Racing the Dream - M. T. Bass - Bog

"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 Championship Air Races event in Reno!

Abandoning the cloth and his African mission, Father Bob resurrects his engineering slide rule to design Hawk's racer. With Sparks, his loyal yet surly mechanic, building it and wrenching both on the engine-as well as on Hawk-he 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, just 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 a Stearman PT-17 bi-plane. He quickly sets his sights on her.

Fly low...Fly fast...and Turn Left...

Cover art courtesy of the National Championship Air Races from their inaugural 1964 Reno Air Race poster.