Brock Yates

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Brock Yates was executive editor of Car and Driver, an American automotive magazine. He was a pit reporter for CBS's coverage of certain NASCAR Nextel Cup (then Winston) series races in the 1980s, including the Daytona 500. He was also one of two commentators on the TNN show "American Sports Cavalcade" with Steve Evans. Paul Page and Don Garlits appeared on the show, but it was primarily Brock and Steve.

Yates is a best-selling author, most frequently about automotive topics and motor sport, and a commentator for the cable television Speed Channel. Some of his articles and commentaries for Car and Driver magazine and other publications have had considerable impact within the auto industry and the general public, beginning with his 1968 critique of the American auto industry, its management and its products, "The Grosse Pointe Myopians." A recurring theme of his nonfiction work has been the way American automotive management has frequently grown arrogant, lost touch with its markets, and failed to respond to changing public needs and tastes, technology, and energy and environmental concerns.

[edit] Cannonball Run

Yates' father was Raymond F. Yates, a technical writer. Yates was inspired by Erwin G. "Cannonball" Baker, (1882-1960), who travelled across the USA several times, to initiate the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. This illegal cross-continent road race was a protest against the 55 MPH speed limit. The first race was won by him and former race driver, Formula One and Le Mans winner Dan Gurney in a Ferrari. It took them 35 hours, 53 minutes to drive from New York to Los Angeles. Brock Yates wrote The Cannonball Run film with the intention of the lead role going to Steve McQueen. McQueen was diagnosed with cancer early in 1980 and unable to consider doing the movie. He died in November 1980. This series of circumstances led to another actor being considered, one for whom Brock Yates had co-written a screenplay that became that actor's most commercially successful movie: Burt Reynolds. The movie was "Smokey and the Bandit." Reynolds had a series of flops following that movie; so motion picture studio 20th Century Fox suggested he take on another "car" movie role. Reynolds refused but after one more flop decided to follow their advice. It is well known Brock Yates was not pleased with the final outcome of his film as it was originally written from a more realistic "true to the race" vantage point. The race also served as inspiration for the movies Cannonball (1976), The Gumball Rally (1976), Cannonball Run (1981), and Cannonball Run II (1984). Brock Yates along with friend, director, and famed stunt man Hal Needham, also wrote Smokey and the Bandit II.

[edit] Books by Brock Yates

Against Death and Time: One Fatal Season in Racing's Glory Years
Cannonball!: World's Greatest Outlaw Road Race
The Hot Rod: Resurrection of a Legend
Outlaw Machine
Enzo Ferrari
The Critical Path
The Indianapolis Five Hundred
Racers and Drivers
The Decline and Fall of the American Automobile Industry
Sunday Driver
Dead in the Water
The Great Driver