Description
The Last Lap is a gripping inquest into the fast life and mysterious death of racing driver Pete Kreis, infamously killed in practice at the celebrated 1934 Indianapolis 500. In a compelling narrative that reads like a southern gothic novel, author William Walker’s lifelong obsession with Kreis’s demise has created a rich storyline that takes readers back to the glamorous and dangerous times that marked the beginning of automotive competition. Much more than a racing story, The Last Lap is the tale of a boy who rises from the obscurity of backcountry Tennessee roads to compete in the world’s fastest and most illustrious races, and the parallel woeful collapse of his eminent Southern family.
From his early days of racing on dirt roads, to his glory days of commanding cutting-edge Dusenbergs and Millers, Kreis was focused on winning the biggest race in the world: the Indianapolis 500. Piloting a front-drive race car in practice, Kreis crashed into the wall of Turn One, rode along the top of the retaining wall for seventy-five feet, and careened down an embankment at the south end of the oval. Both Kreis and his riding mechanic were killed when the car smashed into a tree in the backyard of a nearby house. After an intense review, it was concluded that Kreis’s sudden end was “the strangest death in all of racing history.”
Longtime racing fan and acclaimed historical author William Walker has dedicated much of his life to solving the mystery surrounding Kreis’s death, a quest that has spanned three-quarters of a century and too many miles to count. The dynamic, nonfiction narrative is the result of a decades long quest in search of the the truth – the real story of Pete Kreis, his colorful racing career, and his tragic death.
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