Sports
Blada gets win at River Cities Speedway
Tyler Ohmann
07/09/2013
Kramer’s Erik Blada has done it again.
With a win last weekend at Grand Forks’ River Cities Speedway (RCS), Blada can cross another track off the list of tracks that he has earned the checkered flag on.
“I don’t know if we really changed anything as far as what we do,” Blada said. “I guess the car was just really good that night, and it just worked out and we were in the right place at the right time, and we got the checkered flag.”
Blada, who was born without legs and operates his car with his hands, has found lots of success on the race track in recent years.
He was both the Thunder Mountain Speedway (located north of Bottineau) and the Geographical Center Speedway (near Rugby) season champion in 2011, a season in which he earned several checkered flags.
He has also won at Devils Lake Speedway, making his win last week at RCS the fourth track he has finished first on.
Blada said that he liked the track.
“It’s a really nice track, a really short track, just a quarter-mile high bank,” Blada said. “It’s a little different, but a really, really nice facility.”
As for why he wanted to get away from his normal tracks, he said sometimes it’s nice to see some different competition.
“It’s just always nice to go to different tracks and race with other drivers,” Blada said. “You kind of know what you got, and the more people you travel with, it’s just a racing thing.”
“It’s fun to go and race with other people too,” Blada added.
Maybe it will help Blada at TMS too. After the title in 2011 and a runner-up finish last year, Blada has struggled a bit this season. He currently sits in the bottom half of the point standings.
Or maybe he’ll just find another track to add to his list.