William Edgar

I have been associated with motorsport activities for over fifty years.   My father was John Edgar, a pioneering force in post-World War II sports car racing in America.  During the 1950s, along with the teams of Kimberly, Cunningham, Parravano and von Neumann, the name Edgar became well-known at sports car racing events all over the United States.  John Edgar’s cars, transport equipment, and winning drivers became legend, while fielding marques that included MG, Siata, Alfa Romeo, Porsche, Ferrari and Maserati, piloted by first-rate racing talent such as Bill Pollack, Jack McAfee, Carroll Shelby, Phil Hill, Pete Lovely, Masten Gregory, Paul O’Shea, Lance Reventlow, Bruce Kessler, Skip Hudson, Jim Rathmann, Chuck Daigh, Jo Bonnier, Pete Woods, and Ruth Levy.   

          John Edgar was also a professional photographer, and many of his photographs have been preserved and are now held in the Edgar Motorsport Archive. 

          I became a documentary filmmaker in the early 1960s, first writing and producing historical documentaries for David L. Wolper Production, and, toward the end of the decade, moving into writing, producing and directing sports films, after working extensively on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. 

          My first racing film, as writer, was produced and directed by ABC’s Andy Sidaris, documenting the life and times of Craig Breedlove and his land speed record programs.  Titled The Racers/Craig & Lee Breedlove, the 1-hour special appeared on ABC in 1968.   

          In 1969, Sidaris and I teamed with James Garner to make a feature-length documentary for theaters titled The Racing Scene, starring Garner and featuring drivers that included Scooter Patrick, Dave Jordan, Ed Leslie and Lothar Motschenbacher, as well as Parnelli Jones, Sam Posey, David Hobbs, Andrea De Adamich, and a special appearance by Dick Smothers.  The subject was Garner’s AIR Team in road race competition at Daytona, Sebring, and on the Formula-A circuit at Lime Rock and Canada’s St. Jovite.  The film was shot in wide-screen 35mm Techniscope and released through Filmways.  The Racing Scene was recently the focus of a special night at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles honoring James Garner, his team drivers and film crew.  The gala was a sell-out event with over 450 in attendance. 

          Throughout the 1970s I continued to write and produce racing-oriented documentary films with subjects including Mario Andretti, Bobby Allison, Bobby Isaac, Don Prudhomme, Tom McEwen, Lothar Motschenbacher, Denny Hulme, Peter Revson, Bob Bondurant, Dick Mann, Don Castro, Sam Posey, David Hobbs, Jackie Stewart, A.J. Foyt, Mark Donohue, Roger Penske, Don Garlits, Joe Leonard and Al Unser, Sr.

          In the non-racing film world, over a period of several years, I wrote and produced documentaries on subjects ranging from lowland gorillas to Nobel Prize winners.  Sponsorships for my various films have included major companies such as American Airlines, Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, Ford, Kemper Insurance, Rockwell International, and Rolex.   

          I began writing magazine articles in the mid-1980s, and have had my print journalism appear in a number of publications, with subjects including Craig Breedlove, Dan Gurney, Carroll Shelby, Sammy Tanner, Ed Kretz, Sr., Doug Polen, Randy Mamola, Dick Mann, Long Beach Grand Prix, United States FIM 500GP, Willow Springs International Raceway, Love Ride, Rollie Free and the John Edgar Lightning, Eddie Lawson, Freddie Spencer, and Reg and Jason Pridmore.  This period included my authoring a weekly motorcycling column titled “Cycle Dreams” appearing nationally in Cycle News for a period of 2-1/2 years.   

          In the 1990s I often sat in as co-host for the KPFK-radio hour on Southern California motorcycling called “Centerstand,” created and regularly hosted by Margaret Fowler.

          In 1995, Michael T. Lynch, Ron Parravano and I began writing and putting together a motorsport history titled American Sports Car Racing in the 1950s.  This 172-page hardcover was published by MBI in October 1998, and immediately earned critical acclaim both in the US and UK.  At a year-end gala at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, this book and its authors received The Motor Press Guild's 1998 Dean Batchelor Award "For Excellence in Current Automotive Journalism."  To quote co-author Lynch: "The award is presented yearly to a single work, and is open to writers, broadcasters, photographers and artists."  The late Dean Batchelor was a speed record-setting dry lakes racer, sports car aficianado, former Editor of Road & Track  magazine, and author of several books.     

For my current motorsport articles, please see William Edgar's Motorsport Journalism page in this website.