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.
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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’r 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
TRANSCRIPT
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. READ MORE
