DIRT BIKE RACER

The basics of minibike ownership-and-racing with some sappy melodramatics on the side. Ron Baker, 12, and his buddy Tony Franco go scuba diving and find a dirt bike, of all things, 50 feet under. (The whole story doesn't bear much scrutiny.) And since the folks who lost it from a houseboat two years back collected insurance, Ron can keep it--with his sportsman father's carefully qualified okay and no opposition from his ideal mom. But he must earn the money to replace its damaged parts, and that's where he has his luckiest strike--the one answer to his ad for lawn-mowing, hedge-trimming jobs comes from elderly, blind Mr. Randolph Perkins, ""the richest guy in Ordell County,"" who just happens to be a one-time bike racer too. Lonely old Mr. Perkins naturally takes a shine to eager, gentlemanly Ron. His spoiled, snotty nephew warns Ron off (why, he can't imagine)--and even, in full daylight, pays a competitor to give Ron trouble on the track. But at least there's no big confrontation-and-exposure scene: Ron just gets good enough, with practice, to hold his own. For kids heavily into minibikes and good at skimming.