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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. During the beginning, they run ________ wings.

2. What is the source of his discouragement?

3. Mark has one car that is "perfectly balanced" but it takes him ___________ years to fully appreciate what a difference this makes.

4. When Mark drives one car on a practice run, after the restrictions are released, the change in miles per hour that results is what?

5. The next section is about the building of ___________ racing cars.

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe Mark's experience with the Lola T70.

2. What leads to the first mention of the title of this book?

3. What does someone find for the first time in 1966? Why is this surprising?

4. What happens when Mark is driving a car and the restrictions are removed? How important is the difference in speed? Why?

5. What trickery does the team use to throw off those who are not on the team?

6. What does Mark think about the Javelin race car? How does he deal with this?

7. What piece of hardware at the end of the book is discussed? What is said about this piece?

8. How is practicing for a race different than a race?

9. Why do race cars not last very long? How does this lead to Mark's discussion of another unfair advantage?

10. Who is Dan Gurney? How does a race with Dan affect Mark? Why?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Mark drives a new car with an anti-skid system.

Part 1) Describe this car and its anti-skid system. How does Mark deal with this new system? What does he think about it? Why does he feel this way about it?

Part 2) What other innovations have been discussed throughout this book? How has Mark been affected by these innovations? Have they all been useful innovations? Why or why not?

Part 3) How much do you think racing has changed since this book was written? What changes might have taken place since the writing of this book? Why? How much might racing have changed in general since this book was written? Why?

Essay Topic 2

In the early 1970s, Roger Penske has a meeting with the American Motors people.

Part 1) Describe the reason for this meeting. How does Mark feel about this meeting? Why? How does this meeting affect Penske's racing team? How does it affect Mark specifically?

Part 2) What other changes take place within the Penske racing team over the years during which Mark is a driver? Why do these changes take place? How do these changes affect the Penske team?

Part 3) Do changes like these take place in other sports and forms of entertainment? If so, how and why? If not, why not? How do changes affect fans and the sport's image?

Essay Topic 3

Donohue builds a relationship with Flagl.

Part 1) Who is Flagl? How does Donohue meet Flagl? How do these two men begin a working relationship? Why does Flagl become so important to Mark?

Part 2) With who else does Mark build relationships throughout the course of his life? How do each of these individuals influence him as a driver, an engineer, and as a person?

Part 3) With whom do you have a good relationship? How did this relationship develop? How does this relationship influence your daily life? How different would your life be without this person in it?

(see the answer keys)

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