Flat Track |
Loukas Mexis |
A Story about coming of age, love and above all, racing
'On the turns, where you defy physics and velocity beats mass, that’s where winners are made’
Flat track is the essence of motorcycle racing, and the Indy Mile is the place where legends are born and worshipped.
It is the blinding lights that heat up the whole field, turning the atmosphere around the track into a sauna and making skin sweat beneath the leather overalls. It is the thousands of people cheering twenty-five hellishly-fast machines fighting for the number-one plate.
Gunner Adams is still far from all that. He is only twenty-three years old and has just recovered from an accident that cost him his left ankle. His uncle Jim stood by him as he had ever since Gunner’s mother died.
In order to race again, he will have to travel through America alongside Joya, a feisty dark-haired girl, discover the unknown past about his father and learn that when you are on the track you don’t ride for anyone else. Gunner Adams will have to ride for himself.
‘You have the best conversations in life with yourself under these lights, while drifting your way through the competition.’
Links
> Loukas' Sydney's Backyard Opera article
> Loukas' Ask Men article
> Motorcycle Trader book review
Review
'Mexis' debut novel offers an ode to flat-track motorcycle racing.
Soon after Gunner Adams was born, he was abandoned by his father; he was raised by his alcoholic mother in Indiana until her death when he was 12. The Gunner that readers see for the majority of the novel is a troubled 23-year-old living in Santa Rosa, Calif., where he helps his uncle fix motorcycles. He's also an especially talented flat-track motorcyclist, and the sections of the novel in which Gunner muses about racing, or actually races, have vivid imagery and expert insight' - Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
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Loukas Mexis was born in Athens, Greece in 1983, and sixteen years later he rode his first motorcycle. He works as a journalist and is currently a contributor for Askmen of IGN group, as well as a columnist for Agora Dialogue, a Melbourne-based human rights portal. He published his first Greek novel Shoebox in 2010 and his second Shoot Me in 2012.
In 2011 he had an accident while riding his motocross bike which resulted in him losing his left ankle and adding an extra plate and ten pins to his leg. This misfortune fuelled a series of events, recounted in his first English novel Flat Track.
Once able to walk again, he first visited California and then came to Australia thanks to a scholarship. He acquired a MA of Arts in Communication Management at Murdoch University of Western Australia, where he also joined the Australian Café Racers of Perth.
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