My name is Shyanne Chloe’ Bailey; I am a female drag racer from Deer Lodge Montana. I am currently 23 years old, and reside in the Southern portion of Michigan. I am driven by three things in life, first and always the good Lord above, my dreams, and loud fast cars.

A favorite quote of mine is by R. Mcentire and it reads as follows: “To succeed in life you need three things, A wish bone, A Backbone, and A Funny bone”. I feel personally you can apply that to any aspect in life. I choose to apply that to racing as racing encloses my each and every day. My wish and goal with racing is to continue on in the footsteps of the greats, keeping the heart, soul, and appreciation for this sport. I have learned over the years, it is not for the faint of heart. I have come to meet many good people, some of which I have grown to know as close as family. With that being said I have met many people who just race as a hobby, as one might do fishing on a Sunday morning. For the rest of us, we know this is not a hobby, not something to do once in awhile on a weekend, but rather a lifestyle. The countless hours spent prepping, building the car, looking over every tiny detail, searching for anything that could fail or that may give you a leg up. The hours spent on the road, the miles on your truck, and your heart as its sheer passion that is driving you to push another 10 hours so you can make it to the next track by day break in time for time trials. It’s the weddings missed, holidays, birthdays that are held on the weekends that no one can understand your lack of presence. Some call is selfish, I can’t explain how many times I have been called crazy, out of my mind, as most will never understand the love of the game. What I understand, is what it actually takes to make it to the top, and even what’s beyond that.

The Car Its self/ Purchasing

In 2021 I bought a 1979 Camaro, with no interior, no floors, a rotted frame, no engine or transmission, bare bones rusty shell with 4 dry rotted tires. Many ask why that car spoke to me, and why I decided a Camaro at all. My answers to that question is quite simple, “ It smiled at me”. When I seen the front clip on this tattered beated rust bucket, the only thing not deteriorated was the clip where I seen what looked to be 2 eyes ( headlights) and a big ol’ beaky nose, with the crookedest wide smile ever ever seen on a car. It was then I knew what I wanted; If only then I understood what I was in for. Middle of winter in Ohio I picked the car up, and brought it back to Michigan and let it thaw out until spring. I had no garage, no money, no parts, and honestly no idea how this was gonna happen. The one thing I did have, was a God lit fire inside of me knowing what I wanted, I had the want and the back bone to do the work I needed to do. As spring came around, I was able to use a hoist in my neighbors garage and get the car in the air. As a mechanic I will say, I have seen people lift some fairly sketchy cars, it takes a lot for me to say something is not safe in this industry, but I quickly realized this car was not safe to lift. In the moment, I did what I deemed necessary to get the car up, and after some welding and reinforcements, I was able to finally get it in the air without concern of the frame breaking in half over top of my head. I sure as heck wasn't going to let this car kill me before the journey had even begun. From this point, I did some research on frames, and roll cages, I needed a base to work with. It was during this research that I discovered S&W racecars in Pensilvania. Without hesitation, I made the call and met a great man who I call Mr. Lee. I told him who I was, and what I wanted. He gave me an estimate for the price of pre-cut metal for the cage and back half chassis for my 79 Camaro. No more then $20 in my bank account, without even thinking I told him to make it for me. In that moment I trusted God would show me the way, if it was meant to be me building this car, then He would provide me a way to pay for it or give me work to do to make the money. Working full time at my job, my nights were filled with research and ideas for this car. At this point in time, my daily driver was no longer reliable to get me back n fourth to work, and another opportunity came about for me to buy a $30,000 truck. Had I mentioned yet I was still pennyless, and counting change to pay for gas to get to work and back. I felt it again though.. this gut feeling, that this was what I needed to have. The same feeling I had about this Camaro, I had about this truck. I prayed about it endlessly, I went from one bank to another, and another, until finally, one bank decided to take a chance and give me a loan! With no credit score, no previous history, This is where I like to take a step back and just take in the fact that whenever I have ever truly given things up to God, and trusted His plan, over my own, He never fails. God always provides a way, and in this case he made the impossible, possible. Once again, I spent all my money to go and pick up this truck, a beautiful 2011 6.7L Diesel. ( whom I call Ms. Loretta ) While I was finishing up with the bank, they offered to give me a credit card as well for opening an account with them to help me build credit for the first time. Looking back now, there was most definitely better ways to use this advantage, yet in the moment I had one thing on my mind.. race car parts! Now I’m not saying God gave me money, or that he wanted me to buy the things I did, but what I am saying is God puts opportunity’s in our lives and if its a part of His plan, and we trust Him, He will make evident a way for those things to come into play. This bank just made things click in my brain, and I thought about things the whole way home. I knew where the metal was, and I had received the call 2 days prior that my metal pieces were ready for pickup from S&W race cars in Pensilvania.

The Chassis/ Purchasing Adventure!

That night as I tried to go to sleep, I could not stand the idea of waiting to go get that metal! I had my new credit card burning a hole in my pocket, and made the choice at 2 a.m. to drive 18.5 hours, by myself, somewhere I’d never been before, in a brand new truck that had No Plates, No registration, just insurance that I called on the day I drove her home.. I placed all my hopes in this little piece of plastic, and prayed it would work when I got there. Crazy? slightly.. Dumb? Absolutely... Irresponsible? Depends on if you asked me in that moment or now looking back at it.. Real question, Was it totally worth it? Hell Yes!

Continuing on with my days after I got the metal home, I decided to teach myself how to weld. As time went on, I determined just how to be a great welder, and that is to be a better grinder, and find a friend who can actually weld. Lucky enough for me, I have a friend who is an amazing fabricator. Currently he is making trailers from the ground up for a very large company I am not at liberty to say. We decided to cut a deal for the both of us, being that he knew fabrication extremely well, and I know the mechanical side of things, we landed on the idea of him doing the welding, and I would build him an sbc engine for his el camino. I was extremely timid as this process began as I had done mechanics for 5 years, not fabrication. Sure I had mig welded the occasional rusty exhaust back together, but measuring and building an entire frame for a car with a roll cage seemed beyond me. Granted, there’s one thing I know that my dad engrained into me and that is how to work. I don’t mean just break a good sweat, I mean work your mind, push your body limits, no sleep, complete obsession with the job you're doing until it is done, and done right. I have had days with this car where I come home shaking due to my muscles being so tired, where my brain is so overloaded it turns to mush, days when I have bled more then I had sweat. With that being said though, it has became prominent to me that if you work when your heart and mind isn’t 110% in, you will do more harm than good. This was no cookie cutter puzzle, there were no directions to this build, simply ideas, trial, and error. A tip that has stuck with my for years as my father would say, “ there is no failing, you just find a hundred ways something won’t work, but you're never failing”. I quote literally could not “afford” to mess things up, although that was inevitable. While still persueing my racing career on the weekends driving someone else’s car, I was able to talk to the racing community and get ideas I needed to know exactly how I wanted my own car. This also allowed me to gain some financials as I blessed enough to get some wins under my belt. I also had made friends with people in the welding department at my place of work who had access to a jig table. What I would tack, they would weld much better then what I myself could do. When it came to aligning the front frame section to my new wide tubbed back half, I used the resources I had at the time which happened to be chalk string and hairspray. Underrated materials became my bet friend, as I was able to make measurements and align things, the hairspray would hold the chalk in place. As I ruined many floors with burn marks and chalky hairspray mess, the end drew closer and I could finally see this car coming together! The time came to take the body off of what was left of the car, and place it onto my newly built chassis! At this point, people really thought I was crazy.. I had no wheels to put on the back as I had no rear end, no axles, and a full metal bodied car. People had said I would need to go fiberglass to make things fit, they said it was impossible, a waste of time and money. The great thing is, they didn’t need to understand me or what I was doing, that was between me and God. I knew God wanted to use my racing to glorify Him and for others to see what He could do in peoples lives, so here I am, a living example of just how amazing our God truly is.

Recall earlier the quote there’s no such thing as failing? Boy did I find out about 50 ways this body was not fitting onto this chassis I built.. Oh, and that I had made it 1ft too long. Cutting it back a part made me question a lot, but I went through with it and trusted that it would be okay, and I sure am glad I didn't give up back then. Totaling 8 months later, ( first build, give me a break) I had the body on my new chassis! With wheel barrel wheels holding this rickety car off the ground so I could save up enough money to buy the rear end, axles, wheels, and tires.

Core foundation/ Engine

The money came with time and working two jobs to get by. I acquired a Ford 9” from S&W racecars, having it shipped to me this time, along with 35 spline axles and wheel tubs. The total inner diameter from frame to frame is 26’ apart in the rear. Granted I knew from the beginning that I wanted a Big tire car, and in this case, I needed some big tires to make it stand out and actually fit this mold I had created. I went with racestar wheels, and a set of used Mickey Thompsons for the time being. I started getting many parts from summit racing, jags, and Speedway motors. At this point I am sure well over a half years salary has gone to these companies.

When it comes to the engine, I along with many racers will leave out certain parts to my stewed up internals. Yet I will say, I was blessed to come upon an original bowtie 350 block, with a 400 crank. I had a very good friend of mine give me the bare block and the pieces they had acquired over the years for this race motor, and I ran with it. I got my block bored with new plugs done at chucks engine exchange in Westland. (Very great guy, extremely knowledgable, I learned a lot from him) Unfortunately they went out of Business this last April. I did research on Holley EFI sniper kits, and intakes, and decided to go with that as well. Accompanied by a 350 turbo trans I had rebuilt for a family “discount” from friends I raced with and great people for that matter. Darrel and Lou from Accurate Transmissions in Bellville Mi. Through this journey racing at the track every weekend, I have met many amazing people who are closer then some family, and it truly is beautiful to see just how helpful some are when they see an up and coming racer in need.

Paint& Sponsors

Now that I had my car together, it became time to make her look a little more better than how she was. Still balling on a budget, I did what I believe would make my hero’s from “roadkill” and “vice grip garage” proud. I went to Walmart and bought as much white spray paint as they had, then went back a week later and bought more! Along with white, I had to buy some glitter to really make her *shine*! I acquired sponsors along the way as well, my first and biggest sponsor being Cisco Tool located in Saline MI. Secondly Auto Value in Ypsilanti MI, and All Seasons Construction in Tipton MI.

Car storage/Workplace

Throughout this entire process, and continuing forward to today, I still have no garage. No big snap on tool box full of all the tools Id ever need, and still no “how to” book on this build or the beautiful thing we call life. I do have two car tents that I work out of and have built this entire car from. Yes, 20x8ft harbor freight car tents. Outside with the bees, spiders, and ants, rain snow or shine, two extension cords ran from my little house to power a fan and heater that’s just small enough it won’t burn the place down. I have been stung, bitten, gotten frostbite on my fingers, criticized, laughed at and much more. I have been asked if I could’ve changed things from the beginning looking back with the things I know now, would I of done things different? The answer is simple, I wouldn't;t of changed a damn thing. The time I have spent in my car tent with my dog, has been my time with God. It is my safe place, my escape to shut out the world when it becomes to overwhelming. My journey has been one of a kind, and there is so much more I could share, yet I will leave you with this note. NONE of my success would be possible without God who I will forever give all Glory too. Secondly, my father Ed Bailey who has believed in me since day One, ALWAYS supporting and helping me, even from Montana where he resides. It only takes one person to believe in you, and until the day I die, my papa is that person. Lastly, a team of people, and please hear me out on this. You will have people who make you the laughing stock and judge your every move, you will need these people to make you stronger and motivated by the want to prove them wrong. You will have those who become your friends and help you out with parts and connections from borrowed tools to places to buy things, or even making deals and giving you a bare block to work with. With all of that and a hell of a lot of grit, you DON’T need the money up front, you DON’T need the support system, you DON’T need to know what you're doing and you DON’T need to be the most talented! IT WILL COME WITH TIME AND EXPIERENCE AND PATIENCE. Trust God in all you do, and know that .HARD. WORK. WILL. BEAT. TALENT. ANY. DAY. You can be the most talented racer, fabricator, whatever out there, but unless you're willing to work harder than everyone else, you will be beat by hard work.