Racing the Dream
by M.T. Bass
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: Action and Adventure
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
“If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough.”
~Mario Andretti
Strap
down the 5-point harness in the cockpit of a Formula 1 air racing plane and
join Hawk as he chases victory! First on their amateur make-shift course over
Antelope Acres, then on the re-emerging pylon racing circuit in the early
1960s. And finally, as Hawk battles 7 other top-level pilots at the very first
National Air Racing Championship event in Reno!
Abandoning
the cloth and his African mission, Father Bob returns to his slide rule to
design Hawk’s racer. Sparks, his loyal yet surly mechanic, built it and
wrenching both on the engine—as well as on Hawk—keeps them at the front of the
pack. Home again in Los Angeles from behind the stick of a T-6 Texan as a
mercenary in the Congo civil war, air racing is a new aviation adventure for
Hawk. Ride along as he tangles with fellow pilots in “uncooperative formation
flying” at two-hundred miles per hour a mere fifty feet off the ground!
And
then one day cruising home to Van Nuys airport, Hawk spies Allison, a
beach-blonde surfer girl, insanely wing walking on the top wing of a Stearman
PT-17 bi-plane. He quickly sets his sights on her.
Fly
low…Fly fast…and Turn Left…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt One:
Chapter 1 — Antelope Acres
I chased Scotty down the long straightaway. Three hundred
feet back. A hundred feet off the ground. One hundred seventy knots.
Quick looks at the panel: Thirty-six hundred RPM. Look:
engine oil pressure—green. Look: oil temperature—green.
All good.
Banking hard into the “pylon” at W Avenue G and Myrick
Canyon Road over the desert, a shadow on the ground to my left crawled toward
my British Racing Green colored wing. He had to be outside. You can’t look to
the right. It’s just not safe. But the sun was behind us…
I lofted a bit in the eighty-degree turn—climbed twenty feet
or so—then quickly dove back down to close another hundred and fifty feet on
Scotty, picking up a bit of his wake turbulence.
Rolling out and down the front straightaway, I found smooth
air twenty-five feet above his hot red Jensen Cassutt.
We used the crossroads, a pile of rocks, a little hump in
the desert sand, and a windmill water pump to set up our three-mile oval
course. I knew Scotty from Van Nuys, but the other three guys were new, from
other SoCal airports. We were all on “Company Frequency,” one-two-three point
four-five. We joined up in a loose formation for a pace lap, then got down to
business with a flying start.
Like Henry Ford said, racing began five minutes after the
second airplane was built. And that’s where Father Bob came in. There were a
ton of modified Cassutts out there. Anybody could buy the design for $20. But
Father Bob used his engineering skills to develop and, with Sparks’ help, build
White Hawk Redux, an 85 horsepower, Continental C-85 Goodyear racer that we
were pushing over two hundred miles an hour.
It was all unofficial because, after fifty years of glorious
history, airplane racing fell off the face of the earth for a while in the
Sixties. There were no sanctioned races around anymore, so we made up our own
course, kicking up dust devils and rooster tails over the desolation of
Antelope Acres. Our version of California street drags.
Of course, I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I was
learning fast.
Around the windmill and up to the forty-foot hump in the
sand. I chased Scotty down foot by foot. I knew I could take him.
Only two laps left. It was now or never.
Banking hard into the crossroads, I juiced the power up near
four thousand RPM and pulled back on the stick to take Scotty up and outside.
But dammit, I missed him—
In my peripheral vision, a Tweety-yellow racer on my right
came toward me.
I flattened my wings and rolled off the power sweeping below
him to keep from colliding. But I caught the tornado of his wingtip vortices
and involuntarily flipped inverted.
A Joshua tree bloomed overhead in my canopy as I arced
upside-down towards the ground at two-hundred-fifty feet. Gravity pulled my
shoulders down against the straps of my five-point harness.
Without thinking, back pressure on the stick moved quickly
forward to illogically raise the nose with a nudge of left rudder to roll level
and maxing out the power…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Racing the Dream Release Blog Tour Guest Post
September 29, 2023
http://sandrasbookclub.blogspot.com/
Antelope Acres
Strapped into
his Formula 1 airplane, Hawk—unofficially—races
against six other pilots over the desert north of Los Angeles in “Antelope
Acres,” the first chapter of Racing
the Dream. The
scene highlights the technology, the competition, and the dangers of pylon
racing, as well as demonstrating Hawk’s flying skills.
Air racing is
the “world’s fastest motorsport” and the health of your airplane is just
as important as the skills of the pilot. Hawk must divide his time between the
cockpit gages and chasing down his competitors:
I chased Scotty down the long
straightaway. Three hundred feet back. A hundred feet off the ground. One
hundred seventy knots.
Quick looks at the panel: Thirty-six
hundred RPM. Look: engine oil pressure—green. Look: oil temperature—green.
All good.
Pylon racing
is considered “uncooperative formation flying.” All the planes are flying right off
each other’s wings, but no one is staying in the same position, like what you
see when you watch the Blue Angels or the Thunderbirds at an air show:
Banking hard into the “pylon” at W Avenue G and Myrick Canyon Road
over the desert, a shadow on the ground to my left crawled toward my British
Racing Green colored wing. He had to be outside. You can’t look to the right.
It’s just not safe. But the sun was behind us…
I lofted a bit in the eighty-degree
turn—climbed twenty feet or so—then quickly dove back down to close another
hundred and fifty feet on Scotty, picking up a bit of his wake turbulence.
Rolling out and down the front
straightaway, I found smooth air twenty-five feet above his hot red Jensen
Cassutt.
And then, of
course, there are risks:
Banking hard into the crossroads, I
juiced the power up near four thousand RPM and pulled back on the stick to take
Scotty up and outside.
But dammit, I missed him—
In my peripheral vision, a
Tweety-yellow racer on my right came toward me.
I flattened my wings and rolled off
the power sweeping below him to keep from colliding. But I caught the tornado
of his wingtip vortices and involuntarily flipped inverted.
A Joshua tree bloomed overhead in my
canopy as I arced upside-down towards the ground at two-hundred-fifty feet.
Gravity pulled my shoulders down against the straps of my five-point harness.
Getting all
of the elements of air racing into the first chapter was crucial to setting the
stage for my story—kind of like the opening chase scenes of a James Bond movie.
Of course,
Hawk is the main character and since this is the first chapter, he does recover
from his low-level aerobatics.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
M.T. Bass is a
scribbler of fiction who holds fast to the notion that while victors may get to
write history, novelists get to write/right reality. He lives, writes, flies
and makes music in Mudcat Falls, USA.
Born in Athens,
Ohio, M.T. Bass grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan
University, majoring in English and Philosophy, then worked in the private
sector (where they expect “results”) mainly in the Aerospace & Defense
manufacturing market. He is the author of twelve novels, two novellas, and a
book of verse. His writing spans various genres, including Mystery, Adventure,
Romance, Black Comedy and TechnoThrillers. A Commercial Pilot and Certified
Flight Instructor, airplanes and pilots are featured in many of his stories.
Bass currently lives on the shores of Lake Erie near Lorain, Ohio.
M.T. Bass
Author Links
Website: https://www.mtbass.net
Blog: https://www.owl-works.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/owlworks/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Owlworks
Amazon Author
Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/mtbass
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5270962.M_T_Bass
Racing the
Dream Purchase Links
Author Web Site
Info Page: https://mtbassauthor.wordpress.com/racing-the-dream-white-hawk-aviation-stories-3/
Amazon (Kindle
Unlimited): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CCSVMSQV
Stories by M.T.
Bass
White Hawk
Aviation Adventure Stories
My Brother's
Keeper
Jungleland
Racing the
Dream
***~~~***
Murder by
Munchausen Sci-Fi Thriller Series
Murder by
Munchausen
The Darknet
The Invisible
Mind
Motherless
Children
Murder by
Munchausen Trilogy: Books 1-3
***~~~***
Article 15
Somethin' for
Nothin'
In the Black
Crossroads
Lodging
Untethered
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY
M.T. Bass will be awarding a $25 Amazon
or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteHi Sandra --
ReplyDeleteIt's great to have you feature Racing the Dream on your blog. If any of your readers have any questions about writing, flying, or airplane racing, I'll answer as best as I can.
Thanks again.
~Mudcat
I enjoyed the excerpt. Sounds really good.
ReplyDeleteHi Marcy, glad you liked the excerpt. It's so hard to know which one to pick. When you read the book it'll be interesting to know which one you pick. : )
DeleteThis sounds like a great read.
ReplyDeleteHi Sherry, hope you enjoy every moment of your Who Buried Sarah read.
ReplyDeleteA great big thank you to my hosts today. It was an honour to be with you.
ReplyDeleteI cannot wait to read this book- I am not a big fan of flying- but I do fly when necesary
ReplyDelete