HUFF, Richard (M.) 1962-

PERSONAL: Born July 8, 1962, in Coldspring, NY; son of Rosemary Huff (a customer representative for a telephone company); married Michelle McGuire (a business administrator), May 3, 1986. Education: Attended School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, 1980-83. Hobbies and other interests: Reading about sports, entertainment, and true crime, attending local stock car races.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—New York Daily News, 450 W. 33 St., New York, NY 10001.

CAREER: Croton-Cortlandt News, Croton, NY, staff reporter and photographer, 1980-83; Peekskill Evening Star, Peekskill, NY, staff reporter and photographer, 1983-85; freelance writer, 1985; Mount Pleasant/Pleasantville Post, Pleasantville, NY, editor, 1985-86; Twice, New York, NY, associate editor, 1986-87; Hollywood Reporter, New York, NY, staff reporter, 1987-89; Daily Variety, New York, NY, correspondent, 1989—; New York Daily News, New York, NY, staff writer. Peekskill Herald, member of board of directors and contributing writer and photographer, 1986—.

AWARDS, HONORS: Feature Photo Prize, United Press International, 1983.

WRITINGS:

Behind the Wall: A Season on the NASCAR Circuit, Bonus Books (Chicago, IL), 1992, new edition, 1996.

Insider's Guide to Stock Car Racing, Bonus Books (Chicago, IL), 1997.

Formula One Racing, Chelsea House (Philadelphia, PA), 1997.

The Jarretts, Chelsea House (Philadelphia, PA), 1998.

The Making of a Race Car, Chelsea House (Philadelphia, PA), 1999.

History of NASCAR, Chelsea House (Philadelphia, PA), 1999.

Demolition Derby, Chelsea House (Philadelphia, PA), 1999.

Stock Car Champions: Running with NASCAR's Best, Bonus Books (Chicago, IL), 2000.

The Composite Guide to Volleyball, Chelsea House (Philadelphia, PA), 2000.

The Composite Guide to Gymnastics, Chelsea House (Philadelphia, PA), 2000.

Contributor of articles and photographs to periodicals, including Video Review, Photo District News, OnSat, and Seventeen. Contributing writer and columnist for NASCAR Truck Racing Magazine.

SIDELIGHTS: Richard Huff, a sports writer for the New York Daily News, has written a number of books about the sport of stock car racing. A critic for Publishers Weekly described Huff as being "vastly knowledgeable on the subject" of racing.

In Behind the Wall: A Season on the NASCAR Circuit Huff chronicles the year he spent with a stock car racing team as they toured the country to compete in some twenty-nine races. Driver Terry Labonte's 1991 season, captured by Huff in his book, finished with the racer finishing eighteenth in the rankings. The revised edition of Behind the Wall covers Labonte's 1996 season, during which he won the prestigious Winston Cup. Huff "presents racing as an exceedingly demanding business made up of competitive yet patient and long-suffering men," according to a critic for Publishers Weekly.

For readers who may be new to the sport, Huff wrote Insider's Guide to Stock Car Racing to explain some of the basics of the fastest-growing sport in America. NASCAR (the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) reports that attendance at their races has increased at a rate of ten percent every year for the past decade. Huff's guide includes such information as how a stock car is built, how someone becomes a member of a racing team, a history of the sport, and the locations of all stock car race tracks in the country. He also provides a behind-the-scenes look at the work it takes to broadcast a NASCAR race on television.

In his Stock Car Champions: Running with NASCAR's Best, Huff presents profiles of a number of the top drivers in NASCAR history, including such figures as Richard Petty, Dale Jarrett, and Jeff Gordon. Telling how each driver first became interested in stock car racing, got into the sport, and became a success, Huff shows that "the common thread among these men is their passion for their sport," as Wes Lukowsky wrote in Booklist.

Huff has also written a number of books for young readers on the subject of stock car racing, including Formula One Racing, The Jarretts, and The Making of a Race Car. The Jarretts is a history of several generations in a racing family, including champion driver Ned Jarrett, his sons Dale and Glenn, and his grandson Jason.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 2000, Wes Lukowsky, review of Stock Car Champions: Running with NASCAR's Best, p. 50.

Publishers Weekly, April 6, 1992, review of Behind the Wall: A Season on the NASCAR Circuit, p. 44.

School Library Journal, April, 2001, Kate Kohlbeck, review of The Composite Guide to Volleyball, p. 154.

ONLINE

Bonus Books Web site, http://www.bonus-books.com/ (November 18, 2002).*