The ones who make an incredible impression on us in the sport don’t necessarily steer race cars, as exemplified by the late Cheyenne Vaillant. Four years ago, Cheyenne volunteered to work at Thunder City Speedway. There the track assigned her duties of lining up cars before they hit the track. The role was a perfect fit.
“She always smiled,” hornet driver Selena Owen said. “A kind soul, yet so serious about lining up the cars correctly.”
Selena quickly became friends with Cheyenne.
“She always hyped me up, cheering me on,” Selena said. “When I finally began winning, she celebrated. When I began starting at the back of the pack, she made it a point to walk down the row and give me a number one sign.”
It was her way with people and her duties that confirmed Thunder City Speedway track manager Christine Simpson put the right person in the right place.
“She rose to the occasion,” Christine said. “Her presence was recognized by every racer. She was a wonderful person — kindhearted, down-to-earth, but dedicated to making sure our show ran smoothly.”
Cheyenne didn’t take things too seriously, including herself. Selena recalled Cheyenne doing an embarrassing face-plant in the soft clay while working at nearby Mosquito Speedway.
“She was able to laugh it off, and we joked about it for quite some time,” Selena said. “Her skills at both tracks were badly missed the one or two times she was absent from the track over the past four years. Without her there, it won’t be the same.”
Cheyenne’s life revolved around racing. Her father, Ivan Brady, and brother Dayton Brady both raced. In September 7, 2024, she married Nathan Vaillant at the place she held most dear — the start-finish line of Thunder City Speedway. Cheyenne arrived to the wedding while sitting on the passenger door of her father’s ’57 Chevrolet stock car. She had worked with her father on that project.
“Our daughter’s sweet little heart thrived to be involved in [racing] any way possible,” her father Ivan said on Facebook. “She just wanted to be involved at the racetrack, period, and she got put into a position she was able to make her own and feel like she was making a difference for the sport she loved.”
Cheyenne, 28, lost her life on January 29 in a tragic accident on an ice-covered highway. The racing community will gather on Saturday, February 7, to remember her at Thunder City Speedway. Following that, an 8-mile procession from the track to the Royal Canadian Legion Hall in Kakabeka Falls will take place, along the same highway, Ontario 11/17, where Cheyenne had her fatal accident.
In lieu of sending flowers, the family requested donations to the Caring Hearts Cat Rescue and Sanctuary in Thunder Bay and/or planting a flower in her honor, in a place special to you.
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.
