Synopsis
Fast cars, faster girls, and a fat paycheck. Trace is finally living the good life.
VOYA
This second title in Will Weaver's Motor Novel series clearly predicts a third. In Saturday Night Dirt (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2008/VOYA June 2008), Trace Bonham was a young stock car driver at a struggling speedway in northern Minnesota. He still drives, but he is now also competing to be chosen as the symbol of Team Blu's campaign to launch an energy drink targeting young teens. Trace is chosen because of his looks and his driving ability—he is the "full package." Suddenly he is thrown into the world of glitzy marketing and his dirt track racing gets kicked up a notch. He meets a new cast of characters, male and female, and his old friends become suspicious of his fame. There is no doubt that Weaver knows his way around stock cars, and he puts the reader in the middle of the action, but the detailed descriptions of the races and car engines become tedious for non-race fans. Still the relationships between the drivers, Trace's estranged parents, the mechanics who work on his "ride," and the strong characterizations propel the story along. There are many questions left unanswered by the last page but there is enough of a story here to eagerly await explanations in the next book. Reviewer: Kathie Fitch