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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (July 1, 2004)
6 JULY 1, 2004 Smoke Signals Racing Family Deals With The Danger, Looks For More Speed I Shandy brothers and Darryl Blanchard are racing this season to honor the late Merle Leno. ByPetaTinda Dale Earnhardt was once heard to say: "You win some, lose some and wreck some." Tribal members Todd Shandy, Gregg Shandy and Darryl Blanchard know the truth to these words. On any weekend they might experience the thrill of victory, or the agony of crashing into a wall at 70 miles-per-hour. The three usually race in at the Willamette Mo tor Speedway in Lebanon, a third of a mile clay-dirt track. A loyal following of friends and family come out every weekend to watch. Todd is the veteran, with 20 years behind the wheel. He grew up watch ing his dad race cars in Salem. Tve been doing it a long, long time," he said. "I started because I liked cars and I liked to go fast." His younger brother, Gregg, does it mostly for the adrenaline. He has been racing for about 5 years. Blanchard just started racing, "I'm a 44-year old rookie," he said, but has already won his first checkered flag. They race specially designed cars with high-compression, all-aluminum motors that put out more than 400 horsepower. Each car is custom-built, with the chassis made out of steel tubing and the body covered with lightweight sheet metal. They run aluminum heads, steel crankshafts and high perfor mance pistons. The cars use high-temperature cool ant and burn 110-octane gasoline, which would fry the motor in your av erage Honda. The cars are equipped with racing transmissions that have a direct drive 1-to-l ratio, which means that each time the motor turns, so do the wheels, with no loss of horsepower. And each has a driver that, deep down inside, wants to win more than anything. All of this adds up to an incredibly intense day at the races with cars U-cr1'":1',: I 1 The Need For Speed Tribal member Todd Shandy's 09 car barrels down the straightaway at Willamette Motor Speedway in Lebanon. Shandy is in the SuperSport class and has been racing for 20 years. He is sponsored by Spirit Mountain Casino. : Photos by Peta Tinda 7n 4, such support from friends and family, none of them could make it to the next race. Recently, when Todd's car needed work, his wife Tammy and their daughters, Mariah and Shilo, were out the next day helping pull the motor. Spirit Mountain Casino sponsors Todd, who has a huge vinyl decal with the Spirit Mountain logo on the hood of his car. "People are always coming up and saying they help sponsor me because they go to the casino," he said. Blanchard is looking to get spon sored. The sponsorship goes a long way towards keeping the car running for the next race. "It's pretty cool to watch," said Mariah Shandy, an 1 1-year old who can change oil and put in pop rivets. Talented Rookie Tribal member Darryl Blanchard with his 75x car. Despite the fact that he is in his rookie season of racing cars, Blanchard has already won his first checkered flag. Blachard dedicated his car this season to the memory of the late Tribal Elder Merle Leno. "1 j.t, ipw.-j., y I ' ""., '..11."' " In Honor Tribal member Gregg Shandy dedicated his racing car to honor all Veterans. screaming at full throttle around the impossibly small track, so close you feel the rush of wind as they pass by. Insanely close passes and spin-outs on the banked turns are the order of the day. And crashes, though infre quent, do happen. Blanchard can attest to this. "It was my first race ever," he said. 'They put the slow guys out in front. The race started and I moved to the outside wall. One guy lost it and crashed right into my car. He was doing 60-plus miles per hour when he hit me. Then I hit the wall. It rung my bell hard, but I was okay." They put in long hours working on the cars, which frequently are dam aged in the close-quarter, bump-and-rub races. With 16 cars on the track, there's not a lot of room to maneuver. The drivers must be very aggressive, al ways looking for the opportunity to make a pass. It's all part of racing. "There's not really anything I like to lose at," said Todd. "I'm a very com petitive person." One longtime fan was the late Tribal Elder Merle Leno, who went to every race. He and Elder Donna Casey sat together. "He (Merle) was always a pretty good predictor of who was going to win," said Casey. "Even though he had to use a cane, he always came to the races." Leno would often help the out with gas or tires or money to enter the next heat. "Merle was a really good supporter of mine," said Todd. "One time, he walked clear across the race track... It's a long walk. We were standing there talking and he went to go shake my hand and slipped me some money. He was always do ing things like that." After Leno passed on, Todd and Blanchard dedicated their cars to his memory. All three will tell you that without f ' ' """" ' 4 Sugar Daddy When Tribal member Todd Shandy wins a race, he takes the family out for ice cream. She goes to all of her dad's races. "It's kind of intense," she said. "When he wins, I'm like, 'wow, that's my dad.' He gets really happy." When Todd wins, he takes the whole family out for ice cream. The kids get to order whatever they want. Mariah's favorite is a banana split. E3
