The Stainless Steel Carrot Returns to Print

CARPINTERIA, Calif., Aug. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Brown Fox Books, is pleased to announce they are accepting pre-orders for Sylvia Wilkinson's classic tale of racing, The Stainless Steel Carrot—Revisited. The updated and expanded version of the book is being completed with royalties benefiting animal welfare organizations. Pre-orders can be placed at www.brownfoxbooks.com. The book will begin distribution August 2012.  The book will be priced at $46.00 to coincide with John Morton's racing number for much of his career.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120814/LA57327)

In 1970, Sylvia Wilkinson was a writer in the category known as "young Southern Woman Novelist."  While her novels and teaching paid the bills, she had a passion for motorsports that led her to write The Stainless Steel Carrot - An Auto Racing Odyssey. The book profiled young up-and-coming road racer John Morton as he raced the BRE Datsun 510 in the 1971 and 1972 SCCA Trans-Am 2.5 Challenge. John won the championships and continued on a road-racing career that saw dozens of championship level victories around the country and abroad. The book, well regarded among both racers and general audience readers, has been out of print since 1975. Original copies often sell for over $100 online and at collectors' events. Now, thanks to years of requests from fans, and Sylvia's interest in animals, the book will be republished with additional material.

"I have kept in touch with the BRE crew members over the years and with racing in general as a journalist as well as with my timing and scoring business. Like most writers, my immediate interest is always my current project. I had a been-there, done-that attitude towards the Carrot until a friend suggested the book might be reprinted with an update and more photographs. When he also put forth the idea of publishing the book as a fundraiser for animals, the deal was sealed. We chose Brown Fox because of their great reputation with new editions of out-of-print racing books. As a writer of twenty-five books, this was my first book with a publisher who knew racing," noted Sylvia Wilkinson.

The 2012 Brown Fox edition will include additional photography from both the 1971-72 timeframe as well as throughout John's career. Forewords from both Dan Gurney and Parnelli Jones will introduce the new book.

"The Stainless Steel Carrot: An Auto Racing Odyssey—Revisited" by Sylvia Wilkinson. Hardcover 6x9 inch, 368 pgs with 32 pgs of coated paper featuring more than 150 photos—many in color.  ISBN 978-1-888978-15-5 List Price US $46.00

About Sylvia Wilkinson
Author Sylvia Wilkinson was born in Durham, North Carolina. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, in 1962. She received her master's degree from Hollins University in 1963 and studied at Stanford University under a Wallace Stegner Creative Writing Fellowship 1965-66.

Wilkinson taught at various institutions including the Universities of North Carolina at Asheville and Chapel Hill, the College of William & Mary, Sweet Briar College, Hollins University, Washington University and the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. She is a teaching scholar with the National Faculty. She received a number of literary awards including the Sir Walter Raleigh Award twice—in 1968 for A Killing Frost, and again in 1978 for Shadow of the Mountain, a Eugene Saxton Grant, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the UNC - Greensboro Alumnae Service Award, and a Mademoiselle Merit Award for Literature.

She has published over two-dozen books ranging from novels for adults, non-fiction works and juvenile titles with automotive themes. She was a Motorsports Correspondent for AutoWeek and is currently a World Book Encyclopedia contributor on auto racing. She was an auto racing timer and scorer for many years for numerous drivers including Paul Newman, Al Unser Sr., Bobby Rahal and Keke Rosberg.

About John Morton
Racer John Morton has raced in just about every American road-racing series to exist since the 1960's.  He has raced in every class of IMSA, Trans-Am, F5000, CART, and overseas at LeMans.  Originally from Waukegan, Illinois, John has lived in El Segundo since the 1970's.  He began his career in the era when it was possible to work up from the shop to driving. He started his career with Carroll Shelby as a janitor on the Cobra team.

His first major success was in 1964; teaming with Ken Miles and Skip Scott, Morton won the GT class at the Road America 500.

John forever became linked with Peter Brock, Brock Racing Enterprises (BRE), and Datsun while racing in SCCA Club events and the SCCA Trans-Am 2.5 Challenge.  John won the 1970 and 1971 SCCA C Production Championships and the 1971 and 1972 SCCA Trans-Am 2.5 Challenges after which the team was disbanded.

John raced competitively in the second-generation Can-Am series competing as an independent against much larger teams.  Away from the track he did stunt driving work on movies like Gumball Rally and Greased Lightning, as well as TV shows like The Rockford Files.

During the 1980's John raced a wide variety of IMSA machines, including key wins with Porsche, Jaguar, and Mazda teams.  John was a teammate to Geoff Brabham and was key to the development of the Electramotive Nissan GTP car that dominated the final years of the class.

Currently most of John's competition is in vintage races driving a variety of cars, which include Cobra coupes, Corvettes, Porsches, Sunbeam Tigers and Scarabs.

His most recent professional race was at Road Atlanta in 2010 when he made a guest appearance in a Mazda MX-5 in a salute to the BRE team being honored that weekend.

About Brown Fox Books
Brown Fox Books (dba of TMI Communications Inc) is a publisher of material relating to automobiles and motor sports -- the history, the people and the cars.

Created in 1995 by Mark Godfrey, Brown Fox Books is focused on producing effectively designed well illustrated books for the automotive enthusiast. Best known for quality new editions of previously published works, Brown Fox Books will also publish all new titles; motor sport, biography, and marque books.

SOURCE Brown Fox Books