When Jesse Krahn raced the street stock of his championship rival, Larry Richards, he handed over the title to Richards. Richards was only three points ahead of Krahn at Beaver Dam Raceway in Wisconsin, but Richards suffered a heart attack at the track at the prior race.
(For more on Richards, read “Easton Riedner, 12, Helps Save Life of Racer Larry Richards.”)
The track’s rule book permits a relief driver to fill in once per season, allowing for the preservation of points.
“I will be piloting Larry’s car because I feel it is the right thing to do,” Krahn, of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, said, prior to the race. “He earned the championship and I am going to make sure he gets what he has earned.”
Krahn respects Richards, a racer more than 40 years his senior.
“After what happened to Larry, my husband, Kenny, got a phone call from Jesse,” said Amy Richards, Larry’s daughter-in-law. “[Jesse] said, ‘Out of respect for your father, he’s beat me to this point. The championship is his. I would like to be his relief driver since I am the only one who could beat him in points.’ We thought this was so generous — the two of them have been back and forth at the top of the points all season long.”
Krahn’s ties to the Richards family date back to 2012, when Krahn first entered street stock competition.
“Kenny, Larry’s son, who owns Outlaw Chassis, helped us all along the way, even though we had a different chassis in the beginning,” Krahn said.
Ultimately, it will be an honor for Jesse Krahn to race on behalf of Larry Richards.
“Only three points — in racing you don’t know what can happen,” Krahn said. “You could be caught up in a wreck. You can blow an engine. I wanted to make this decision to take out any possibility that Larry wouldn’t win the championship.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
