The Checkered Flag

by William Campbell Gault

Mike Cavanaugh knew what he wanted. Some day that crowd would be cheering for him, and the flashing checkered flag would signal that auto racing had a new champion. He would be one of the great ones.
In the meantime he was going to school, and spending every minute he could manage to steal from books and baseball, at the Jefferson City Fair Grounds where he haunted the pits, or at Tom Gribble's garage where he watched that master mechanic tune up his Gribble Special.
Mike had become friends with Hank Fowler, whose ambition was to be a great mechanic, and who thought that all drivers were somewhat insane, the way they abused their machines. To Hank, the most beautiful music in the world was made by a well-tuned engine.
These were the years of the Great Depression, and Mike wakes up one day to learn that his father has lost his clothing store and has had to go to work at a small salary for the clothing chain that has taken over the business. Hank, whose father is a farmer, has known hard times for several years. It is a great help to the boys when Mr. Gribble asks them to work for him during the summer. Then Tom Gribble is killed driving his Mahler in the Independence Day race. Before he dies he suggests to his wife that the boys run the garage and gas station for her on share. Their parents consent and Mike and Hank become businessmen.
But racing is still their love. Even hank has succumbed to its allure. He retunes the engine of Tom Gribble's Mahler, and with another local boy, Earl Harkness, at the wheel, and Mike as business manager and back-up driver they enter some of the races at the nearby track.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

William Campbell Gault (1910–1995) was a critically acclaimed pulp novelist. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he took seven years to graduate from high school. Though he was part of a juvenile gang, he wrote poetry in his spare time, signing it with a girl’s name lest one of his friends find it. He sold his first story in 1936, and built a great career writing for pulps like Paris Nights, Scarlet Adventures, and the infamous Black Mask. In 1939, Gault quit his job and started writing fulltime.

When the success of his pulps began to fade in the 1950s, Gault turned to longer fiction, winning an Edgar Award for his first mystery, Don’t Cry for Me (1952), which he wrote in twenty-eight days. He created private detectives Brock Callahan and Joe Puma, and also wrote juvenile sports books like Cut-Rate Quarterback (1977) and Wild Willie, Wide Receiver (1974). His final novel was Dead Pigeon (1992), a Brock Callahan mystery.


Series:
* Brock 'The Rock' Callahan
* Joe Puma

Reviews

[Rodney Haydon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another swell Gault juvenile sports story, this one set in the 30's during the depression, and tells not only the story of the type of auto racing of the period but also shows the enthusiasm and work ethic that breeds success.

[Edward · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up when I was twelve, I guess, at a used book sale held by my grade school's library. The marks "F Gau," for "Fiction, Gault" are still on the spine, in Wite-Out. I read it more times than I can recall. Not because I especially liked it, but just because I only had so many books at my disposal.

But cataloging it, I flipped it open to read for a moment, and it was a nostalgic moment even though I never really liked it much, and even though it describes a boyhood completely at odds with my own experiences as a bookish introvert.