The 2020 IMCA Utah state modified champion Regan Tafoya carries a wrap raising awareness for ovarian cancer. His friend, Heather Samora Beanland, lost her mother, Toni, to the disease.
“I felt an obligation — as a child, as a mother, and as a woman — to bring attention to ovarian cancer,” Beanland, of Farmington, New Mexico, said. “I knew a race car might be one of the best billboards to bring that attention.”
Tafoya used to work with Beanland at Fairgrounds Speedway Cortez in Colorado (see “Back in Action: Fairgrounds Speedway Cortez”). Beanland scored the races while Tafoya once promoted the facility. When Beanland told Tafoya of her dream, he jumped at the opportunity to make it reality.
“It just hit home for us,” said Tafoya, of Farmington, New Mexico. “She’s a fan of IMCA modifieds, and we had a modified. So, we said we would help her.”
WCC Customs, of Bloomfield, New Mexico, donated its labor to wrap Tafoya’s car. A photo of Toni Samora, who passed away in 2019, adorns the wrap.
“I wrapped the car with hopes both men and women would take the time to know and recognize the symptoms of ovarian cancer,” Beanland said. “This is not about raising money, but about simply getting people to take the time to go to the website of the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition and reading about ovarian cancer.
“It is a silent killer. Most women who have it don’t realize it until it is too late.”
Shane Weybright, promoter of Desert Thunder Raceway in Price, Utah (see “Shane Weybright: A New Christian Mission for Track”), helped Beanland raise awareness during the track’s Castle County Clash last September. Tafoya’s car sat inside the entrance to the facility, with Beanland handing out literature to spectators on ovarian cancer.
Then, Regan Tafoya, gave Heather Samora Beanland, a mother of six, a gift.
“He gave my kids the valance from the rear of his car,” Beanland said. “It says, ‘Ovarian Cancer Doesn’t Have a Face Until It’s Someone You Know.’ The wrap hit a home run. It got the message out there and started conversation.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
