Derby Days Article from 2011

Excerpted from the Yamhill Valley News Register archives

Derby Days a family affair
By EDWARD STRATTON

Yamhill couple Johnnie and Doug Rist have three daughters: One a former Derby Days queen, another a princess and the eldest the first female to ever race in the soap box derby.

The Rists represent a smidgen of the multigenerational, 58-year history of Yamhill Derby Days, even without as many - if any - volunteers donning derby hats and canes or families creating homemade floats.

"We used to spend a month in the barn making a float," said Johnnie, who with her family has fashioned a gigantic derby hat, an ice cream social, a whiskey still and an Elvis-inspired 1950s scene - whatever theme parade organizers asked for over the years. "We had some real doozies."

Eldest daughter Teri was crowned the queen about 27 years ago; middle daughter J.J. made it to princess; and youngest daughter Tina first raced a soap box in 1972.

This year's field of 19 racers streamed down the rain-slicked wooden ramp and between the middle of a crowd hundreds strong in Beulah City Park. About half raced homemade cars, while the other half used more aerodynamic kit cars, which burst onto the scene about three years ago.

"We've talked about two separate divisions," said Sharie Belt about the increasing dominance of premade, partially manufactured kit cars. "It used to be about dads building cars with their kids."

Marta Randall, whose daughter Andra Moore became the first female to win the derby in 1993, agreed. Her family spent at least a month building and customizing their rides, sometimes borrowing from other families with derby cars.

"You'd start practicing in May," she said. "You've got your special spray lube, so your wheels go fast."

This year's final ended with two kit car racers - Bryce Kahler and Taylor Reiman - swapping places four times because lane two yielded the faster run nearly every round. Richard Howard, who announced the derby, settled the stalemate with a coin toss, leaving Kahler with the symbolic first place and Reiman - another female trailblazer - with a new bike presented by Derby Days Queen Amy Peterson.

"I probably accumulated a week sitting out there," she said about her raffle ticket-selling strategy that earned her the crown with a record of more than $4,000 in fundraising. The soon-to-be Linn-Benton Community College student and volleyball player is the second in her family to be crowned queen after her mother Susan Tipton 29 years ago.

"We both got crowned July 15," said Peterson. "Now my sister's interested. She's 8 and can't wait to be my age."

Peterson brought up the rear of sports cars carrying the Derby Days court that led Yamhill County's largest parade.

"The theme this year is things that go fast," said parade announcer Murray Paolo. "Hopefully, these clouds go fast."

The overcast weather lingered, but the crowd stayed dry while every part of the community from the fire department to the Midget National 2011 League Champ Y-Cats and supercharged scooters rolled south on Highway 47.

"We could use zero planning on this and there would still be people here the third week in July," said community club organizer Jim Phillips.

He and a core of 15 community club volunteers - ballooned to about 30 during the event - made it happen, in the meantime raising about $6,000 for Beulah City Park, which they're always working on. One need might be re-paving the derby track, which Phillips said would cost about $20,000.

"There's cars in barns everywhere," he said to any interested, potential derby racers. "They just start asking around and find a car."