Dylan Blenkhorn: A Supernova with a Nebulous Afterglow (Interview)
Photo Courtesy of: Tanya Everett Photography
September 28th, 2023
I can't help but start this piece off with a cosmological analogy and a personal anecdote. For those who may not be aware, and to terribly oversimplify a subject, loosely: In the world of stellar bodies, a Type II Supernova happens to Stars that are particularly brilliant; The star shines bright, it gets hot, and it's 'main sequence' life span isn't very long, leaving behind a remnant of itself to be remembered by, and often followed by the formation of a visually mesmerizing Nebula. The Nebula stands as a testament to the star's enduring legacy: a radiant swirl of colours and gasses that continue to dazzle, and influence (inspire) the creation of new stars. Dylan Blenkhorn's racing career to this point embodies this cycle.
Nebulae examples (fair/free-use):
My Anecdote:
Just before Blenkhorn was entering the Pro Stock Tour, I moved to Alberta, where I lived for about 5 years, and really lost touch with the racing world here. When I returned, I picked back up where I left off. I went to a Scotia Speedworld race, and saw the #53 of Cole Butcher and the #67 of Dylan Blenkhorn, both for the first time. What a way to get me hooked back on racing: they were exactly even, door-to-door racing: lap, after lap, after lap, after lap. I really liked Cole's style, he seemed like a really methodical and technical driver. As for Blenkhorn: he's a wheel man, pure and simple. You always get a show when he's on the track.
Blenkhorn of Truro, Nova Scotia has been a formidable driver from the start, but by the time his sophomore season rolled around in 2014, he was ready to really break out. It would be his first of 4 consecutive seasons of 3 wins (and 6 consecutive seasons of 3 or more wins, before he stopped running full-time after the 2019 season), including a win in the annual Scotia Speedworld 250. He faced a few set-backs that interfered with his points championship aspirations for a couple of years along the way, but he cemented his name in the history books in 2019 with the championship title in his Supernova moment. 3 wins, 11-top 5s in the 12 race schedule, and an average finish of 3rd place.
It felt fitting watching Cole, who won the race, and Blenkhorn who just secured the championship, sharing burnouts/donuts on the front stretch. Cole leapt into Blenkhorn’s arms, and the camaraderie really shone through. A memorable moment for two young drivers who came up at the same time, sharing very similar trajectories, and who you could swear were determined to redefine the phrase “door to door racing”, more often than not, at the front of the pack.
After his very dominant stretch of full-time seasons where he was a top threat to win every race, he's made some appearances here and there. In 2022 he was the runner-up in the IWK 250 (a race he has won before), and the eye-catching Nebula, a true sight to behold, was on full display this summer, when he won a very thrilling Summer Clash 250 at Scotia Speedworld, where giving up was simply not in his vocabulary. For a more detailed account of the Summer Clash 250, visit: My Comprehensive Summer Clash 250 Recap Article - or better yet: https://timscorner.tv/videos/29301 It’s a true classic.
What is it that originally drew you towards racing?
I'm a third-generation racer in my family. My grandfather raced a dirt track, Galamer Speedway I believe - local track in our town. And my father obviously raced (Paul Blenkhorn). I remember when the Bandolero's came to Scotia Speedworld, in about 2006, I believe (yes - 2006). I remember I asked him for ages to get me one, I wanted to race. It took me a year - finally I convinced him - or, heh, probably annoyed him enough to want to go and buy me one.
[Later on]
For about a year, I called a few people. I called the guy that I sold the car to — you know, I had to sell the car to proceed to buy a Legend car, that was the deal; and I sourced his number, and it (the car) changed hands a few times. Actually, I found a car in a barn, not being raced, and I bought it from the owner. So I have, sitting up on the shelf, my first race car that started it all — so that’s pretty neat.
I recall you having a new car ready to go for when it was time to replace your current car: Black Betty. Is that still the case?
I do! Thanks to my grandfather and Tony Quinn, and the help from VanDoorn Racing Development, all three of them got together and got me a car. It's just sitting there, we've been tinkering away on it. It's kind of an R & D car (research & development), we tried a few different things on it, but never had time to try the car out. I mean, the car that we got just ran so good, and time was an issue the last few years. So I just haven't made (it to) the track yet with it, but I'm still pretty excited to try it out.
So, you mentioned VanDoorn Racing. Obviously Johnny van Doorn with that House Car #71 has had a heck of a career and everything. So what does that entail exactly, and how did you end up getting involved with that?
That's a great question. I had a lot of great mentors in my racing career that helped me through the years. Mostly with set-up, I got pretty involved with the set-ups and how the race car worked. I was always intrigued by that, and always interested to try to learn more. Just go to the race track and learn to be faster than I was the previous week.
So, how that came up - the relationship with VanDoorn Racing Development. I'm good friends with Lonnie Sommerville, and I was talking to him, and he bought one. I remember going to look at it at 660 one time; it had a lot of cool ideas that I liked. I think Butch (van Doorn) already worked there, working together with Johnny building race cars, because they worked together at Port City (Race Cars). It had a lot of similarities, I like Port City, but everything I liked about Port City, I feel like the new VanDoorn Chassis had, so I ended up buying one, and it's one of the best decisions I've made.
When I was racing full-time, I probably talked to Butch every day. He helped me a lot through the years, and I owe a lot of my success to Butch and VanDoorn Racing Development. They build good cars, and the rest is history. We're still good friends to this day. We don't chat as much anymore, but when I go to the Race Track, we usually talk back and forth. I like to think that I helped them with some new innovative ideas and some parts, that they actually took and are using in their cars down South, so it's pretty neat to be a part of that.
Are there any people that you look up to in the racing world?
When I was really young, when I was sitting & watching in the grandstands, I liked (#44) Wayne Smith. He was one of my favourites growing up. I liked how he raced, I liked how he worked on his own car, how he set it up himself. I thought that was pretty neat, and I got to race with him for a few years. Stevie Henderson, he lives right down the road from me, where I grew up. So when I was young I remember going up there with my father and looking at the race car, and I was always in disbelief with how nice the car looked. I was a Gordie Ryan fan, that's where the #67 comes from - I think the #14 was taken; so that's how the #67 came to be.
As far as racing as a whole, I watched a lot of NASCAR: Honestly I was more of a Chad Knaus fan (legendary NASCAR crew-chief). I liked how he was pretty involved in the set-up of a race car. I wasn't so much a Jimmie Johnson fan, but I loved Chad Knaus, so I was always excited when they won; but when I started watching a NASCAR I was a Jeff Gordon fan.
[About Wayne Smith]
You know, he didn't have a huge budget, and worked on his car, and won a lot of races.
The Mike Stevens Memorial is shaping up to be a really big one this year. Are you optimistic about racing in our region going forward?
I've been busy, but: That new Tour seems strong. I think they've been getting good car counts, from what I see & hear. I know the Pro Stock Tour has been making some changes, too, that seem pretty appealing. I don't know if two tours can survive in Atlantic Canada or not, but I think with competition, it's probably a good thing that a new tour started. There was no competition with the Pro Stock Tour forever, and they were just set in their ways. I'm not saying that's a bad deal, or a bad show they put on, they had a good product. But it was just the same old thing every time.
I think it's going to be strong, there's obviously a lot of cars signed up for the Mike Stevens this year. I'm not probably the guy to ask the guy how to do it, but I will definitely give my opinion, and definitely try to help. But it would definitely be neat to see more cars full-time on the tour again. I was a full-time driver obviously, and now I'm not. Even if they tripled the purse, and tripled the end of the year pay-out, I still don't know it would be feasible, or I wouldn't be able to make it work at the end of the day, so. A guy like me, I don't know if I could do it - to go back to the races full time.
It's looking pretty strong, and whatever tour is going to be running next year, and the following years, it's looking pretty healthy. I don't get into the politics anymore, I just show up and race when I want to, and I have run doing that, we still enjoy it. If it doesn't get fun anymore, we'll stop doing it, and we'll do something else. But right now it's fun to race 1, 2, or 3 races a year, and we'll keep doing that. We'll stay out of the politics, unless we're running full time or more races, then I don't get involved; I will just let the big guys handle that for now.
I'll be the first guy to say I don't know everything - I got my 2 cents. Like I said, if I was running full-time, if I was more involved, but I just don't want to be the guy who has all the answers, and says do this, do this, do this, and then, you know, I can't commit to full-time, I can't even commit to 50% of the races, so I just stay out of it. And if I feel like I'm going to have fun, I will just show up to the race. And if I feel like I'm not going to have fun, or if I feel like I'm not going to have time — I'm not saying I stopped racing full-time because it wasn't fun anymore. We still all love it, it's just with other things going on, we needed a little change.
Even after being away for a while, you seem to always nail your set-ups. What are some of the biggest contributors you'd say that always make you so fast?
I'm just trying to think of who I learned it from, but I always find you can't try to re-invent the wheel. You go with what you know. Yeah, there's always a new innovative thing that I might try, if it's not two or three things I will try. I might try a lot of things in testing, and practice. But if I'm not 100% sure what it will do in a long-run, I don't run it. Just don't try to re-invent the wheel. A lot of these guys, they think they have all these fancy new set-ups, but man, you just gotta run something basic. Get the car straight, and get everything set right. A lot of the guys, yeah, they might go off a notebook or whatever the Chassis recommends, but a lot of the guys don't even have the proper measurements. You just gotta take your time building the car, and if the car's close when you get to the race track -- I don't remember very many races where I showed up where I unloaded the car for the first practice, where I was off.
Usually it's hard to get those cars good with a few changes in the limited time that you have to practice. I always found that if we unload fast, where we are happy with our car in the first practice, then I’ll feel confident that we can have a good race, and a chance at winning it.
I've been made fun of by one of the fellas who helps out, because I won (20) races on the tour, and I haven't changed the two rear springs in the car. They've been the same two rear springs in every race we've won. I just the right rear spring actually, well - on the last race that we won. So that was a pretty big deal I guess at the end - my first time winning a race with a different right rear spring in the car. There's a lot of changes in the front end - a lot of little changes over the years, but I don't re-invent the wheel by any means.
Just little changes - I find there's not going to be that one change that picks up a 1/10th (of a second in lap times), or 2/10ths, but there might be that one little change that picks up a quarter of a tenth. And if you work on another change that picks up another quarter of a tenth, and then you make up another quarter here and there, that makes up a 10th pretty quick.
I have to say, for your driving style, and how many races you’ve run: door-to-door battles, and everything - you preserve your equipment very well.
It's funny you say that. When I first started racing, man, I wrecked that thing every week. I just remember going home very week with a wrecked race car. It came to a point that my father was almost losing interest in it. I was probably only 10 or 11, and it was kind of how I came to learn how to work on a race car, to be honest. He was probably being mean about it, but he probably did me a favour doing this. He just stopped working on it, he was a busy guy in the middle of his business career, he didn't have a whole lot of time. But he did stop working on it, he said if you're going to go to the race track and beat and bang, you're going to fix the car every week.
So I did learn a lot. I was young, really young, probably too young to work in the shop alone, but I was left alone in the shop to work on the car, and set it up. I remember being 12 years old and I was changing my own valve springs every second race in my Bandolero. I probably shouldn't have been doing it, but I learned how to do it - rev-limiter, valve springs. He was always hesitant and buying me valve springs every few races, but he said if I keep changing them, he'll keep buying them.
Another guy, Greg McLean, he taught me a lot when I was quite young, too. He would bring me to the race track quite a bit, and he explained to me that you can't win a race if you don't finish. So I had to first learn to finish the race before I could start winning races. Got that in my head, and it stuck with me.
Hypothetically, let's pretend time, travel, and so on were not factors. Are there any particular races that you'd like to run?
Oh man, I mean, the first one is obviously The Snowball Derby. I never got the chance to run down South, even when I was running full-time. But the Snowball Derby for sure, if I had all the money and time in the world, I would go do that one. I'd go do all the big ones, go run with my buddy Cole, I think we'd have a lot of fun. But yeah, I just wouldn't find it feasible with all of the travel, and the money, obviously.
But my dream and then my goal someday, yeah - is to go and take some time - it might not be next year, it might be 5 years - but that's my dream: to go run a touring series down there like Cole's doing. But as far as Super Late Model races go, the Derby, I'd love to go to Winchester (Winchester 400). I realize why they don't go to Bristol anymore (US Short Track Nationals - lots of specific/additional work - large expense, dwindling top names, and high risk of completely destroying a $120,000 car due to very high speeds, exceeding that of NASCAR Cup Series cars when they race there) but it'd be really neat to do that. Obviously the Oxford 250, I'd like to run some other PASS races, too.
It's a different series, but I'd like to go do that Martinsville Race (Valleystar Credit Union 300 - 200 lap feature w/ 100 laps worth of heat racing; Largest race in the Late Model Stock Car world), I love that track.
Feel free to shout out any sponsors, people who've helped you over the years, etc. and talk about your business ventures:
I just wish I could race more, but I'm busy with the business. I have a lot of real estate on the go, too. Auto World Truro: I have a great group of guys. We sell cars & service them, and you don't have to buy a car from us - if you don't buy a car from us, we still do oil changes, brake services, we do all of that stuff. We're a full service mechanic shop as well. Quinn Flooring, Tony Quinn has been not only a good friend, but you probably couldn't ask for a better friend.
I have my buddy Dave, he undercoats cars, Rust Check Truro is his company. He's going to come on board with us next year, and he helps on the car, too. I lost my crew chief there - I'm not saying I'm my own crew chief, but I make all the calls on the race car. But Jim, he stopped - he just got busy with life. So Dave took over the crew chief role, he looks after me. And then obviously my crew, I got a good crew. We're all friends - if we're not racing, we always hang out, even if we're not at the race track together. And then we get to all go to the race track and have a great time, so that makes it a lot more fun.
When #23 Lonnie Sommerville is not racing, also a really good friend of mine, he comes, and he crew chief's. When he comes, we always seem to run better, if he's there. He's extremely smart around these race cars, and it helps me immensely when he's at the race track, and he does a lot of work on my race car, too, leading up to the race, if I don't have time. He's been a huge part of the team, too.
I know I can't commit to a full season, but we are looking for sponsors for the 2024 season.
To follow up his spectacular win this summer in the Scotia 250, we will again get to see him behind a Pro/Super Late Model on October 8th for the 10th Annual Mike Stevens Memorial, a 254 lap race that brings prominent Quebec driver #91 Patrick Laperle, and representation from South of the Border, as well. Despite postponement from a nasty storm, this could wind up being the biggest race in the region for quite some time. Featuring a large, talent heavy entry list, and a rich purse, anything can happen.
One thing is for certain, you're not going to want to take your eyes off of the #67 for long. With 20 wins racked up on the Pro Stock Tour to date, even with a small schedule of select races run, that number is sure to continue growing.
