When you think of modified car owners, the name Lenny Boehler has to come to mind. From Old Blue, Lenny’s familiar coupe, to the current high dollar NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour cars of today, Boehler’s cars have run with, and beaten, the best. Lenny boasted 6 NASCAR modified championships. Three were won by NEAR Hall of Fame member, Bugsy Stevens in 1967, '68, and ’69. Wayne Anderson added a fourth in 1994, and Tony Hirschman followed up with two more in 1995 and ’96.
Hall of Famers Fred DeSarro, Leo Cleary, along with Tommy Cravenho, and Bruce “Gomer” Taylor each took a turn at wheeling the #3. Doug Heveron, Mike McLaughlin, and Ron and Ken Bouchard are drivers who have competed in Len Boehler’s car before heading down south to make names for themselves in southern NASCAR series. The team, under Lenny’s son Mike Boehler, continues to be a force on the Featherlite tour with driver Jerry Marquis.
Len Boehler was a mechanic who enjoyed taking old parts and finding new ways to put them into his racecars and make them run faster than the shiny, high dollar cars that the competitors fielded.
An example of Len’s engineering prowess was his “ball joint coolers”. Lenny took two Maxwell House coffee cans and some hose clamps and used them to scoop air to his ball joints. A nice side effect of this system was that the airflow helped to cool his front brakes. Lenny ran his operation his way.
Lenny’s wife, Janice, remembers getting a letter from NEAR Hall of Fame member, Jack Arute, Sr., saying the primered #3 needed a fresh coat of paint before it could be brought back to Stafford. “The paint didn’t make it go any faster”, laughs Janice. “So it really didn’t matter.”
Today, we welcome Len Boehler posthumously into the NEAR Hall of Fame. |
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Mrs. Len Boehler and Mike Boheler (left) accept induction from Racing Journalist Phil Smith
Dave Mouvlogonis Photo
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