The Outside Groove

Book excerpt: Casey LaPlante wanted nothing to do with racecar driving. What was so impressive about making a bunch of left turns, one after another? But from what she had seen as the sister of Fliverton’s newest stock-car hero, Wade “the Blade” LaPlante, her whole town was interested in little else. Next to her brother, she felt invisible. Even her parents seemed to ignore her athletic victories and academic successes. With so much of her family’s income being poured into Wade’s racing career, she wasn’t even sure her parents would help pay her college tuition. So one late-April evening, Casey decides to get behind the wheel and claim a little of the attention she had been denied. After all, how hard could racecar driving be? But as the first female driver at Demon’s Run racetrack, she finds getting up to speed more challenging than she’d expected. Casey soon discovers there’s more to stock-car racing than driving around in circles, and more to winning than being first to cross the finish line. Action and suspense run high as Casey navigates some tight corners, on and off the track, showing everyone—especially herself—just what she’s made of.