Lenny Boehler

Car Owner
CLASS OF 2004

When you think of modified car owners, the name Lenny Boehler has to come to mind. He first came to prominence with Bugsy Stevens as his driver. They won the Modified Championships at both Stafford Speedway & Thompson Speedway in 1966, at both tracks again in 1968 and a third title at Thompson in 1969. They also won 3 straight NASCAR Modified Championships from 1967-1969.

Lenny teamed up with Fred DeSarro in 1971, and they became one of the top New England race teams during the 1970’s. They won the Stafford Speedway Modified Championship in 1972 and again in 1976. They also dominated Thompson Speedway’s Sunday twi-night series, winning four straight modified titles from 1974-1977, including winning 14 of the 18 races held in 1974. They were a force at the region’s big events, with Fred wheeling Boehler’s “Old Blue” #3 to wins in the 1972 Spring Sizzler at Stafford Speedway and the 1974 Race of Champions race at Trenton Speedway.

Lenny also built cars to race in the Permatex 300, a Late Model Sportsman race held at Daytona International Speedway the day before the Daytona 500. He scored a Top 10 finish in 1968 with Bugsy Stevens, then a 6th place in 1973 and a runner-up to Merv Treichler in 1975 with Fred DeSarro.

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.

After DeSarro’s tragic death late in the 1978 season, Boehler teamed up with Leo Cleary to win the modified title at Seekonk Speedway. It was Boehler’s 12th championship at New England tracks.

Then over 25 years after his first 3-peat, Boehler won 3 straight NASCAR Modified Tour Championships again in the early 1990’s. First with Wayne Anderson in 1994, then with Tony Hirschman in 1995-1996. Others who’ve drove for Boehler over the years included Doug Heveron, Mike McLaughlin, Ron & Ken Bouchard.

Lenny passed away on May 13, 2001 at the age of 63. His son Mike has continued the race team operation on the NASCAR Modified Tour and other big events in the region ever since.