Brock Yates

Brock Yates – Life, Career, and Notable Legacy

Learn about Brock Yates (1933–2016), American automotive journalist, editor of Car and Driver, creator of the Cannonball Run, and author. Explore his life, influence, and memorable quotes.

Introduction

Brock Yates was a bold and influential voice in automotive journalism and motorsport culture. Best known as long-time executive editor of Car and Driver, his writing combined passion, critique, and storytelling. More than just a journalist, Yates was a provocateur, event organizer, screenwriter, and a central figure in car enthusiast lore. His creation of the Cannonball Run immortalized him in both media and motoring legend.

Early Life & Background

Brock Wendel Yates was born on October 21, 1933, in Lockport, New York, United States.

He graduated from Lockport High School in 1951. Hobart College, earning a B.A. in 1955.

Even as a teenager, he showed interest in technical and mechanical topics: his first articles appeared in Science & Mechanics magazine when he was 16.

Career and Achievements

Journalism & Car and Driver

Yates’s most enduring role was as executive editor and leading writer at Car and Driver magazine.

One of his most famous essays (1968) was “The Grosse Pointe Myopians”, in which he critiqued the U.S. automotive industry’s leadership, complacency, and disconnection from consumer needs and innovation. The Decline and Fall of the American Automotive Industry.

Yates did not restrict himself to Car and Driver. He wrote for outlets like The Washington Post, Playboy, The American Spectator, Boating, Vintage Motorsports, and more.

The Cannonball Run & Event Creation

Perhaps Yates’s most famous legacy is the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, often called just the Cannonball Run.

In 1971, Yates and fellow editor Steve Smith conceived a cross-country, nonstop coast-to-coast race as both a protest of restrictive speed laws (especially the 55 mph national limit) and a celebration of high-speed driving across America.

The first competitive run was won by Yates and famed driver Dan Gurney in a Ferrari 365 GTB/4, completing New York to Los Angeles in 35 hours, 54 minutes.

The Cannonball Run inspired, directly or indirectly, multiple films (such as The Cannonball Run, Cannonball!, The Gumball Rally) and remains a touchstone of car-culture mythology.

Moreover, Yates initiated One Lap of America, an endurance and high-speed event for performance cars (a successor in spirit).

Screenwriting & Media Work

Yates also ventured into film and television. He co-wrote the screenplay for Smokey and the Bandit II (1980). The Cannonball Run (1981) as a writer; although he had planned to cast Steve McQueen, McQueen’s illness led to Burt Reynolds in the lead role instead. The Cannonball Run film as the race organizer reading the ground rules.

On television, he served as pit reporter for CBS during NASCAR races (including the Daytona 500) and worked as a motor-sports commentator for American Sports Cavalcade and later on the Speed Channel covering vintage cars.

Books & Written Legacy

Yates authored or co-authored more than a dozen books, many on automotive history, racing, and industry critique. Some of his notable works include:

• Cannonball!: World’s Greatest Outlaw Road Race

• The Decline and Fall of the American Automotive Industry

• Enzo Ferrari: The Man, The Cars, The Races, The Machine

• The Critical Path: Inventing an Automobile and Reinventing a Corporation

• Outlaw Machine: Harley-Davidson and the Search for the American Soul

• Against Death and Time: One Fatal Season in Racing’s Glory Years

• The Hot Rod: Resurrection of a Legend

His writing often blended technical insight, social critique, humor, and a willingness to take on automotive industry power.

Historical Context & Influence

• Yates rose to prominence during the post-World War II expansion of American car culture, when cars were symbols of freedom, identity, and technology.

• His critiques anticipated many of the crises the auto industry would face: the oil shocks of the 1970s, safety and environmental regulation, the outsourcing of manufacturing, and shifts in consumer demands.

• By staging the Cannonball Run, he asserted a countercultural stance toward regulation and resonated with enthusiasts skeptical of increasing legal constraints on driving.

• His style helped shift automotive journalism from mere reviews and technical spec lists to cultural commentary: cars as lenses on politics, society, and identity.

• His cross-media work (print, television, film) also helped bring car culture to mainstream popular imagination.

Personality & Strengths

Yates was known for being forthright, opinionated, witty, and occasionally irreverent. He embraced the persona of a car-lover provocateur—willing to critique the very industry he largely covered.

He had a participatory journalism philosophy: he didn’t just write about cars—he drove them, raced them, created events. This “doing” gave his writing authenticity.

He showed courage in calling out weaknesses, contradictions, and complacency in the automotive world, often at cost to relationships with manufacturers and advertisers.

Even in later years, as he struggled with Alzheimer’s disease (from about 2007 onward), his influence and legend remained intact in the car-enthusiast world.

Famous Quotes & Statements

Some memorable lines attributed to Brock Yates include:

• “The automobile, both a cause and an effect of this decentralization, is ideally suited for our vast landscape …”

• “I admit to wasting my life messing around with fast cars and motorcycles.”

• “Don’t get me wrong, I think bikes are terrific. I own several of my own, including a trendy mountain style…”

• “Regardless, I did rise to the editorship before embarking on a freelance career in the late ’60s.”

While less known for aphorisms than some writers, his columns are peppered with sharp observations on industry, speed, regulation, and culture.

Lessons from Brock Yates

1. Challenge the status quo: Yates showed that industry insiders can serve as critics and conscience, not just cheerleaders.

2. Blend action with commentary: By staging runs, driving, designing events, he made journalism lived, not just observed.

3. Write with purpose: His journalism aimed to provoke thought, not just report specifications.

4. Cross disciplinary boundaries: From print to film to event creation, Yates exemplified versatility and multiplatform influence.

5. Leave a legacy through ideas: Even after his illness and passing, the Cannonball ethos, Car and Driver influence, and his books continue to inspire car lovers, writers, and critics.

Death & Legacy

Brock Yates died on October 5, 2016, in Batavia, New York, from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. He was 82.

In 2017, he was posthumously inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America for his contributions to automotive culture and journalism.

His legacy continues through his writings, films inspired by his ideas, the ongoing One Lap of America event, and a generation of automotive journalists who see his model of bold, engaged, critical coverage as a standard.