The co-authors of a new novel with a racing theme will here this weekend as part of the “White Liquor and Dirt Tracks” celebration of the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History.

Sharyn McCrumb and Adam Edwards, who has been a race car driver himself, will present a program at the Downtown Cinema Theatre Saturday at 4:30 p.m.

McCrumb and Edwards co-wrote “Faster Pastor,” described as a “wild and funny story” set in the South which is “full of action and memorable characters.”

The two combined for the project after meeting on a tour for an earlier book written by McCrumb with a NASCAR theme, “St. Dale.” McCrumb won a Library of Virginia award for that novel, which was featured at the 2006 National Festival of the Book.

Along with being fellow alumni of Virginia Tech, McCrumb’s and Edwards’ shared love of racing led to their launching an ongoing correspondence on the sport which in turned spawned another novel by McCrumb called “Once Around the Track.”

Edwards, who has driven in the ARCA Remax national racing series, served as the model for the character Tony Lafon in “Once Around the Track.” He also has managed and spotted for a NASCAR team and worked as a race driving instructor for the Fast Track School of Racing.

McCrumb, meanwhile, had specialized in Appalachian ballad novels, including the New York Times best-sellers “She Walks These Hills” and “The Ballad of Frankie Silver.”

After Edwards gave McCrumb technical advice during the writing of “Once Around the Track,” McCrumb suggested that the pair try to write a novel together, loosely based on Edwards’ experiences teaching race car driving.

The plot for the novel concerns Camber Berkley, a young stock car driver who wrecks his vehicle on a winding mountain road, landing right in the midst of the funeral for an elderly NASCAR fan.

As punishment for his spectacular car wreck, the local authorities of the small Tennessee town of Judas Grove give Berkley a choice: serve three months in jail for reckless driving, or spend two weeks teaching local ministers to drive stock cars. This is so they can compete in a race whose prize is a $2 million legacy left by the deceased NASCAR fan.

McCrumb and Edwards completed the book through a process by which each would write 1,000 words and send them to the other by email to pen the next 1,000. “We kept going and in a year’s time we had finished ‘Faster Pastor’” and located a publisher, McCrumb said.

The book will be printed by Ingalls Publishing Group in April, but copies are to be available at the co-authors’ program in Mount Airy Saturday. The two will be touring at book festivals and regional book sellers this year, including the South Carolina Book Festival in February.