprised i even know about right before world war ii stopping productions of cars 40 think right now is stopping a lot of production of their cars. They are switching to trucks. I didnt know if that was another theory comparison to the time . Its also kind of mile marker if you will. Guest one of the aspects of the story was so compelling to me, was the time period, i wrote about world war ii ever wrote about postworld war ii, ive never concentrated before the war. It was a time of absolute upheaval. Thats more coming into and out of the great depression. Until automobile manufacturers, at that point in time, were very much impacted by that. So the automaker on the verge of bankruptcy in 1932 and 1933, had to make this critical decision. Are we going to build trucks . Are we going to build utility vehicles . Are you going to continue with their cars, one critic said we are probably best suited for funeral procession. Or are we going to try to do Something Different . And ultimately they decided in 1933, 34, to race again, to build sports car which was really a dramatic leap from what they were doing. Generally you find the germans, mercedes and auto union also an absolute up evil at this time. Trying to figure out how they can survive and what they can do thats where hitler comes into the picture 1933 he makes it his mission to revive the German Automobile company the second speech as the leader of the third reich was at the berlin motor show in 1933. He said were going to build the autobahn, are going to revive the automobile industry, and third, im going to dominate grand prix racing. And so all of that came about because of the economic, social, political, upheaval that was happening at that point in time. So i would not be surprised, that there may be reflections of that, into that. So absolutely. He went back then the racecars they were building were designed, hoping to display them today the racecars we have or absolutely not appropriate when did it branch out from being sort of a showcase for cars that you could purchase to being such a specific guest this is very true, this really happened in the late 20s and 30s. The difference, the split that you found. I guess the best way to maybe describe it was describe what dell aided comments the car company they went to build this big fancy racecar, with the germans did with mercedes their fledgling Automobile Company they decided with the help of lucy schell to fill the grand prix racecar. The head of the company, was okay, we will build a grand prix racecar, but the engine, the chassis, every part of the car be suited for building a passenger vehicle. That we can sell to the general population that puts a lot of different parameters and roadblocks to the exact kind of car that they belt. Its much more difficult. Because it does have the stipulation. If you look at what the germans did, by contrast, the german cars, whether as mercedes or auto union were called silver arrows because of their sleek, modern, aluminum design. Those cars, those engines, the design, everything about them had no chance they were going to be patented. There exclusively built, designed, built to be grand prix racecars and thats it. They were not concerned about selling those vehicles. Not to the general population. Their victory on the grand prix had commercial aspects to it. Because it was good advertising for their company. So by our Passenger Vehicles they are widely built and invested in as a propaganda for mercedes and auto union but propaganda for the third reich. Every aspect within millions of dollars were poured into their coffers to build these cars were a nationalistic gamut to see the best in the world. That is exactly what they were for a very long while. Host switching pace a little bit, your research, so when the question i like to ask when you were doing your research was there something you found that was so striking and so that it was incredibly interesting fact that didnt fit into this book that may be something you want to work into a future book . Something you are so struck by, that did not make its way into the book that you wish it could have been some way. I think that was a hard question could find things specific in the Research Story of one aspect, one part of the story of nazi or post events in the story hotel, that he had to separate lives of twostory after the break of world war ii, he left the united states, and had a total dramatic and incredible second part, second existence. He joined the u. S. Army, he was involved in the invasion of italy, helped free europe from the not cheese, then went back to the united states, brought his family there, brother, sister, and ended up starting one of the most successful restaurants in your city. And became of new york and a fixture on the restaurant scene with his restaurant, thats given maybe four sentences or maybe a paragraph . You could write a whole book about that. In fact his autobiography or memoir, is called my two lives. For exactly that reason the racecar driver. Part of this research through remarkable story of the speed queens the likes of lucy shell, this whole generation of women in the 20s and 30s, really pioneered them being part of car racing, sort of fought all of the sexism, inherent sexism, and just really in many ways and broke the Glass Ceiling on that. You see the Danica Patricks of today, they have their presence in many ways to lucy shell. To her sort of calm lottery of women who decide everything defy everything to do with love, racecars. Again, i wont be the one doing it, if anyone is out there listening, there is a great book tv written about these early speed queens. I strongly recommend someone do it. Host they won separate awards but they were racing at the same time as the male drivers . Is that correct . Or what . Guest depends on the race. In the grand prix itself, the grand prix to put in present day language is like formula one racing. Theres a set dictate on the kind of car you can have, set race, and women were not involved in that, in the 1930s. Separately from that though, there was all kinds of different sports car races. There were rally races, races 3000 miles from one point to the next. Get there as quick as you can. As well as races like in italy, 1000 miles, or labontes, other races like that. Theyre all kinds of different races that inter mixed men and women. Lucy drove, partnered with her husband almost one monte carlo rally, three times. She also competed in all female as well. Those were quite popular. [inaudible] that male racers look down on the female racers. That they were i would venture to say they were better rally drivers than the men were. Probably quite easily. If there were the same number of women driving rallies as men,. [inaudible] c when i think you cut out a little bit there. Guest the women were probably better rally drivers, longdistance drivers than the men themselves. And lucy sort of proved that point. Host reminder for anyone is watching if you have questions be sure to put them in the comments and i will read them. Also a reminder the book is available at left bank books. Com. Visit left bank. Com. I lost the word, its a comefrombehind sport story, like the mighty ducks. Its a historical of sort. Seabiscuit, so if you have any questions involving history, or involving car racing, i knew very, very, little bit about the history of car racing before this. I probably i dont even know what i thought about car racing. Whether i thought it was Something Like that just started in the 60s, 70s unlike america and thats when nascar happened. Mina been to the nascar museum, indianapolis, the speedway the brickyard, ive been there, but i was a child and i dont remember everything i read on the plaques and things like that. When taking the museum tour, it was really at the sport i didnt appreciate the history of and this book does a really good job of making that sport into something that a person really likes to read micro histories that can appreciate and enjoy. drawn into representing represee third reich and did so and they were good friends at one opinion, was mass nateing. In maybe ways fascinating. Its no different than if you think of stories about b17 bombers in world war ii. No one really cared that much about the bomb are 0 the plane. Its the individuals in it fighting for the u. S. And the freedom of europe. So in many ways the car is the same way and racing is the same thing. Its just a vehicle in which they fought their fight. Host i had a question. Guest ill drink any old farced while you think of it. Host how like, honestly, how reluctant do you think he was, you say that in the text and its kind of demonstrated, but in a lot of ways i kind of the more i read but nazi history and the more i see people kind of turning the blind eye and ignoring certain aspect of the party and ignoring what they dont want to see, but in a lot of ways, even when they were ignoring and when they they still were supporting, and still very much in favor of, like, parts of the mission. So, whether or not they were fully complicit, which at love people in the nazi party maybe werent but how personally for him i know he was very involved early so how reluctant do you think he completely was . Guest its a great question. I think the way to answer it is sort of to track this story, so, won first grand prix race in 1926. A huge celebrity. Top driverrer in germany by 1932, 33. He knew of the nazi party. He was not a participant it in, not a member of it at that point in time. But then because of the great depression, a lot of Car Companies were abandoning grand prix racing, including mercedes and auto union, so by 1933, early 34, rudy was had a terrible car accident, so it was kind of crippled, had just lost his wife in a skiing accident and had the only thing left in his life was racing and getting back into rating, and with the rise of hitler and his investment in automobile racing and grand prix racing, he opportunity presented for rudy was join in the nazi party, become a representative, or never race again. And i think the answer to that question for him wa