Friends rally to remember ‘car girl’ Mariana Torres

Henry Robles of The Dalles, who grew up in Hood River and is friends of Mariana and her fiance, Jaime Perez, wanted to find a way to honor Mariana and her family. Best way to do that for “car girl” Mariana? Gather friends in cars.

“She is a long time friend, and most of the people here are friends of her,” said Robles of the folks gathered just before noon at the Walmart parking lot. “She was very much into cars, she had it fixed up and on point all the time,” he said of Mariana’s 2015 Subaru WRX.

“Roll out!” Robles announced at noon, and the cars left in groups of two, three or four, turned up the freeway and onto Highway 35, regrouped near Odell and drove as a group down Central Vale Drive in Odell, to drive by and greet Mariana’s family, including her two children. The rally concluded at Wy’east Middle School.

“She was very young and it’s a loss in the car community,” said Juan Cruz of Hood River. “She was one of our own, and we just want to come out and support her family.”

“Usually when there’s a car event it’s modified cars but I wanted to stress with this, anyone can join, bring whatever you got, let’s drive around together,” said Robles, who organizes car events through Wanderers, a car club based in The Dalles.

“There’s stock, American, German, Japanese, fixed up, off-road, a Japanese fire truck. You never know what’s going to show up,” he said. “Anyone who wants to come by and show support and hang out for the day and remember Mariana."

Family members were not available to comment.

“She loved driving around and what’s a better way to honor her than to shine up our cars and drive around," said Robles, who with friends spread the word via social media.

“It makes it reassuring that more people are wiling to come out,” Robles said. “Also, it’s the start of the car season, everyone is Jonesing to get out and drive, so that helps too as people want to shine up their cars and have an excuse to drive around. It’s a win-win.”

Dave Hovde of The Dalles said of Mariana’s death, “It hit kind of close. It could affect anyone, she was so young and healthy.”

He was with his wife Ashley Hovde in her 2013 2SSRS version, a stock edition the Hovdes found in Utah five years ago and was restored by Ashley in her shop.

“Everything you see I’ve done myself,” said Ashley. “The whole engine was overhauled.”

“I’m passenger,” Dave joked.

“We’re here mainly just to show our respect. She was a car girl herself, that’s something you don’t see a lot around here,” said Ashley, a Hood River Valley High School graduate. “It was really important to me to show respect for a beautiful young women who was lost so soon, so young.”

The Hovdes were there with their friends Geoff Moore (“We used to sell cars together") and Juan Cruz.

Mariana Torres “was an ardent WRX driver,” Moore said. “This is a salute to her, all the cars out here, most of them people who have their own version of what they want to do, that and it’s fun to drive these cars.”

For Ashley Hovde and her Camaro, it was that kind of day. “We don’t take it out very often. It’s a show car,” Ashley said of her white-with-red-striped Camaro, a tribute to her mother, Betty Brittenham, who died in 2006. Ashley’s father, Glen, lives in Odell.

“The first car she taught me to drive was a 1980 Trans Am. She was a racer. I just grew up in it, most of my family are racers, cars and bikes.”

Her license plate, CYA COP, was chosen by police and responder friends Tiffany Hughes and Mike Martin.

“They all find it amusing. they think it’s funny. Nothing against police officers, but they don’t think it’s too cute in The Dalles.”