Review Tour & Giveaway: Racing the Dream by M.T. Bass

 

Racing the Dream

A White Hawk Aviation Adventure Story

by

M.T. Bass

Action and Adventure
Publisher: Electron Alley Corporation
Publication Date: August 28, 2023
Page count: 328 pages

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SYNOPSIS:

“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…

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READ AN EXCERPT:

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…

REVIEW:

5 stars!

Action and adventure and a whole lot of charm. 

Racing the Dream is the third book in the series White Hawk Aviation Stories by author M.T. Bass, and it may be the surprise find of the year for me. It is chockful of interesting and natural characters, great dialogue and fun one-liners, exciting air racing action, wing walking, and surfing, and written by an author who's a wonderful storyteller; I didn't want to put this book down. 

The main character is Pilot A. Gavin Byrd, or Hawk, as he is known to all. He's led an adventurous life: war hero, Alaskan bush pilot, and flyer in the Congolese Air Force, where he saved the life of "Father" Bob, a former priest and genius aeronautical engineer. Hawk and his team are at the forefront of the resurgence of air races in the early 1960s, flying a plane of Father Bob's design and maintained by mechanic Sparks. His flying buddy, Scotty, is the final member of their foursome of good friends. The camaraderie among these men was fun and a joy to read. Hawk's love interest, Allison, is a fearless pilot and wing walker, an adrenaline junkie who also surfs with the big boys. The relationships, storyline, and action worked exceedingly well together, and I was immediately reminded of the flying and air race films from a much earlier era (1930s) starring such film legends as Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Alice Fay, and Spencer Tracy. 

The author's writing style was so comfortable I was absorbed into the story right away, and time absolutely "flew" by. While the book is the third in the series, it still stands well on its own. However, the bits and pieces of backstory from the previous novels are downright tantalizing, and I'm looking forward to reading those now as well. 

Ironically, the plot involves the inaugural Reno air race in 1964, while this year marks the final time the event will be held in that location. Tragically, this final competition ended with an accident claiming the lives of two veteran pilots. 

I recommend RACING THE DREAM to readers of action and adventure stories or historical fiction, especially those interested in flying and aviation history.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

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.

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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

 

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Somethin' for Nothin'

In the Black

Crossroads

Lodging

Untethered

GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!

M.T. Bass will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

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