Tess Freeman / The BulletinKylee Pegal, 15, of Brightwood, stretches after pulling herself out of the Sportsman division because of car troubles while her brother, Tyler Pagel, waits to race in the Junior division. Kylee and her brother Tyler share the car and responsibility of maintaining it.

MADRAS — Kylee Pagel has her own car, but she is not allowed to drive it to school or take it out for a spin around her hometown of Brightwood. Neither she nor her car, a red and black ’76 Chevy Camaro, is technically street legal: Pagel is just 15 and has a learner’s permit, while the Camaro has no headlights, windshield or turn signals, among other things.

But at the Madras Speedway, at least, she can drive it — as fast as she likes.

Pagel, who finished her freshman year at Sandy High School on Friday, moved up to the Sportsman division at the Madras Speedway this season after winning the Juniors division two years in a row.

She now races against the grown-ups three or four Saturdays a month, while her 12-year-old brother Tyler takes on a small field of fellow junior racers, most of whom have grown up alongside him at the track.

The siblings have been racing for so long that neither really remembers learning how.

“I just remember starting in peewees. I think we just got in the cars and went,” said Kylee Pagel, describing how she and her brother first started racing their grandfather’s go-karts when she was 8 and Tyler was 5.

Most of the young racers follow the same path, racing smaller and less powerful cage karts at a track in Salem during the spring and then moving on to full-sized cars and the quarter-mile clay racetrack at Madras Speedway once they turn 12.

The cars they race are as often as old as their parents: Chevy El Caminos, Camaros and Novas, many of them rescued from junkyards, rebuilt and passed from one racer to the next. Most have survived a wreck (or five), and by the middle of the afternoon on race day their mustard yellow, electric green and black and red chassis are caked in mud and dust. The only shiny vehicles in sight are the Jefferson County ambulance and fire truck stationed off to the side of the track, just in case.

Many racers get their cars at an annual swap meet held in Albany in January. Johnny Russell, a 15-year-old from Madras and a rare competitor from a non-racing family, says he found his car online (yes, one can purchase a race car on Craigslist).

“I was nervous (about racing a car for the first time), because with my cage kart I’ve flipped and crashed,” said Samantha Packard, a 12-year-old from Bend who now races her own Camaro. “I was nervous about wrecking the car, because it wasn’t mine. But once I got on the track I was excited and wasn’t nervous.”

Just like the adults, the juniors race 10 “hot laps” in the afternoon and finish the evening with a 20-lap “main event,” in which they reach speeds of up to 60 miles an hour. The cars kick up dirt as they roar around the corners of the track, spraying the onlookers on the other side of the chain-link fence with flecks of clay.

“It’s nerve-wracking; there’s a lot of adrenaline,” Cheyenne McDonald, a 14-year-old from Bend, said when describing the start of a race. “I have to eat before my main or I black out.”

McDonald, who drives a powder blue and white Nova emblazoned with a yellow 177, led the first lap of the Main Event on Saturday until she was passed by 12-year-old Hunter Johnson, of Gresham, in the No. 99 car. Andrew Short, a 13-year-old from Madras driving a yellow and purple El Camino, tapped Johnson on the bumper and passed him on the next lap to take the lead for good.

Each victory is worth 100 points in the season standings, and the win put Short in first place in the field of eight junior cars.

Engine trouble is the biggest obstacle to a good day at the track (Kylee and Tyler, who were sharing Kylee’s Camaro, had their day interrupted by a broken U bolt on the driveline), but crashes are also a constant concern.

“You could spin out, or get hit,” Russell said.

“Or someone’s tire could try and high-five your face,” Kylee Pagel added. (That is not a hypothetical situation — several weekends ago a competitor’s tire flew off and bounced off another car before hitting her window net.)

Jennifer Packard, Samantha’s mother, said racing parents just learn to deal with the worry.

“I always strap her in before she goes out on the track in anything,” said Packard. “As racers, you have to know that they’re going to be OK, but you’re going to have anxiety no matter what.”

Parental anxiety aside, Packard, whose parents have owned the Madras Speedway for 16 years, says she would never try to keep Samantha from racing.

“I always wanted her to race,” Jennifer Packard said. “Ever since she was born, I was like, ‘I can’t wait until you’re old enough to race.’”

As for racing and safety tips, the junior drivers have plenty. Do not wrap your thumbs around the steering wheel, as they could get caught and broken during a crash. Hydration is key — the temperature easily reaches 90 degrees in Madras during the summer, and working close to engines while wearing fire-resistant suits exacerbates the heat. Rude hand gestures are not allowed (even if some of the adult racers use them in their races).

Some lessons even apply off the track.

“Drive with your head, not your feelings,” Cheyenne McDonald suggested.

Maybe the racetrack isn’t such a bad place to learn how to drive.

— Reporter: 541-383-0305, vjacobsen@bendbulletin.com

“I was nervous (about racing a car for the first time), because with my cage kart I’ve flipped and crashed. I was nervous about wrecking the car, because it wasn’t mine. But once I got on the track I was excited and wasn’t nervous.” — Samantha Packard, 
12, from Bend