Longest running competitor at WE Rock, Kenny Blume on Episode 21

Today’s guest, Kenny Blume, recorded this interview with us last November, the very first interview done (I’ve learned a lot).  Since then, he’s made good on his promise to judge at WE Rock and move to Florida.  At the time, none of this other nonsense was going on, so no reference to “COVID” in this one!  Kenny has been the longest running competitor at WE Rock – beginning in 2006 and retiring with the 2019 season, no one else has consecutively run so many seasons.  Good friend, great competitor.

2:22 –Getting started with an old Craftsman

4:51 – How’d you get up here?

11:13 – We all have this friend….

15:39 – Huh, maybe I should get a locker?

17:47 – a beater CJ7 takes second in points

20:42 – At the end of the day, people don’t want to be measured, because it’s no fun if you come up short. 

28:11 – from second to fourth in a nanosecond

31:22 – this was a proud moment, getting the better of Shoupl

39:03 – I was a nobody

We want to thank our sponsors Maxxis Tires and 4Low Magazine.

www.maxxis.com

www.4lowmagazine.com 

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Transcript

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Big Rich Klein: Welcome to the Big Rich show. This podcast will focus on conversations with friends and acquaintances within the four wheel drive industry. Many of the people that I will be interviewing, you may know the name, You may know some of the history, but let's get in depth with these people and find out what truly makes them a four wheel drive enthusiast. So now's the time to sit back, grab a cold one and enjoy our conversation. 

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 Big Rich Klein: Okay. We are here today with Kenny Blume, a competitor that's been around for many years and we are happy to have you on Kenny. What kind of influences did you have growing up that got you to where you're at today

 Kenny Blume: A bunch. All good, but from like the youngest age, my neighbors had a old CJ five and we used to borrow it once in a while to go do dump runs and stuff like that. So me and my dad driving to the dump in a CJ five with no top, you know, that was kind of cool. It was a kid. I probably didn't even have seatbelt. I don't remember, but I probably didn't.

 Big Rich Klein: probably didn't at that age. 

 Kenny Blume: That was a long time ago. Yeah. And then, you know, we'd go to the Lake too, like, everybody would go to the Lake and one of their friends had a tunnel boat with a big block and a V-8 and Zumis and they towed that there was a Jeep. So as a kid, think about the toys you see in Walmart, you know, how cool is that My neighbors have a Jeep and it tows a drag boat to the lake.

 Kenny Blume: So that was an influence when I was ten-ish I talked my dad into dragging an old craftsman, red lawnmower out of the neighbor's barn. This thing was like really old, probably,60's, maybe 50's. It had hard plastic tires that were bald and there was no disengagement on the blade. So we soon decided it was unsafe for me to use mowing it. So I convinced him to let me cut the blade off, cause I couldn't get the nut off. And I cut that blade off with, I don't know how many hacksaw blades, but I got it off because I was a determined kid. And that was my transportation, and I would go in the woods. And I would drive the little trails that I used to walk and go four wheeling with this little riding lawnmower that , think it was kind of cool if you want to call it that. And then pretty soon that wasn't good enough. So I was taking wood screws and screwing them into the hard plastic tires to give me more traction. And I kept doing that eventually I could do wheelies with it and stuff. Of course. 

 Kenny Blume: And then, you know, as things escalated, I think at 13, I got my first dirt bike and I used to go riding on trails that I hiked as a boy scout. And that was my freedom. I would leave for the day. I would push that sucker a mile and a half up the road to get to the trails later, found out mom and dad were sure I was hopping on it and driving it as soon as I got out of eyesight or ear sight. But I figured that the mother mothers have a coalition of allegiance and they rat you out. You know, I always walked the bike just to make sure I can keep enjoying the bike. And I walk it to the trail head and me and my buddy Mark would take off and we'd run all over the place. We'd go to swimming holes 20 miles away and we'd go by girls' houses and pick them up and go do stuff. 

 Kenny Blume: Just had a blast with that. And then, you know, fast forward I started riding snowmobiles with my dad. We finally got two for the family at about age 13, you know, that's got some go fast, Dirt Riot tendencies, cause your reading the terrain going as fast as you dare and trying to keep up with fast guys and everything. So that's kinda cool. and then I got into having cars and work in firewood business, working firewood. I was driving equipment off-road, some of it had tracks, some of it was old farm trucks, some of it was half=ton pickup trucks, but you're bombing it around off road, getting firewood, you know, and the ground's frozen. You can do amazing things when it's muddy, you might get stuck and be there all night pulling it out with chains and a come-along, got into high school, had cars. I'd still go four-wheeling with them.I'd park next to the Jeeps and the Broncos. And they'd look at me and say, how'd you get up here? Is there another road, Naw, I drove it up here, you know, it's about picking a line and momentum and pulling the Hill and all that stuff. So first got some of that 69 Opal cadet. Ooh, there you go. A buddy of mine had the front seat, both pivoted at the front and in short, all the way against the dash made a really backseat in case that was needed for it. I had a 54 Volkswagen bug with no backseat. I put a platform back there, carpeted it. Yeah, perfect. And the roll cage. 

 Kenny Blume: And I think I was a senior in high school, used to go parking all the time. I had a date, went down this dirt road down the road from our house and it snowed that night. That didn't stop us. And I got my car stuck in the snow. So it slid into ruts on this little dirt road. So I had to walk her home before her parents got home. And then I had also leave before her parents got home and I ended up walking home like eight miles in the snow and dogs barking. And I'm worried if I'm to get attacked by dogs and everything. But anyway, I made it home. I told my neighbor about it. After that he was one of the firewood guys had explained to mom and dad why I walked home. That was fun. but you know, my, my neighbor then George, he said, Kenny, I got, if there's anybody I know that needs a Jeep. 

Kenny Blume: It's you get yourself a Jeep You won't regret it. And then pretty soon I started shopping by the time I was 18, I think I was out of high school, but it was my first year of college. I bought my first CJ and I went from there. You know, CJ five did have a V8. Who's a 71, CJ five with a new tub. It was a father son project had the two 25 V6, a T 14 transmission and a warrant overdraft. And we as kids, we used to drag drag racing around on the street with other kids. And I had my buddy trained to shift the overdraft. I shifted the other one, you know, so we can do all the speed shifts in first, first high, second, second, highest. That was pretty cool if he got it just right. It was on Armstrong, true tracks, which I bought for it. 

Kenny Blume: I love those. Yeah. So I had that for awhile and then, that got involved in a wreck and I rebuilt it, but then I ended up getting those things, nickel and diming me with it. And by this time I was well in to college and the convinced myself to buy a scrambler with 9,000 miles on it. So I bought that started after awhile, it got Dana 40 fours. And then I started mud drag racing in it in coliseums. and I started blowing up a 14 bolt in the back and 44 up from, I dunno, I had 40 twos of a ton of Ram and blah, blah, blah. But they were changing the rules. They were changing the rules where you could run a DOT tire, but you could cut it. And that's when cut groundhogs came into play, basically made a paddle tire out of me to come down to canvas. And I built a tube chassis car and mom and dad's driving outside in the cold, I guess it was mostly summer, but the car weighed 2040 pounds with the steel three 55. And, it was very competitive and we had a great season with it. we raced it all year and we were nationally ranked in points. 

Kenny Blume: But by that time I knew I was moving to Florida for work and it was time to sell it. So I sold it and that was first down on my house. Okay. Where, 

Big Rich Klein: Since you brought up moving to Florida, where did you have the CJ five Where'd you grow up 

Kenny Blume: I grew up in Connecticut. A little town called Colchester 20 miles from everywhere. Yeah. I's a Yankee, it probably shows sometimes it was good because it was rural and it was all kinds of a, there was old railroad beds, there was power lines. So it was lots of things. The wheel wasn't shut down yet to vehicles and stuff. It was pretty open. Some of those trails are there now, and they're devoted hiking trails bicycles, horses, no motorized vehicles. And I go hiking there with my mom and my son and my son, Hey, I blazed that trail. This one that cuts down here and goes across the river and we made that on our dirt bikes. That's kind of cool. Awesome. 

Big Rich Klein: So once you got to Florida, you got a house 

Big Rich Klein: When you, you got out of wheeling for awhile. 

Kenny Blume: I got a little domestic. 

Big Rich Klein: Yeah, 

Kenny Blume: I fell in love, all that good stuff. I bought a sail boat, had a catamaran,  sailboat, which I used recreationally, but I also raced it a little bit. That was kind of fun. There's all kinds of engineering and things going on at once, you know, reading the sails and the wind and the water ripples and trying to figure out what your next move is. And you're going to take the guy out of the inside or the outside and all that kind of stuff. Who's going to check it out and going around the pin, you know, that's kind of a, I did that. Then I got bored in the mechanized sense. And I ended up building a Austin Healy kit car replica, which was a lot of fun. And I hated bodywork and this thing all gelcoated and polished. It was beautiful. I just had to put it together and put the drive, train in it. And that had a steel three 55, aluminum heads weighed 24 50. It was stupid, fast and 700r4 that was built. And, it was a lot of fun. And you live Yeah, I was still enjoying life. And, one thing I just realized, 

Big Rich Klein: You talked about the CJ five, the first vehicle, you said it was involved in a wreck and you just kind of like pass that over real quick. 

Kenny Blume: it's incriminating for a friend of mine. Oh, okay. Get over it. But yeah, I was at a, an after party for a wedding reception and one of my high school buddies, boy scout buddies got married. Actually. It was his older brother got married and one of the guys I'll just call him Kirk G T a, he got hammered. So they took his keys and I put 'em in a bedroom so he could sleep it off and stuff. And he crawled out the window and he had a spare key hidden in his wallet. And then he took off in his Monte Carlo had to show off that he conquered the world and, you know, snuck out and got in his car and left anyway. And he peeled off out of there and drove straight into my parked CJ and literally punted it up onto the neighbor's lawn, you know, broke the front axle, bent the frame a little bit. 

Nothing you weren't in the car. So that's good. I wasn't even in the car. So no risk of injury to me, a little embarrassing for my buddy took my Jeep off the road for a few months while I had to rebuild it. I think we've all had buddies that have done something similar to that that happened. But you know, then I got some, I got a better front axle. I got some fiberglass fenders. I bought some, some all-terrain I know mud terrain, tires, radials. They were just coming out then. And funny thing is I took out a sidewall on that

Big Rich Klein: So, back to, back to Florida, you're you got the Austin Healey kit car. You got a house, 

Kenny Blume: while single for a little bit. I was fun thinking about that sailboat. That was, that was good for dating. We'll just say that. I would imagine, met my wife at work, you know, Tina you've met her and, we got married and then, eventually moved up to Tulsa, Northwest Arkansas. That's quite a jump. Yeah, it is. You know, and I was in a market down there, aviation, where, what I was doing was awesome. I learned a lot, but it was hellacious place to work. It wasn't sustainable. They wanted me on the road 20 days, 21 days a month minimum. And you just can't keep doing that. So it, wasn't the kind of place where you could tap out and just say, I'm going to do something else. 

They just cut you loose. So I started looking for work and I had some friends who were working at a company in Tulsa and I ended up up there and that's how I got to the area. And that's worked out for me. I mean, aviation, it gets in your blood and it's just some of the thing to be a gearhead about, you know, do you fly as well I'm not a pilot. I'm the guy that could land the plane if the pilot had a stroke, but no one skill to have is a good skill to have. I've done flight simulators, I've done hang gliding, flown ultralights, but there's no part of me that wants to be licensed. I did fly an A380, simulator landed in Miami. That was kind of cool. That was just a couple years ago. I'll call that a perk at work, perk at work and at customers. And I got to like latch on to the experience. 

Cool. That would be cool. So that's what got me up here. And then it was about, let me think it was about 94 or so we got in the boat, enjoy the hell out of the summer boating. And then October came and we were kind of like, I'm going to do for family fun. And my wife who I'm sure, still regrets. It said, why don't you get another Jeep You know, you love Jeep. So I've got another Jeep. I think I actually bought two of them and I took all the best parts into the one I wanted to keep and then sold the other one. And then that was, that was the CJ 84, CJ seven, which got modified a little at a time. And it took me all the way to the first. Forgive me for using the other name. Super crawl. Yeah, no worries. 2002, so nice. 

So it kind of went from there and it's trail riding on your 29 inch radials and you go, huh Maybe I should get a locker. Maybe I should get some 30 threes. Huh Maybe I should get another locker. Coil Springs would be nice. Yeah. And you know, so you just start doing all these things, all that before light bars, I never bought a light bar for an off road vehicle. Perfect. My truck, my tow rig had a nice light bar, but that was more for cosmetics and I've had some, they should be, I guess my, I go fast. My dirt riot car had a light bar. 

Big Rich Klein: That's okay. Yeah. So you started, you started competing in 2002 at a super crawl. That was when Craig Stumph was running Supercrawl. 

Kenny Blume: 2002 was my first year on a national level. I actually, I started like in February or March out at the Johnson Valley. and the blast from the past, Mr. Hazel had some events back then. Yeah. I went out there to run some of his events. cause I had run some of his locally in the middle of the country. So I knew him and I knew the product and I had some successes there. And so I was like, Hey, bucket list. Let me go out West and race with some of these famous people, you know, and I did and we didn't do awesome, but we didn't do bad. And we finished about sixth or seventh and that first event, but I mean, we're rubbing elbows with a Walker. Tracy, Shaffer, I don't know if Shaffer was there. Shannon was there Walker Chris Durham, Joel Randall, who knows the other guy that used to run around with Tracy in the early days, the hydraulic Toyota, Don Robbins, Robbins was there. Jason Paule was there. So that was my really, that was my exposure to the big boys. And I came home from that saying, Hey, we finished in the middle of the pack with 

Kenny Blume: A beater, CJ seven let's go. That was fun. Let's do another one, kept doing good. And pretty soon we ended up doing, I think he had like six events and we did five out of six of them. And we finished second in points. Matter of fact we edged out Jason Paule in the points series that year. That was pretty cool. Excellent, excellent. At the very last event. And that's when he had his first, twisted buggy, his original, the Matrix, what does it mean What's the name of the cards came later Yeah, I just, I don't remember what he called. The first one. He built the matrix, they debuted at Supercrawl. He built it for Tracy during that season actually. Yeah. The, so then when was the first time you came out and competed with us at, we rock. Do you remember I think it was 2005, but I'm not sure if that was my first year with we rock, we started with Cal rocks in 2001. 

Big Rich Klein: Then we went, we went back East and helped a Neuroc get started and we did events started, it started spreading events across the United States. I remember the one event I, I do remember you at, was there in Disney because, I asked you if that was your event. I remember that. Yeah, that's a, I think Derek West was there. Joel Randal's national champion. If ARCA car was sitting, some guy was driving it, but watching and then of course our friend who owns the campground there.Mr. Complainer. Yeah. Russ Hogan. He's got a, he's got a fan club on mostly one side of the fence. Yeah. Yeah. 

Kenny Blume: He’s always been good to me, but he earned every bit of what he has. You know what I mean I remember him at that event there in Disney. Him just talking about how he was gonna whoop the shit out of everybody. And then, complained about the rear steer penalty and that we built the courses so that he had to take his wing off, which was going to affect his car. cause Lil Rich had built the course that went under right along the water. And there was an overhang rock and he, his wing that he had on that bumblebee or whatever the hell he called, it wouldn't fit underneath that rock. He had to take that off. And then he got up on the podium and did his 15 minute dissertation about how, how we were, and we did everything we could so that he couldn't win. And then I pointed out that you beat him by like 300 points or whatever it was so that it didn't matter if he, if I'd have given him all his rear steer penalty points back, he still would have been 200 points behind you. You know, at the end of the day, a lot of people don't want to. be measured because it's no fun if you come up short. Right. 

Big Rich Klein: True. That's what we face. Everybody's a hero in their backyard, but you can get out. 

yeah. That's one of the things that I hate to see when, when, when people sell their comp car and then it becomes a trail car and the guy, the person that buys it, you know, it goes, it's like buying a, you know, formula one car and then go driving it, you know, on the city street. I mean, it's pretty crazy that you would, you would take a car, you know, that's that is bred to do one thing and then just go do something else with it. You know, I hate seeing that, but you know, I know it happens. I know people want to be the best in their little pond, you know, the big fish in little pond syndrome. But you know, eventually some of those guys, you know, do come out and compete. We know that you just absolutely unloaded your, your unlimited car and taking a little hiatus. I think you'll be back. But, 

Kenny Blume: I won't even leave. I mean, I'll be around. I just might be around in a different way. 

Big Rich Klein: There you go. Cause Randy, Randy's now talking about a competing. He asked me if I'd let him compete in sportsman in your car. And I said, well, of course you've never driven before, but you know, so when we do the Texas event, you know, which may be before or after this, this airs that'd be great. 

Kenny Blume: Same. I was hoping he would. And how am I drive down for that And I might judge for you or something. 

Kenny Blume: Oh, there. That would be cool. Yeah. I was, it was, I, as soon as I found out that he was the one 

Payback on the Grays Who were judging me and 

Kenny Blume: It back at him, I'm just messing with you guys. I love that. 

 Yeah. And I could get back at Aaron too, but he doesn't drive anymore. He won't show up. So 

Big Rich Klein: Actually I'm there. He may be coming back into the, in fact he is going to come back into the sport next year because he showed up. But he wasn't the nationals. Wasn't he Aaron Sykes. No, he, he is going to be driving, for, Naozumi. Okay. In pro mod. They're going to take off the old, their old, two seater that Naozumi and Masa raced at, king of the hammers. And they're going to turn it into strictly a promo car and Masa is, has decided to stop rock crawling. He wants to get into other forms of racing and his, Naozumi still likes to compete. So they Naozumi is going to, to spot for somebody else. But Aaron and Kenny Rose are coming back. Yeah. So yeah, there'll be, there'll be, but there'll be under the Naozumi. Those two are great together. 

 Yeah. It'll be great to have him back. And you know, Tacoma always likes to give Kenny a hard time about, you know, Otter rescues and everything. Yes. You know, it's just something for him to keep talking about. But so yeah, we, we don't want to see you go away for good. So hopefully you come out and judge, or, and eventually I know you'll get the bug again and want to compete. It'll happen. We'll see. So we kind of jumped ahead there. I know that you, like you said, it's about 2005, you came out and competed with us, which would have been right around that 2004, 2005. When we did it Disney, I think Disney together globe was one of the earlier events that I did with you guys. Right. Globe was 2005. Yeah. And then the year after too, I think, yeah, 2005, 2006. 

Kenny Blume: And then we did the world championship. They're in a Henderson and right in the parking lot. Yup. Those were some brutal courses. Yeah. That was the first time I met Jessi Combs. She was, she was driving in one of the, what do you call it The new off road. She was driving a rhino in the celebrity thing there. And I spotted for her.Oh nice. First time I met her. Yeah. It's a good girl. Yeah, absolutely. It's a shame that we lost her. Absolutely. I know at one time I probably made a bunch of calls that you didn't like as a Marshall at some of the events I can think back to one. Yeah. It happens. It mean you get enough competitions calls are going to go one way or the other. And if they go, yeah. Not the way of the driver, normally it leads into a discussion. 

Big Rich Klein: I thank you for always being level-headed. during those discussions, unlike some of the others, I, I think the, the funniest one that I can remember though, there was a rollover in Dayton, Tennessee, and Kyle swore that you got that when you went out of bounds, you got back in and they not, you know, not even half the car went out of bounds, you know, it wasn't even close to half. And the judge that was Russ and he said, no, no, we're not, you know, you're out. I was watching from a distance and said, you were out, you said you were fine. You're not allowed to use video. Yup. So, yup. That's right. So we, which video wouldn't have helped because when Kyle, yeah, well, no, it, it, it vindicated me because Kyle was telling me, I don't know how you can sleep at night, you know, and just trying to, just trying to bag. And it was Robert. And I said, Kyle, you know, I sleep fine at night. I know that I made the right call. Then the bit somebody posted the video online, and I think you had like about three inches of one tire still in bounds. And the boundary tape was like at your, your bull bar, your push bar, front bar and a bumper area. It must've been, it must've moved. I think it was the wind. 

But I said, I posted that video and tagged Kyle, you know, it was like, Hey Kyle. So, I really enjoyed you guys competing and you know, you've, you were always a real standup competitor. You love, you love the gray areas, but you, Oh yeah, it is. And, but you always did it. you always did it with honor, you know, there's, there's some people that do it without honor. You know, if you turn your back, if you think that they're stealing your vehicle or something, you know, pretty much so. So what was the, in the rock crawling during your rock crawling career What was the biggest, what was, what was the, the time that, that haunts you the most, that, that you wished, you know, something would have gone the other way or, you know, there was a breakage or, you know, a mistake made or something like that that really haunts ya, you know, is there, is there anything like that 

Kenny Blume: Wow. There's a couple things. I mean, you just described one of them that Dayton,, Tennessee, I went from second to fourth in a nanosecond, you know, that kind of hurt. Yeah. So we got a little bit of that. there was go go fast race, long time ago where I got T-boned. Cause the other driver came across six lanes and never saw me there. You realized, or you mistakenly thought he was supposed to hook. Right. But that was not the case. So that took me out of that race early, but that was a go fast race. You know, it really hurt at Farmington this year for the nationals. when I lost my front end, there was a lot of climbs on day two, we were looking forward to those and there were climbs that we had done so before, and I was confident we could one shot when I heard the teeth making ugly noises. 

Kenny Blume: I was like, well, there we go. We're done. That was real disappointing that I don't know if you call that a mistake. biggest things I hate is when you, you get amped up and you lose track of time, you spend too much time messing around with one cone and next thing you know, you probably took it anyway. And yeah. Oh yeah. I know a good one this year out at, Pennsylvania. And we ended up losing to Dean and Danny at the end, but there was one particular course where Kyle and I told ourselves, we can get around that cone. Let's push ourselves. Let's test. We know we can get around that cone, get better at this. Let's do a little bit of this, a little bit of that. We'll get around that. 

Well, we got around that cone, but taking that line, put us in a hole where it was just perfect to swallow our car. And I just never got out of that hole. We screwed around and we killed six minutes of clock there. After we got around that cone, we're all proud. We got around that cone, but it put us in a really ugly place. And then the people running after it said, don't make the mistake. They may just take that cone and keep going. It sets you up for the rest of the course. And we didn't see the ugly setup that would result from going around that. And our pride said, let's get around that cone. We need to push ourselves. 

I guess you showed me how to get around the cone, but we threw the course away. You remember the, keep your eye out about in Indiana with Danny Rohrer except one or a hand of the race today. Yeah. So that's one when I went up to the start gate. Yeah, yeah. That was, that was one. Yeah, that was painful. Yeah, absolutely. Right. And a lot of teams have made that mistake and a lot of teams will make that mistake. It's really easy to get amped up and forget that. Especially in those days, the start Gates and the finished Gates kind of look the same. So it was even easier to make that mistake, I think. Correct. They were the same color, just different sizes, but now I've gone to different colors to hopefully eliminate that, but it still happens. That's painful as hell. Yeah, it really is. So, where's is there, what's the time in your rock crawling history that you're the most proud of You've mentioned Neuroc earlier. there was an event and I think, Oh four in Indiana at Badlands Shupe was ahead of us. He's funny as hell. He's running his mouth at the bottom of the court. She's watching us do our last course and he ran it and he knew he got a lucky bounce that could never be replicated in this. The only way he got around that. 

 And there was something we had to come down a ledge load around or, or back down and shoot up either way. And, but there was the only way to get around that comb. He thought. And so he's running his mouth, collecting his prize money already down at the bottom of the Hill. And I know this cause my crew's standing right next to him and he didn't know who my crew was. And Chuck and I came up with a plan and back then spotter ropes for free. And it was a pine tree at the top of the Hill had about a base. And we went down, this was on my old skinny car. That kind of looks a little bit like sprint car. We went down that thing had the Volvo portal axles that had the whole 30 degrees turning radius. And we side hilled this Hill split in the cones. 

So we didn't have to drop off the ledge and go back up the ledge. Cause we side Hill and Chuck had spotter rote wrapped around the top of my cage. He had it spun around the tree twice and he's leaning on it. So he had a very controlled hang on the Kenny thing going on. And it was like Wiley coyote where I'm on the edge of the cliff and little rocks. Pebbles are pushing out from my tires about some down as we're starting to execute this and we're going in and out of front only and all that stuff. So it doesn't push and we're starting to pull the turnoff and all of a sudden Kenny style, Oh shit from his mouth. And he realized he was about to lose the race back then prize money was pretty good. I think it was about 3,500 for women. and yeah, we took that, you know, and that was just a smaller race, but it was a big moment. And it was, you know, a really big moment. Cause Kenny and I always had a lot of trash talking going on back then. It was great. 

Kenny Blume: Yeah. He was a Shoupy was 

Like one other character that was in our sport. Danny, Danny. Yeah. The after hours character right there, man. I have no idea what happened. He's the spooning capital of Indiana. I think, 

Big Rich Klein: I think that, teams were on the second morning. If you showed up on site and you saw Danny Rohrer sleep in his, in his tidy Whitey, somewhere in the grass, you knew you were in trouble He always did better When he was hurting the next day. Then when he was not 

Kenny Blume You're exactly right. He was on, he was on if he got a little wild the night before and God bless him. I don't know how he did it, but, and we've got some stories there 

Big Rich Klein: To visit with him too and get the stories. Yeah. It feel, it feels share. Cause I'm not sure if 

Kenny Blume: He knows all the stories kind of PGish at the end of the day, they're kind of PGish. 

Big Rich Klein: Yeah, they are. They are. So, what are you going to do now that you've, sold the car 

Kenny Blume: you know, we've got a few projects here and there. I bought a side by side and never thought it would, but I did. I've been enjoying that. So that's, that's a good transition plan for the withdrawals. And there's guys like Kevin Reimer was like, you know, I really love this thing when he got one and I was laughing at him and here I am now I have one, you know, my biggest thing is I have to not drive it like rock crawler because I know they're not really made for that. And I don't want to shred stuff and work on stuff that takes a little bit discipline. I'll get into boating a little bit more. my Shelby has a rear tire problem that I probably will keep going too long on that and doing water cycle. 

Kenny Blume: So, I mean, I got enough toys to do some things that keep me smiling. I just fabbed up a little trailer for the side by side. I got somebody wants one for their side by side. So I'll probably make up a little trailer on the side, keep that going. And you never know. I might, I might get bored and build something again. I might not. Or I might just team up with some other people that are out there. There's always somebody that's looking for a spotter or somebody looking for a judge or you can scout, you can crew. There's a lot of things you can do. Absolutely. But I'll have an easier, an easier time. I got a good friend. It's a race. And one of the, I don't even know what class it is. It's basically a built up Wrangler in the Baja and the desert stuff. 

Kenny Blume: And he's been a lot on me to go out and help him out. So I'll probably do that sometime. That'll be an experience, check them off. So you've not been to ball hotter ratio yet. I have not. I've had a couple opportunities and never quite put it together. So yeah. It's time to do that. That's definitely a bucket list. Yeah. I don't know. 

Big Rich Klein: I would encourage, I would encourage that. There's a, there's some things to remember when you go down there, like if you're going to use a, the bank ATM, go into a bank, take to the, to use the ATM, don't use the freestanding one that's on the corner. Correct Cause there's always, yeah. There's always a scoundrels around. That'll try to, try to get your money out. Yeah. And without actually robbing you, but they just work you over so fast that you don't even know what happened. 

And they ended, ended up clearing out your account. We had a, a kid that came racing with us when we were, when we were helping out Schafer and Mike Shaffer and one of the kids down there went to this ATM and the guy, he put it in, put his coat in and is a guy walked in right away and said, Oh, Hey, you know, that doesn't work. Let me, let me show you the one that works. So he pulled his card out, but he never shut the program off. So the guy was able in the code is already in there. So the guy, his partner walked in emptied his bank account or whatever the max was that day. And that was like all the kid had in his account. And so yeah, he got just be careful with that. Those are the officials out there. 

Kenny Blume: Oh, they are especially down there. They're, you know, they're, they're hungry. Yeah. The story, I'm the guy that doesn't use an ATM. I did when I was in my twenties when I moved to Florida and I discovered the only time I was here, it was like two o'clock in the morning and it was probably time to go home. I started doing it very wise, very wise.

Big Rich Klein: Yeah. I don't, we don't use the ATM as well anymore. I use a card only for, for gasoline and for like the Jeep or the pickup truck, but the, semi we only pay cash. cause we don't want to see that bill at the end of the month, you know, it's back and forth across the country cash for that. Of course I have to warn Shelley the day before when I fill up and you know, say, Hey, I'm going to need that 700 or 800 bucks to fill up the truck. 

Cause she doesn't like buying gas. It's like tires. 

Kenny Blume: Yeah. So I thought of another really cool moment that Brandon still remembers, 2002, I think we were in Aztec running an event. And it was my second event with Hazel and it was the morning of day two. Everybody had spreadsheets and they were looking at on Brandon and I were just hanging out in the CJ seven eating something and talking and you use little in, you know, what was he Nine years old, eight years old and over to the right. There was a, was the guy from Durango. you know who I'm talking about Yeah. Steve Remore. Well, he was one of them, but the, the other guy raised a lot. John, he had a, a Wagner it'll come to me. He had a, a nice tube chassis, then the add sticky Mickeys on it. 

Kenny Blume: And so anyway, he was over there and he had that Hummer car for awhile, BFG auction, one off to look just like it, you know, Johnny G yeah. Gilliland yes. Yeah. Johnny Gilliland. So he was, he was there and Jason Paulie and Tracy, Don Robbins, and they're all talking about spreadsheet. They're laughing, they're looking at each other. And then they're all kind of going, like one of them points at me and Brandon and our CJ seven. And they were trying to figure out who this guy was on the score sheet that was running right up there with them. 

Kenny Blume: Cause I was a, nobody, I was an absolute nobody. And after that first day we had a really good day and we were near the top of the spreadsheet. And those guys suddenly knew who we were. That's awesome. Big deal. You know, not this, this last year, this year, but the year before 2018 nationals in Farmington, Johnny G was there. I remember seeing him, I talked to him. Yeah. Yeah. That was kind of cool. It was cool. Yeah. I love his kids. His kids are now, you know, big. I asked him if he was jonesing and wanting to come back out and compete and he goes, you know, watching this I'm, I'm feeling it, I'm feeling it. So I was hoping we would see him, you know, he's been away long enough to where he's smartened up to be. It could be, I know he's been desert racing. 

Kenny Blume: So that go fast. That's a different kind of budget though. 

Big Rich Klein: Yeah, it is. Yeah. So, you know, that's why I became a promoter. I was eventually I'd lived in Cedar city and we were, we were trail riding. I was the club president there. We were wheeling with Craig Stumph up in Delta, Utah. We were getting ready to, to have an event at the ARCA coming into Cedar city. And we helped, help ARCA get in there and get the contract with, you know, their permit with BLM and everything. And then we got the BLM to give up that property there at Three Peaks to the County, as a County park, we pushed for that. And along with the equestrian people and the mountain bikers and all that kind of stuff. But we used to do big cleanups out there at Three Peaks. And one of the events at that first ARCA event, there was a guy, Randy from Northern California and we were talking and he goes, man, if you ever moved back out here and want to put on an event, moved back to California, put on an event, I've got a great location. 

And so, after watching what everybody else was doing Hazel and, and Ranch, we, I decided, you know, what, how I could do this. So we moved back when I moved back to California, went and started Calrocs the same time that Craig started UROC. And so I did a, I did invent that put up or shut up. The first event was November, 2001. And then our first season was in 2002, but right away, I mean, I had no plans to go outside of California or Nevada. And then right away I was asked to put on events elsewhere. My idea was, you know, have, have travel. We'll try we'll, you know, we'll put we'll travel. So we started bringing the events closer to the drivers instead of just say, no, we're only gonna do California, Utah, you know, or Arizona. So it was a, it was a good move and I've enjoyed it. 

But I realized that I was helping a buddy and we were gonna, I was gonna spot for him and he was going to drive and I realized there was no way that I could afford to build my own car and the money I was making there in Utah. And it was like, you know what Nope, ain't happening. I'm not going to be ever built a car. So I decided to become a promoter thinking I could, you know, get parts and make deals, that kind of stuff. And eventually build a car, a buggy. Well, 19 years of doing this, I still have never owned a buggy. What's happened little, figured it out. Yeah. The, he sold a lot of the things that I owned to do that, but no, he did. He flung deals his own and stuff. And then I had some old junk cars around and he said, Hey, what are you doing with that said nothing. He can, I have it. Sure. And then he'd go scrap it or sell the parts off of it or trade something. And next thing I know he had that. He built that KOH car that he did. And I remember that. Yeah, that was, we were all given a hard time. Last time we saw him cause his car looked better than it ever had. And I was like, Hey, what happened Who started working on your car 

Actually, he's gotten better at that stuff. But yeah, he, yeah, he gets a lot of wheeling in now living down there and saying all he does, I'm happy for him. That's good. So tell me, tell me about your boat. 

Kenny Blume: Oh, it's a, it's a mild one, but it's fun. It's a to 31 scarab, 97 vintage, couple of black five. Oh twos. They're mild. I put some exhaust on it just because I felt like it at the time, but it's the devil that I know it's reliable. It's dialed in. It's not the fastest boat around, but it's a little bit like Dirt Riot stuff. You get on the right bodies of water around here. They get really sloppy on the holiday weekends or any busy weekend. And you're going through a lot of slop and chop and cruiserwaves. And you're reading the water and running that thing at 30 to 50 is an absolute black maritime and your talents applying the car level, the boat level and land in it. 

Kenny Blume: And you know, and you're going to places and you're hanging out with people and there's some scenery involved and libation and it's a good time. You know, you can bring a bunch of friends with me in one shot. It's not like, Oh, do you have a two seater or a four seater Now I can put six or eight people on a boat. Let's go have fun. So there's a lot of good that comes with it. One of these days, I'm going to find a free, free time and come out on that water with you. You got to it's a good time. 

Big Rich Klein: Yeah. It sounds like it I've missed the days of the lakes. Yeah, never. I never, never actually owned a boat myself. My dad had a, an old 62 Glen L missile flat bottom wood boat with a big motor in it that would do, you know, do over a hundred. 

And then we had a, I worked for a guy that had a, a sea Ray open bow, 26 or 28 foot something, at an in and out and nice little Lake boat, you know, for like cruising after work. Yeah. And stuff and go swimming. That was, that was probably the funnest boat. Yeah. What I, what I always remember from him is it's a big, it's like having a big drain in the middle of the Lake, you know, and you just throw your money into it, but that's, you know, that's, that's also a Jeep or yeah. It's all relative. I mean, you gotta look at how many hours of fun do you get at how much money and labor you put into it. Correct. Yeah. And if you've got a boat that's a, that's 

Big Rich Klein: Reliable. That helps. Yeah. 

Kenny Blume: And it's, it's reliable. It's paid for it. That's part of what, 

 Having a slower boat, slower boats are reliable. You know, if you're going to be the guy that has to tune and tweak, you know, out drives are like a Dana 30, right. Dana 44. You know, if you go above maybe 500 horsepower promoter and you hang the boat out in the air, you're asking for trouble and you've got to buy the Dane  60 out drive. You know, it's a slippery slope, right How fast you want to go, how much money you get. So fair enough. It's all relative. 

I'm getting to the point where I, like reliable 

I just want to shine it up and put some gas in it, change the oil once in a while and go have fun. And I don't want to be having to replace the trainee in two weeks while I have business trips between events and stuff. That's part of my recent decision making is to, you know, it's just, after a while it gets to be taxing. So I'm leaning towards fun things that are a little bit less labor intensive and let's just go have fun. I get it. I get it completely. Yeah. Tell me about the Shelby. Well, Shelby's a lot of fun. And if anybody has never heard of, you got to go on YouTube and hear the flat plane crank videos. Cause man, they're just, they make music kind of spend state 82 50. It's a really good track car. The Ford Shelby GT three 50, they just come down with the GT 500, which is more of a straight line car. The three 50 is built to be a track car. There's a track not far from here. I'll probably take lessons this summer. You know, it's a six speed close ratio. One through fifth is direct gear. So you got a lot of years, 82, five, 500 horsepower. There's not a lot of torque on the bottom, but it sure winds up nice. You can supercharge them or twin turbo them. And it's just a matter how crazy you want to get so far. I've avoided doing that. We'll see how that works. 

Big Rich Klein:: Soon as you get to the track the next weekend, 

Kenny Blume: Maybe we’ll see

 It's a lot of fun to drive. I mean, mine's a daily driver and I use it like a pickup, 

A truck. I haul parts in the bed, you know, in the back of it. it's usually dirty, but when I get to work, I'm smiling. Cause I just had a good ride in and come home from work. I'm smiling. Cause I had a good ride going home it purges, but it needs to purge, you know, I can get on the, on ramps and bring it up to a hundred and lift to fit into traffic, you know, and sorry Barney if you heard that. But yeah, it's just, let's go with that. Let's go with that. 

Big Rich Klein: You still have the motorcycle. 

Kenny Blume: I do good, reliable older Harley. I say older it's 2014. It's fuel injected and has abs and a fuel injection means it's easier to do a lot of things. And abs means it might save my life one day. I'm a little too fast or somebody else does something stupid, but I respect the bike. It's a cruiser. I drive it like a cruiser. I don't twist hard unless I'm going in a straight line. I'm very aware of my surroundings. Knock on wood so far so good. And you know, but it's good for the soul. And I talk about selling that too, but then they one ride cures you and it was like, no, I need to keep this. 

Big Rich Klein: Let's see. I think we've hit just about everything that you drive or own, the decision to get, to sell the portal car. Well, what, how about the decision from going from promod to unlimited Was that because of the number of cars that were competing out West 

Kenny Blume:  it was a couple of things you said it was, you know, you want to run against Better talent. There's that unlimited cars, we're making a comeback and numbers. And for awhile it looked like there was going to be some significant media opportunities with unlimited car. so I wrestled at first I was going to convert the promod and, and then to just go ahead and build the car and then I had to wrestle with the decision, do I build something like Jesse's moon, buggy Prickle or like when he built for Cody Waggoner, and be absolutely as competitive as can be or did I make a decision like day one and say, I want two seats. And you know, in the end I gave up competitive advantage. So I could have two seats and eight spark plugs and you know, was it strategic for the race course now Right. Unless you want to say it gave me a built in excuse to not always podium, but wasn't strategic for resale. You bet the car had some sex appeal and made the right noises at some notoriety, good car, you know, and I'll miss it. Cause it's yeah, 

Big Rich Klein: Yeah. Randy, he sent me a message. What do you think, you know, is this, is this a good car And I told him straight up, yeah, it's got all the good parts, all the cool stuff for what he's wheeling and what he's used to wheeling, you know, full body vehicles, that were built very well. And he's a good Wheeler for those, with those rigs. It'll be interesting to see, to see him out there at Katemcy you know, with that, I know he's already rolled it. 

Kenny Blume: Yeah. I saw that. I told them, I said, you know, if you think about it, I don't think I could name  Any two seat car, more competitive in the rocks. Can you get a couple that are just as good, you know, and Dave Wong drives the hell out of is the same chassis. And you know, he's got some good seat time and good spotters and he does extremely well with it. So arguing, but it's the same car. I just, I can't think of any two seat crawler. That's better than the rocks in that car, the way it works, especially when everybody's on their game and doing smart things instead of stupid things. 

Big Rich Klein: That's true. Cool. So, anything else happening in your life now that's, that you want to share Or is there a how's work going I know that you're working out in Europe is aren't you, I'm sorry. The company you work for is based in Europe. 

Kenny Blume: Yeah. It's based in Europe. It's Lufthansa. It's the national airline of Germany, but we're the largest independent, independent means, like not Boeing and not Airbus. We're the largest independent maintenance provider in the world. So pretty much every airline in the world is our customer in one way, shape or form. So I do tech support for our business in the America's been doing it for about six years. It's fun, you know, I mean there's days that really kick your butt, but most of the days are good days. 

Kenny Blume: So that's good. love life is up and down. You know, that's always a fact of life, you know Absolutely. So, that gets interesting and, and I've made some fantastic friends out of that. That's awesome too. And I don't know, am I in, am I gonna move to Florida to Navarre beach race to live I think there's a good chance to settle and that's been part of my master plan to position myself, to be ready to do that. That'll be a good place to have the boat. I've got some good friends down there. I lived there for five years would be a good place to have a boat. I figure I can get another five years out of my existing boat. Probably buy an outboard boat. That's made more for salt water. That's on that for that one in the meantime. But so that'll probably happen. 

Big Rich Klein: yeah, that's the main thing right there. I mean, there's still a lot of good years. We just got, we just got back off of, being in SEMA. How many years did you make it to SEMA 

Kenny Blume: I've probably been five times and participated with the race cars three or four times. Nice. So that was all good. That's yeah, actually I think I participated with the race car four times. There was a few events there and yeah, I remember meeting Chip Foose there one year. That was kinda cool. Drew a little rock buggy on the hood of my racer. Nice. but yeah, I mean, it seems as I've done it enough where if I wanted, once every 10 years, I'd probably be okay with that. It's still cool, but I don't mind just seeing all the pictures and videos and media later. 

Big Rich Klein:  I have these canned questions. Let me see if there's anything that we didn't hit. Nope, I guess not. That's that's about it. what do you think of, Jake and Caleb Good in your old promo car this last year 

Kenny Blume: I think they had a really interesting season first off. It's great that they did. It came out of retirement more or less a father and son is always awesome. There was a few hiccups through the year that were unexpected and painful. I think he lost a motor early, and it was a fresh motor and, you know, we knew that we had enough time on the fresh motor. No, it was good. But then again, he ended up losing it and having to replace transmission trouble. But, they had a good year. They really learned the car. They had some dumb moments and they had some victorious moments and that's what it's all about. 

Kenny Blume: Especially getting back into it and the father, son learning a new vehicle together and everything. And so I think it's awesome for them. And now they're on the other things building another car and I think that'll be great for them. Yeah. I agree. I agree there, they're building from my understanding and unlimited, so yeah, one of Jessie's Jessie's and they're building some portal axles limited, it's going to become a, the Jessie Haines, spec largely largely, you know, and, and yeah, I agree. He's talented and humble and it makes a good product. Yeah. It's good for the sport. Yeah. Awesome. Well, I would probably show up at a race or two with Jake and family. We'll see. Oh, that'd be awesome. That'd be great. I want to thank you for, for spending the time. I know we, we meant to do this like a week and a half ago and, I didn't get to where I needed to get to fast enough. 

Big Rich Klein: I've been, since the end of the season, Shelly and I have had like four days off where we haven't been traveling and all four of those days I spent with my parents. So you got to do that. That's what this winter is going to be about, is spending time with, with my parents. But I want to thank you for coming on and for being a great competitor and friend, you know, I want to say a thank you for just being Kenny Blume and being a great representative of our sport and, you know, being somebody that others could look to and hope to emulate.

Kenny Blume:  Well, thank you. Appreciate it. Hi, you take care and we will talk to you later on and, and maybe I get you back on to see where things are going with your life from now on. Alright, we'll be in touch. Thanks, bye. 

Big Rich Klein: If you enjoyed these podcast, please give us a rating. Share some feedback with us via Facebook or Instagram and share our link among your friends who might be likeminded. Well, that brings this episode to an end book. You enjoyed it. We'll catch you next week with Conversations with Big Rich. Thank you very much.