The Scoop
Jesse Krahn
Posted on: Sunday October 4, 2020
A ‘LIL WINDSHIELD TIME DOESN’T BOTHER BEAVER DAM’S KRAHN
Jesse Krahn and his racing family aren’t afraid to put a little bit of ‘windshield time’ in to enjoy their favorite sport.
Jesse, with his Dad Jim and mother Joy live in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin and have a racetrack (Beaver Dam Raceway) darn near a hop, skip and a jump from their shop.
2020 proved to be a banner year for the 2nd-generation racer. The 400-mile round-trip travels to a pair of different northeast Wisconsin clay ovals paid off. Krahn, driving a 2008 Dodge Challenger, battled his way to track championships at Outagamie Speedway in Seymour and 141 Speedway in Francis Creek.
Seymour runs its weekly program on Friday nights while 141 runs Saturday nights, same as Beaver Dam Raceway which is in the Krahn’s backyard. Friday nights the team would always pull the redeye express back home to Beaver Dam so Jim could open his racing shop Krahn Performance Racing. “It’s a lot of miles and sometimes if we’d run a special or another night it could wind up being a 600-mile racing trip weekend,” Jim Krahn said. “I’ve got to have the store open for my customers on Saturday. We’ve had the business for more than 25 years.”
“One of the main reasons we came up north to race was to battle against some pretty tough competition,” Jesse Krahn said. “When we race against the tough fields we do at Seymour and especially at 141 with the car counts they get when we do go back to Beaver Dam to race we can kick some butt. But we do have fun racing up north.”
Jesse got started racing a snowmobile when he was just four years old. From there Krahn got into go karts in 2000 at Badger Kartway in Dousman, WI. “Dad hung up his helmet in 1988 and my career started on that road course in karts,” Jesse Krahn said. “My Mom even raced at the Dodge County Fairgrounds at the half-mile.”
When Beaver Dam Raceway built a kart track in 2009 Jesse ran karts in his “backyard track” in 2009 and 2010. “I did take a year off from racing to play a team sport and that sport was football,” Jesse Krahn said. “After that we bought a street stock from Jon Schultz and ran full time in 2012. That’s when the serious street stock racing for me got rolling.”
The adjustment for the younger Krahn was a mighty one jumping up from the karts. “I still didn’t have a driver’s license when I started running street stocks,” Jesse Krahn explained. “It was a pretty big change. I was moving up to a car that had a lot more metal. More weight. More horsepower. When I started out, I turned in what I’d call some typical rookie performances. I spun out a couple of times and hit a couple of people.”
Beaver Dam has a unique situation where there are two racetracks literally within miles of each other. Beaver Dam Raceway is the privately owned and run facility while the Dodge County Fairgrounds half-mile now just hosts special events. “They did run weekly at the fairgrounds on Sunday nights in 2016 and I was the champion,” Jesse Krahn said. “I remember years ago when both tracks would race on the same night. Guys could run both tracks on the same night for a while.”
Even though the Krahn’s are from Beaver Dam they are more than familiar with the tracks in northeast Wisconsin. “I remember I’d start coming up to race at Shawano, Seymour and Luxemburg with Butch Behrendt around 1992 with his IMCA modified,” Jim Krahn said. “The competition was always tough, especially in the mods at Shawano. Early in the year before Beaver Dam and Hales Corners would open up they’d have between 60 to 70 modifieds there for a weekly program. It was very tough to make the feature with all those cars, and great drivers too.”
2020 proved to be Jesse’s ninth season racing with the street stocks. While car counts averaged around 18 or so weekly on Friday nights at Seymour 141 boasted a weekly average street stock car count of close to 36. “I’m proud of both track titles especially the Francis Creek title with all the cars they’ve had,” Jesse Krahn explained. “I mean we were able to beat guys like Eddie “The Eagle” (Anschutz) and Adam Crapser. Those guys are tough. Real tough.”
Both the 141 and Seymour ovals are a little bit different in their respective layouts. As such both ovals command differing driving styles. “Seymour has more sweeping corners whereas 141 has a real tight three and four corner so you’ve got to setup differently there” Jesse Krahn explained. “That’s what makes it so challenging at 141.”
“Jesse is relentless both on and off the track leaving nothing to chance,” said John Tienor, one of the board members of Eastern Wisconsin Stock Car (EWSC), the group that promotes the Friday night races at Seymour. “Jesse and his Dad Jim Krahn go over every single part of that race car. That’s a big part of what makes them so successful at Seymour.”
In 2020 236 drivers who were racing under the Unified street stock banner had earned points racing at respective Wisconsin and Michigan dirt tracks. “The package they’ve put together with the Unified street stocks is awesome,” Jesse Krahn said. “It’s something they should have done a long time ago. You can take your car and pretty much run it anywhere. It’s cool that tracks like Eagle River Speedway and UPIR (Upper Peninsula International Raceway in Escanaba, Michigan) have picked up this rules package too. You don’t have to worry about the rules anymore because you already know you’re legal.”
For 2020 Krahn’s built a brand-new race car. They teamed up with Kenny Richards of Montello, Wisconsin and constructed a 2020 Outlaw Metric chassis coil over race car. “My older car was the Nova and was a leaf spring car we built with Jerry Winkler,” Jesse Krahn said.
Krahn’s pit crew members include Ray Roe, Chris Aellig, Marissa Dachs, Ron Preskar, Jesse’s parents Jim and Joy Krahn, Denny Baye, Bri Harli and Adam Waala.
Krahn has a solid fleet of sponsors that keep his 55 car rolling all season long. Those backers include Krahn Performance Racing, Schultz Auto Body, M & S Fabrication, MATCO Tools DBA Jon Schultz, Fueled Customs, Kashmir Electric, Ross Farms, Design Plus Embroidery & Screen Printing, Domino’s Pizza of Horicon, Wisconsin, Behling Circle Track Equipment of Butler, Wisconsin, Demon Race Engines, KNR Transport, Tim Paitrick Transmission & Auto Repair, Gould Plumbing Inc., Outlaw Chassis & Suspension, Iverson Inc, Mueller’s Sales & Service, SQ Coatings LLC, Mo’s Bar & Grill, Krahn’s Tree Farm, R.E.E.L. Cleaning Solutions, Forsaken Motorsports, Premiere Signs & Graphics, Schaeffer’s Racing Oil and Gasroots Racing Project.