Book review: Regga by Christopher Hilton

If you’re a WilliamsF1 fan, it seems like an eternity since the team’s last win by Pastor Maldonado at the 2012 Spanish GP. Williams’ first GP victory was delivered by the swashbuckling moustachioed Giancarlo ‘Clay’ Regazzoni. One of the best driver biographies published is Christopher Hilton’s “Regga” which covered Clay Regazzoni’s career as a popular Ferrari driver in the 70’s and his later career in rallying despite being confined to a wheelchair after his accident in 1980 in the USA West GP.

Hilton’s book is actually the 3rd in a series of books that started with the excellent “Memories of Ayrton” and “Memories of James Hunt” – however it doesn’t follow the same format of these previous books of compiling chapters full of quotes from other drivers and close associates.

“Regga” is a more conventional pictorial biography – although it doesn’t dwell  much on his childhood or early family upbringing – it more or less starts with Clay’s entry into Formula 3, progression to Formula 2, toggling between F2 and early success at the Italian GP with works Ferrari F1 team. 1973 with BRM and then the definitive partnership with Niki Lauda back at Ferrari from 1974-1976.

There is a chapter on his brief Ensign/Arrow stint and then somewhat of a swan song with the upcoming WilliamsF1 team in 1979 before his brief return to Ensign and his crippling injury at Long Beach.

The second half of the book delves into Regazzoni’s post-accident phase of this life – from early denial (blaming medical mismanagement of his injuries), mentally coming to grips with being wheel chair bound, re-discovering his spirit as a rally driver including Paris-Dakar and becoming somewhat of an ambassador for the disabled.

For Regga, Hilton has drawn from a lot of different source material including interview access to his wife and family, drivers and other biographies. At the time of publication in 2008, it was the only English biography on Regazzoni.

The photography in this book is beautiful, largely to the many colour reprints from the LAT photography archive. It’s consistent with the hardcover format and photo quality of other Haynes books such as 1982 (also by Christopher Hilton).

Many older F1 fans will associate Regazzoni with the classic high airbox Ferrari 312B3 more than any of the other cars he raced including the Ferrari 312B2 and the Williams FW07.

Overall, a worthy addition to any F1 driver biography library.

Wow Factor/Money shot: Regazzoni in the hammerhead 312B2 (pg 63), 312B2 (pg 64)

Suitable for:  70’s F1 fans