5/31/2020
Eric Blumer
A Successful Opening Night
Eric and the 6E team opened the 2020 season Saturday night at our home away from home, Beaver Dam Raceway. The track, with its new clay was in excellent condition and there were a lot of cars on hand, including over 30 in the Legends class.
Eric, who's probably one of the worst pill drawers in the business, stayed true to form by putting himself sixth out of eight in his heat. While it would have been nice to have the 6E in the front for his first race of the year, Eric was instead able to see how the new chassis would work in traffic. The car with its new brand of tires, was strong and after clearing three cars by the mid-point of the race he was running equal or faster than the top two cars. He finished third.
On the strength of that finish, the team was able to avoid the B-Main and prepared for the feature. In the A-Main, Eric started on the inside of the sixth row, behind Ryan Sullivan in the 20 car field.
But for a first lap red flag (the involved driver was fine), the race went green to checkers. Eric cleared several cars early, but had a lengthy battle with Chris Hoedel in front of him and Sullivan behind. Meanwhile, the eventual top two, of 2019 National Champion, Mike Mueller and 2019 BDR class champion, Ryan Mech were checking out.
Once he cleared Hoedel, he set sail for the leaders. There were not enough laps to press them, but Eric was even with, or catching them every lap. Sullivan was pressing Eric the entire time, with Hoedel in fifth. Eric crossed the checkers about a straightaway from the leaders.
POST RACE NOTES
Eric and Crew Chief Justin Hoium, obsessed about which tires to run. The Legends have two tires to choose from with one being phased out after this season. There was a lot of tire changing going on, depending what the track looked like and what it was expected to be throughout the night. In the end, Eric was satisfied with the direction they went.
Cody Weisenel was a true pro with the mud scraper, as usual. Meanwhile, Stephanie and Mary Jo did a great job with other pit duties.
Coming out of the car after the feature, the driver declared, "The car was perfect," which was a real credit to the work of both the driver and crew chief.
The entire BDR program ran really well throughout the night. There were two classes that ran B-Mains and each of the five classes had at least three heats. Legends were the largest field on the card.
It was great to have our friends Brian and Preston Benisch from Dog Guard of Wisconsin at the track.
A special thanks to Greg Leatherberry of OWL Graphics & Lettering for busting his rear over the last two days and pulling the equivalent of an "all-nigher" to get the car looking sharp.
We introduced ourselves to one of the new Legend teams at the track, telling them we were with the 6E. After a second, one of the principals of that team said, "Oh, the Club LaMark car." That was kind of cool.
UP NEXT
The team travels to Chilton's Gravity Park for the first event on the Wisconsin Legends Racing Dirt Series calendar, this Friday, June 5.
That will be the only race on the weekend as Beaver Dam Raceway will be hosting a special two day World of Outlaws Sprint Car event. THIS IS AN ADVANCED TICKET ONLY SHOW. Please check the BDR site for details. The Sprint Cars are the only class for theses two shows.
GRATITUDE
As always, thanks to our sponsors: Dog Guard of Wisconsin; BRS Radiator, Machine & Fabrication; Northern Air Systems, Inc.; Storage & Handling Systems; Club LaMark; Bullseye Games; Ground Up Lifts; Sieg Law Office; OWL Graphics and Lettering; Grandpa Blumer.
We couldn’t do it without the folks who helped put the 6E on the track this season! Justin Hoium, Big Dumb Guy, Greg Leatherbeary, Joe Wipperfurth, Bill Tefft, Brian Benisch, Cody Weisensel, Brady Kruchten and Stephanie Blumer.
Submitted By: William Blumer
Article Media
