It’s a sizzling summer Saturday, and Headwaters Speedway has suddenly become the place to be. Thanks to rainouts across the state, this small-town dirt track is drawing both big-time stock cars and local drivers. There’s Trace Bonham, whose Street Stock Chevy is acting up in a big way. And Beau Kim, whose “stone soup” Modified has been patched together from whatever parts he could scrape up. And no one could forget Amber Jenkins, a strawberry blonde who has what it takes to run rings around them all. Keeping everyone on track is Melody Walters, who knows that the impending rain might be exactly what they need to keep her father’s speedway afloat—or sink it for good. In Will Weaver’s high-revving novel, the first in the Motor series, a cast of car-obsessed teens and adults are all out to prove themselves, both on and off the quarter-mile track, as they move through their day on a collision course to meet on Saturday night dirt. Saturday Night Dirt is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

After a couple of seasons of small-town racing, things are shifting into high gear for a young dirt-track driver with the skills to make it big. Trace Bonham has landed a corporate sponsor and a custom-built dream ride. But this means Trace can no longer pilot his dad’s Street Stock Chevy, and must let a new kid get behind the wheel. It also means having to turn his back on his hometown speedway, which his team leaders think is a hayseed operation not worth their time, even though it’s run by a girl who matters to Trace in a big way. Filled with authentic race-car action and detail, Will Weaver’s fast-paced novel is the story of a boy struggling with the speed and demands of his own success.

Trace Bonham is living large as the teen driver for a pro Super Stock racing team. He's on billboards and on the road instead of stuck in school. And he's blowing away the competition wherever he races. But Trace is worried that those who think his crew is illegally "juicing" his engine may be right. It's up to him to discover what is going on—and what he's going to do about it.