Smoke Signals 5
AUGUST 1,2009
TribaD mmeinmlbeirs duase speed iitiseDff
Blanchard, Shandy
hooked on racing
By Ron Karten
Smoke Signals staff writer
For Tribal member Darryl
Blanchard, 49, racing quenches
his thirst for speed.
"I can go as fast as I want and I
ain't going to get a ticket," he says
the day before his recent race at
Willamette Speedway in Lebanon.
For Tribal member Todd Shandy,
45, who has been racing "on and
off for 20 years," it's the mechanic
end of things that draws him to the
sport, but it's the racing that keeps
him coming back.
"I like to build things," Shandy
says. "Making the bodies is pretty
cool. And when that thing runs,
when you're out there, you don't
think about anything else. You
don't hear anything else. And you're
just going as fast as you can."
Races are held on Saturdays,
April through September, with
time trials at 2:30 p.m. and races
starting at 6 p.m.
Blanchard's been at it for six
years now.
"I came over and watched (Tribal
member) Todd (Shandy) and a
couple of my other friends over
there racing, so I thought, 'I'll join
them,' " Blanchard says.
Five classes of cars compete:
Outlaw, Super Sport, Sportsman,
Classic and Modified. Shandy
races Outlaw; Blanchard, Super
Sport. Before the full-sized cars,
Blanchard used to race one-eighth
scale remote-controlled cars.
"They ran on alcohol and nitro," he
says, "and were very, very fast."
The day of the races starts early in
the morning, says Tammy Shandy,
Todd's wife, with final maintenance
work on the car before heading off
to the track. The cars are unloaded,
the track gets watered and then
come time trials and races.
Cars, costing more than $30,000 a
pop at the Outlaw level, are daunt
ing obstacles for almost any racer.
Even in the Super Sport class,
Blanchard says, "What we got in
our whole car is what some of these
.
Contributed photos
Tribal member Darryl Blanchard races Super Sport cars at Willamette
Speedway in Lebanon. His mother. Tribal Elder Donna Casey, uses his car
number 75X as her license plate number.
Tribal member Darryl Blanchard
guys have in their motor. But it
ain't all about power. It's a lot to
do with driving and setting the car
for traction."
"You want to stay up on the tech
nology," Shandy says, "because it
changes quite a bit." '
Shandy has been investigating
a new chassis for his car. "You're
looking at about $24,000, and that's
just a rolling chassis without a
motor or transmission. We rebuilt
the motor on ours last year. It was
$2,400. If you change the valves
and springs, you're looking at
$4,000-5,000."
"You've got to work your butt off
on the car, just to keep in conten
tion," Blanchard says.
Blanchard totaled his car ear
lier this sum
mer. The crash (
knocked him
out and his
doctor ordered
three weeks off
from racing.
It didn't
keep him far
off, however.
"We just put
a new body on
it, yesterday,"
he says. He didn't consider the
job finished, however, until the
Spirit Mountain Casino logos were
added.
He adds, though, that the car's
upkeep is continual. "It costs you
paint to pass," he says. "If you go
I can go as fast
as I want and
I ain't going to
get a ticket.
99
Tribal member
Darryl Blanchard
by, they're going to rub their tires
on you, every time.
"Racing. I'm telling you. I love it.
I don't know why. I just love it."
With a fourth-place finish a few
weekends ago, Shandy posted
his best finish yet as an Outlaw
driver.
"I led for 35
of 40 laps," he
says.
Tammy is
quick to add,
however, "When
he used to race
in the Super
Sport division
in previous
years it was a
common occur
rence that he was in the trophy dash
with many first-place finishes in the
Super Sport A Main Events."
And besides any of that. Shandy
says, "It's kind of a family thing. My
mom (Tribal Elder Louise Coulson)
goes. My sister (Mardie Williams)
goes."
His nephew races and his daugh
ter, Tribal member Shiloh Shandy,
20, races.
"She has a car in it, too," Shandy
says. "She has a jalopy, classic, old
Firebird, something easy for her to
get in and drive."
"What do I think of the racingr
says Tribal Elder and Blanchard's
mom Donna Casey. "Just look at my
license plate: 75X MOM."
75X is the number on her son's
car.
"People tell me they sponsor my
car because they gamble at the
casino," Shandy says. "I had this
older lady tell me, 'I was trying to
sponsor you, but I won at the casino
today.' " B
Contributed pfioto
Tribal member Todd Shandy races
Outlaw carl at Willamette Speedway
In Lebanon. His car Is decorated with
Spirit Mountain Casino logos.