News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Race trucks lined Hood Avenue as racers visited sponsor T&T Pizzeria.
On any given Saturday in the summertime, the dirt racetrack at the Madras speedway is alive with mintrucks bumping, sliding and screaming toward the finish line.
The drivers aren't highly-paid professionals soaking up endorsements and prize money. In fact, they're spending a lot of money for the main reward offered in such races: a whole lot of fun.
Last Saturday, three teams of the 18 in the Madras racing field hauled their trucks out to Sisters to pay a visit to a sponsor - T&T Pizzeria. Libby Andresen welcomed the teams with pizza, and the group hung around on the street talking about their rigs with curious passersby.
"T&T Pizzeria sponsors Team Lehman #54 race truck," driver Scott Lehman said.
His wife Rosanne, who keeps Team Lehman running, does the payroll for T&T Pizzeria.
"We have a real nice spot on their tailgate," Andresen said.
Cascade Fitness also sponsors a truck.
The small trucks are not shiny show cars. Their paint isn't always their own, and there aren't too many smooth surfaces. Mark Ford and Bill Marteney brought out their trucks for the visit.
The league is competitive, but it all comes back to fun and a sense of family. Competing teams are usually friends - at least off the track.
"We do 25-lap main events on a quarter-mile track," Scott Lehman said. "There's a lot of bumpin.'"
The four-cyclinder engines set up quite a whine.
"You gear it to where you're tached out as far as you can go for a quarter mile," Lehman said.
The trucks'll do 60 miles per hour down the straights.
Andresen and her kids, who own and operate the pizzeria, have been too busy with work to see the truck they sponsor in action.
"We haven't been able to take a Saturday night, but I'm going to send all three kids out," she said. "There's only three races left."
Lehman summed up the attraction of his sport:
"(It's) fun just getting out there and let your hair down and haul a little butt."
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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