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