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Racing the Dream: Fly Low…Fly Fast…and Turn Left…
“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 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.
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 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.
332 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 28, 2023
3 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
M.T. Bass
29 books389 followersEvery author was first a reader. My aim is to pay forward at least some small portion of the fun I've had and the discoveries I've made from reading great books, holding fast to the notion that while victors may get to write history, novelists get to write/right reality.
To join my mailing list and keep in touch (and get a free download), click here.
Just so you know what you might be getting into, my favorite five novels are:
1. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
2. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
3. Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
4. Little Big Man by Thomas Berger
5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
As much as I love real, physical "meatspace" books with real paper pages ("Real tomato ketchup, Eddie?"), I have to confess that eBook publishing has not only enabled my story-telling disorder, it has amped my reading back up without breaking my back, since I can carry my entire library around in my iPad Mini.
So it goes…
To join my mailing list and keep in touch (and get a free download), click here.
Just so you know what you might be getting into, my favorite five novels are:
1. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
2. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
3. Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
4. Little Big Man by Thomas Berger
5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
As much as I love real, physical "meatspace" books with real paper pages ("Real tomato ketchup, Eddie?"), I have to confess that eBook publishing has not only enabled my story-telling disorder, it has amped my reading back up without breaking my back, since I can carry my entire library around in my iPad Mini.
So it goes…
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 13, 2023
Racing the Dream starts out in mid-air.
As the book opens, protagonist Hawk (A. Gavin Byrd) is piloting his souped-up single engine plane around the pylons at a make-shift race course in the southern California desert, only a few dozen feet off the ground, pushing two hundred miles per hour. The first page is full of aviation terminology and slang that might as well have been gibberish, given my complete ignorance of the subject. I got the general idea of what was happening, but still, my spirits plummeted. If the whole book is this technical, I’m going to hate it, I thought.
Fortunately, this assessment turned out to be totally wrong. I loved this novel, for a raft of reasons that I’ll detail below.
In Racing the Dream, M.T. Bass has brought to vivid life both a niche sub-culture and a moment in history. Practically every character in the book lives to fly. The only exceptions are the talented engineers who build, repair and customize the planes: Father Bob, an ex-priest who’s the aeronautical genius behind Hawk’s bird, and grumpy, hulking Sparks, their mechanic.
For the characters in this book, planes are more than a hobby; they’re almost an obsession. These people are extreme. In fact they’re more than a little bit crazy. Still, you have to admire their guts and their passion. They’re fiercely competitive but nevertheless respect their fellow fanatics.
At least half the book, I’d estimate, involves flying – not just the racers but also the bi-plane used by the lovely Allison for her wing-walking act. Yes, wing-walking is exactly what it sounds like. Allison climbs out of the open cockpit of the plane as it is swooping over the crowd at an air show, to do poses and acrobatics on the wings – stunts like hanging upside down with her arms outstretched, her legs wrapped around the wing struts. Obviously insane, but thrilling as well. Hawk understands; indeed, he becomes her pilot.
Hawk and Allison develop a relationship based as much on their mutual love of flying as their physical attraction. The powerful connection between them provides a welcome counterpoint to constant sense of danger as Hawk and his friends continue to push the envelope.
Racing the Dream is set in southern California in the early nineteen sixties. I lived in LA about fifteen years later, and based on that experience, I’d say that M.T. Bass got it right. Norm’s Diner and donut shops, wood-paneled station wagons and surfers, Muscle Beach and Malibu, Airstream RVs and ‘62 Corvettes. The book has the feel of the period, the exuberance and the innocence, before Vietnam and the moon shot, hippies and student riots.
The interactions between the characters often seem casual and light-hearted. However, the author gives us bits and pieces of history that make it clear that Hawk, Father Bob and Scotty have been through some dark and dangerous times together. Racing the Dream is in fact the third book in the White Hawk Aviation series. When you’re writing a series, it’s really difficult to provide enough back story to support the current book, without going overboard. I truly applaud the author’s skill in weaving hints about previous events into the story, deepening the characterization without doing an information dump.
And what about all the technical jargon? I basically discovered I could ignore it. It’s not necessary to understand every detail:
And we rolled forward heading to the runway, Allison’s head swiveling left and right clearing the wingtips as we taxied slowly out onto the apron. She gently S-turned us to the runup area where she
checked the controls, instruments, fuel, and trim. The radial wound up to 1400 RPM and she confirmed the left and right magnetos operational. Engine back to 700.
“Stearman Five-Two-One-Delta-Mike, ready at One-Six Left. Departing north,” Allison radioed.
I have no idea what the trim or the radial or the magnetos are. I imagine that a reader who did would enjoy this book even more than I did.
Meanwhile, I’m sufficiently hooked that I’m thinking of getting hold of the earlier books in the series. I think M.T. Bass cares about flying, and about these characters. That made me care, too.
As the book opens, protagonist Hawk (A. Gavin Byrd) is piloting his souped-up single engine plane around the pylons at a make-shift race course in the southern California desert, only a few dozen feet off the ground, pushing two hundred miles per hour. The first page is full of aviation terminology and slang that might as well have been gibberish, given my complete ignorance of the subject. I got the general idea of what was happening, but still, my spirits plummeted. If the whole book is this technical, I’m going to hate it, I thought.
Fortunately, this assessment turned out to be totally wrong. I loved this novel, for a raft of reasons that I’ll detail below.
In Racing the Dream, M.T. Bass has brought to vivid life both a niche sub-culture and a moment in history. Practically every character in the book lives to fly. The only exceptions are the talented engineers who build, repair and customize the planes: Father Bob, an ex-priest who’s the aeronautical genius behind Hawk’s bird, and grumpy, hulking Sparks, their mechanic.
For the characters in this book, planes are more than a hobby; they’re almost an obsession. These people are extreme. In fact they’re more than a little bit crazy. Still, you have to admire their guts and their passion. They’re fiercely competitive but nevertheless respect their fellow fanatics.
At least half the book, I’d estimate, involves flying – not just the racers but also the bi-plane used by the lovely Allison for her wing-walking act. Yes, wing-walking is exactly what it sounds like. Allison climbs out of the open cockpit of the plane as it is swooping over the crowd at an air show, to do poses and acrobatics on the wings – stunts like hanging upside down with her arms outstretched, her legs wrapped around the wing struts. Obviously insane, but thrilling as well. Hawk understands; indeed, he becomes her pilot.
Hawk and Allison develop a relationship based as much on their mutual love of flying as their physical attraction. The powerful connection between them provides a welcome counterpoint to constant sense of danger as Hawk and his friends continue to push the envelope.
Racing the Dream is set in southern California in the early nineteen sixties. I lived in LA about fifteen years later, and based on that experience, I’d say that M.T. Bass got it right. Norm’s Diner and donut shops, wood-paneled station wagons and surfers, Muscle Beach and Malibu, Airstream RVs and ‘62 Corvettes. The book has the feel of the period, the exuberance and the innocence, before Vietnam and the moon shot, hippies and student riots.
The interactions between the characters often seem casual and light-hearted. However, the author gives us bits and pieces of history that make it clear that Hawk, Father Bob and Scotty have been through some dark and dangerous times together. Racing the Dream is in fact the third book in the White Hawk Aviation series. When you’re writing a series, it’s really difficult to provide enough back story to support the current book, without going overboard. I truly applaud the author’s skill in weaving hints about previous events into the story, deepening the characterization without doing an information dump.
And what about all the technical jargon? I basically discovered I could ignore it. It’s not necessary to understand every detail:
And we rolled forward heading to the runway, Allison’s head swiveling left and right clearing the wingtips as we taxied slowly out onto the apron. She gently S-turned us to the runup area where she
checked the controls, instruments, fuel, and trim. The radial wound up to 1400 RPM and she confirmed the left and right magnetos operational. Engine back to 700.
“Stearman Five-Two-One-Delta-Mike, ready at One-Six Left. Departing north,” Allison radioed.
I have no idea what the trim or the radial or the magnetos are. I imagine that a reader who did would enjoy this book even more than I did.
Meanwhile, I’m sufficiently hooked that I’m thinking of getting hold of the earlier books in the series. I think M.T. Bass cares about flying, and about these characters. That made me care, too.
November 7, 2023
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.
I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from the author through Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tours.
October 30, 2023
Racing the Dream is a little outside my wheelhouse, or so I thought. I don't mind admitting I picked this one up for the nostalgia of the premise more than anything else. My late husband loved all things air travel. Me, not so much. I prefer to keep my feet on the ground, but after years of hearing his enthusiasm for planes, I was still surprised at how many things I remembered. Several times, I thought how much he'd have liked this book.
Then I realized how much I was liking this book. M.T. Bass has a unique voice for storytelling. I was drawn into the excitement and competition of the races and the camaraderie of these friends. Bass manages to make the adrenaline almost palpable, and I was so caught up in the story that I didn't realize how much time had passed until I was turning the last page.
So, set some time aside and settle in for an exciting read because you don't want to miss this one.
Then I realized how much I was liking this book. M.T. Bass has a unique voice for storytelling. I was drawn into the excitement and competition of the races and the camaraderie of these friends. Bass manages to make the adrenaline almost palpable, and I was so caught up in the story that I didn't realize how much time had passed until I was turning the last page.
So, set some time aside and settle in for an exciting read because you don't want to miss this one.
September 16, 2023
I did not know I could get so invested in a story about racing planes. I was intrigued by the blurb, but the story itself blew me away. Bass managed to get my heart racing, and I felt like I was flying right along with Hawk. I don't know how he does it, but Bass somehow manages to make the adrenaline and excitement ooze off the page. The characters are unforgettable, and I loved getting lost in the pages as they pursue their dreams. I will admit, before reading this, I didn't know competitive air racing was a thing - but this did inspire me to dive into a rabbit hole of research, and I have to say Bass did an excellent job of capturing it all. A brilliant, heart racing adventure that moves along smoothly and quickly from cover to cover, you don't want to miss this book!
October 24, 2023
I liked this one folks. If you have ever seen Disney's Planes the book reminds me of that as it's about planes too, even though the planes aren't doing the driving and talking in this book;)
This book is about planes in the 1960's and a flyer named Hawk. He meets Allison who is another flyer as well, and Hawk instantly likes her. Allison is a bit famous from a movie in the 1960's. And then there is Father Bob, who takes care of Hawke's plane. He and Scotty provide a bit of comic relief in the book. I liked the group dynamic between the three guys.
I have to recommend this one for action paced readers who love planes and also people who are interested in competition based aircraft racing!
This book is about planes in the 1960's and a flyer named Hawk. He meets Allison who is another flyer as well, and Hawk instantly likes her. Allison is a bit famous from a movie in the 1960's. And then there is Father Bob, who takes care of Hawke's plane. He and Scotty provide a bit of comic relief in the book. I liked the group dynamic between the three guys.
I have to recommend this one for action paced readers who love planes and also people who are interested in competition based aircraft racing!
November 15, 2023
We’re thrown right into the action and get a feel for what it’s like to fly a plane. Readers get an inside view into flight culture and the people who live this life. The book is filled with realistic airplane talk and dialogue that fits the times. The story feels vintage.
Scotty, a pilot, starts dating Alison, and they work well together. The supporting characters complement them and the story in a way that makes the scenes comes to life.
The characters have things to overcome, but it’s not a high-tension novel. It’s more of appreciating what it would be like to be in a certain time and place, with a certain crowd. Be prepared to enjoy a lot of flight talk and action.
Scotty, a pilot, starts dating Alison, and they work well together. The supporting characters complement them and the story in a way that makes the scenes comes to life.
The characters have things to overcome, but it’s not a high-tension novel. It’s more of appreciating what it would be like to be in a certain time and place, with a certain crowd. Be prepared to enjoy a lot of flight talk and action.
October 19, 2023
"Racing the Dream" is a page-turner that offers a captivating glimpse into the world of air racing in the 1960s. It's a tale of passion, speed, and dreams as big as the sky.
Whether you're an aviation enthusiast or simply looking for an action-packed adventure with well-drawn characters, this book offers something.
M.T. Bass has delivered a winning combination of adrenaline and heart in this compelling narrative, and it's a story that will leave readers yearning for more.
Please read my full review at https://ginaraemitchell.com
Whether you're an aviation enthusiast or simply looking for an action-packed adventure with well-drawn characters, this book offers something.
M.T. Bass has delivered a winning combination of adrenaline and heart in this compelling narrative, and it's a story that will leave readers yearning for more.
Please read my full review at https://ginaraemitchell.com
February 26, 2025
Racing the Dream by MT Bass is another book that spans genres. It's a mix of historical fiction, romance, and suspense - and if you are like me, you are going to enjoy it!
Hawk is a WWII fighter pilot turned air racer who starts on a simple course near his airport and ends up racing in the first National Air Racing Championship. His engineer, Father Bob, has been with Hawk since a mishap in the Congo, along with his mechanic, Sparks. The three of them work to get as much speed as they can out of Hawk's racer.
But let's talk about the romance and the suspense. Hawk meets Allison, an official wing-walker and surfer girl. Blonde, beautiful, and daring, she sweeps Hawk off his feet, and he'll do anything for her - including becoming a pilot for the show.
As to the suspense, that comes in the form of Hawk's nemesis - another pilot who wants to win. However, this pilot is willing to win at any cost. Could the cost be Hawk's plane? Or worse, his life?
I learned a lot about air racing, wing walking, and flying low, fast, and turning left. Enjoy the book!
Hawk is a WWII fighter pilot turned air racer who starts on a simple course near his airport and ends up racing in the first National Air Racing Championship. His engineer, Father Bob, has been with Hawk since a mishap in the Congo, along with his mechanic, Sparks. The three of them work to get as much speed as they can out of Hawk's racer.
But let's talk about the romance and the suspense. Hawk meets Allison, an official wing-walker and surfer girl. Blonde, beautiful, and daring, she sweeps Hawk off his feet, and he'll do anything for her - including becoming a pilot for the show.
As to the suspense, that comes in the form of Hawk's nemesis - another pilot who wants to win. However, this pilot is willing to win at any cost. Could the cost be Hawk's plane? Or worse, his life?
I learned a lot about air racing, wing walking, and flying low, fast, and turning left. Enjoy the book!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews