By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Belleville, Kansas (May 15, 2023)………Kody Swanson’s run with DePalma Motorsports between 2014-18 made them the most successful USAC Silver Crown pairing in the history of the sport.
In fact, Swanson and DePalma’s 21 wins and four championships together in a five-year span are second to none.
Five years ago, it seemed as if the days of the iconic white and red-lettered No. 63 were gone forever. The team had retired from the sport at the top of their game, and with that, USAC made an unprecedented decision in permanently retiring the No. 63 from use in Silver Crown competition.
While the number 63 itself won’t be returning anytime soon to the racetrack, as it turns out, a major part of the 63 team will play a starring role in the upcoming Silver Crown season for Swanson and the Doran-Binks Racing team he drives for.
Over the last two seasons in 2021-22, Swanson and Doran have teamed up to run solely on the pavement. This year, however, the team initiated plans to add a dirt car to the stable. But one major factor remained unresolved. They needed a dirt car.
That’s where the 63 comes in.
Some years ago, a friend of Swanson’s acquired the last DePalma Motorsports No. 63, which ran throughout the 2018 season. With it, his plans included taking it on the vintage racing circuit.
After a half-decade, however, the car remained set in place, just a phone call away. When the time came, Doran-Binks Racing reacquired the very same Maxim chassis and frame, bringing the car out of “retirement” to race again throughout 2023 for the first time since it left the track at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway in September of 2018.
In that time, much has changed all around us. But a few things have remained the same ever since. Swanson is still winning USAC Silver Crown races at a record clip and he’s still capturing championships. Also, his dirt car has not changed its features either, just its stripes, with Mission Foods sponsorship and a big and bold 77 adorning the tail tank and nose.
“There’s so much of it that’s the same,” Swanson explained. “It’s got a new look, a new number and new vinyl on it, but most everything else is exactly the same.”
Being the car he raced to his fourth career Silver Crown championship, Swanson retains a special fondness for the machine, which he recently got behind the wheel of for a test and tune at Eldora where the team got some laps in and made sure everything was in working order.
“The car ran in one my favorite dirt Silver Crown races ever at Terre Haute that year,” Swanson recalled of the 2018 dirt season opener. “We had engine troubles, missed qualifying, then changed an engine. We started from the tail of a 12-car field in the B-Main and got second. Then, we came from the tail and into the lead in the feature and got wrecked, then came back from the tail again and got second. That was the first race on that car, and in our next race with the car, we won our fourth Hoosier Hundred.”
Like a pair of worn-in shoes that just feels right, the situation brings an air of comfortability to Swanson, not only with the car itself but also with the people it brings along to the team when Swanson was on his mid-2010s roll.
“I’ve been talking to (National Sprint Car Hall of Famer) Bob Hampshire a good bit about it, and Clark Lamme, who was a longtime mechanic with Hampshire, and he’s been coming over and helping out at the Doran shop too,” Swanson said. “Having Clark helping oversee it makes me feel a lot better about venturing into a new discipline for the rest of the team and me getting back into it in that capacity.”
Lamme will go on the road with the team to all the dirt races this season while Hampshire has offered his extensive knowledge over the phone. Kent Wolters, a longtime racer himself and who Swanson raced for with great success in sprint cars, will also lend a hand during the season.
“It’s really nice to have those people in your corner as much as a familiar car,” Swanson related. “Having some good friends be a part of it really helps out too.”
RACE DETAILS:
Swanson starts up his USAC Silver Crown National Championship this Friday-Saturday, May 19-20, at the Belleville (Kan.) High Banks, where he previously won a 50-lapper in 2014 for the DePalma Motorsports team.
On Friday, it’s practice night for the USAC Silver Crown division at Belleville with three separate sessions throughout the night in conjunction with a full program for the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship. The pits open at 3pm Central. Front gates open at 5:30pm. Hot laps start at 6:30pm, followed by qualifying and racing. General admission and reserved tickets are $25. General admission and reserved tickets for ages 12 and under are $15. A one-day pit pass is $35 and two-day pit passes are $60.
On Saturday, it’s a full race day for both the USAC Silver Crown and USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship divisions. The pits open at 3pm Central. Front gates open at 5:30pm. Hot laps start at 6:30pm, followed by qualifying and racing. General admission and reserved tickets are $30. General admission and reserved tickets for ages 12 and under are $20. A one-day pit pass is $40 and two-day pit passes are $60.
The entire events for both nights at Belleville, can be watched LIVE on FloRacing at https://flosports.link/3ZjeooQ.
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Speedway, Indiana (April 12, 2023)………USAC Silver Crown racing is back in a big way.
That could be said unequivocally in more ways than one with a record 16 full-time entries set to embark on the National Championship trail throughout the 2023 season.
This Sunday’s, April 16 season opening race on the dirt 1/2-mile of the Terre Haute (Ind.) Action Track brings us joy and it brings us questions that we’ll soon get to see answered during this year’s 13-race schedule – seven on pavement, six on dirt.
SWANSON IN-HOUSE WITH DORAN-BINKS
After scoring two championships during the last two USAC Silver Crown seasons, Kody Swanson had been in a situation in which he had to utilize multiple teams, multiple crew chiefs and multiple shop locations in order to reach his goal. The method worked, and from the outside vantage point, he made it seem almost seamless as he racked his record-extending seventh series title in 2022.
This year, however, Swanson (Kingsburg, Calif.) and Doran-Binks Racing will have the whole operation in house, in one location at Kevin Doran’s Lebanon, Ohio base with team co-owner Dan Binks coming aboard from the sports car racing world where both he and Doran have had immense success.
The team has been excellent on the pavement with the USAC Silver Crown series over the past two seasons with Swanson winning three apiece, all on the pavement, in both 2021 and 2022. Together, in 10 series starts, the team has won six times, and has never finished worse than fourth. It will be interesting to see how their pavement performance translates to the dirt in the coming year. (click here for full story)
OPENING RACE DETAILS:
The 20th running of the Sumar Classic features the USAC Silver Crown National Championship along with the UMP Modifieds this Sunday, April 16, at the Terre Haute Action Track 1/2-mile dirt track in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Pits open at 1pm Eastern, grandstands open at 3pm, drivers meeting at 4pm and practice at 5pm followed immediately by qualifications and racing.
General admission tickets are $30 for ages 11 & up and free for kids age 10 & under. Infield tickets are $20 for ages 11 & up and free for kids age 10 & under.
MISSION FOODS TO SPONSOR SWANSON
In Doran Binks Racing No. 77 in 2023
For USAC Silver Crown and 500 Sprint Car Tour Series
LEBANON, Ohio, March 29 — Mission Foods, the leading producer of tortillas in the United States and the manufacturer of a variety of authentic Mexican products, will be the primary sponsor of Kody Swanson this year in both the USAC Silver Crown and the 500 Sprint Car Tour series.
Swanson is the defending champion of both series.
Swanson’s cars will be fielded by Kevin Doran and Dan Binks working together as Doran Binks Racing, and they will be based at Doran Racing’s headquarters in Lebanon, Ohio. Glenn Farms will be the team’s associate sponsor. The race cars will all be No. 77.
Doran Racing fielded Swanson’s asphalt USAC Silver Crown car last year. This year Doran Binks Racing will field both the asphalt and dirt USAC Silver Crown cars for Swanson.
Doran Binks Racing plans to compete in all 14 USAC Silver Crown races in 2023. As a seven-time champion, Swanson’s 37 victories make him the winningest driver in the history of this series, the top class of USAC.
Swanson, a native of Kingsburg, Calif., who now lives in Indianapolis, won three races enroute to last year’s USAC Silver Crown title. In August he beat his own world speed record for a traditional USAC Silver Crown car with a speed of 146.699 miles per hour during qualifying at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Ill.
The 500 Sprint Car Tour consists of 10 races this year. It includes the most prestigious asphalt sprint car race in the world, the 75th annual Lucas Oil Little 500 presented by UAW on May 27 at Anderson (Ind.) Speedway. Swanson is a three-time winner of the Little 500.
Last year Doran Racing and Swanson posted two victories, six podium finishes and won the inaugural 500 Sprint Car Tour championship using engines prepared by Binks.
"I'm excited about this year and the season ahead,” said Swanson. “This is a tremendous opportunity to work together with some great friends and talented racers, and do it all out of the same building. I'm thankful for the chance to partner with the Mission brand, and hope to represent an iconic company well while competing for wins and championships."
While Swanson is a legend in USAC, Doran and Binks are both legends in endurance sports car racing.
Doran has won the Rolex 24 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway as a crew chief, a team member, a team manager, a car owner, and even as a car manufacturer. Prior to fielding cars under Doran Racing, he had many victories with the late Al Holbert, a five-time IMSA Camel GT champion; the MOMO Ferrari team, and Doran Lista Racing.
Binks, of Brighton, Mich., was the crew chief for Corvette Racing’s factory sports car team for nearly 20 years. Under his direction that team won the 24 Hours of Le Mans six times and numerous IMSA championships.
Prior to becoming one of the most recognizable faces of Corvette Racing, Binks won IMSA GTU races with a Mazda RX-7 with various drivers; enjoyed great success in Trans Am, and even was a crew chief for Roush Fenway Racing in NASCAR.
The 500 Sprint Car Tour season opens Saturday, April 8 at Anderson Speedway in Anderson, Ind.
The USAC Silver Crown series opens the following weekend with the 20th running of the Sumar Classic on Sunday, April 16 at the Terre Haute (Ind.) Action Track.
About Mission Foods:
The Gruma Corporation began in 1949 and is today the leading tortilla manufacturer worldwide. Mission Foods is a proud subsidiary of Gruma, and as the #1 tortilla company in the United States, manufactures a wide variety of authentic Mexican products. Five years ago it opened a state-of-the-art plant in Dallas, Texas, with the capacity to produce 30 million tortillas daily. Today Mission Foods is a global company, with special emphasis not only on the United States but also Mexico, Central America, Europe, China, Malaysia, and Australia. Its products include flour and corn tortillas; tostadas; low-carb, whole wheat, organic and gluten-free items; wraps; flatbreads such as naan, pita and roti; tortilla chips and organic chips; chicharrones; salsa, and dips. For more information see missionfoods.com.
SOUTHWICK, Mass., Dec. 7 — Tim Bertrand, owner of Bertrand Motorsports, is pleased to
announce he has signed Kody Swanson to drive for his team at four premier midget events in
2023.
Swanson will drive a Bertrand Motorsports Beast with a Stanton engine in the Carb Night
Classic at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP) in Brownsburg, Ind., on Friday, May 26; the
Boston Louie Seymour Memorial at Seekonk (Mass.) Speedway on Saturday, July 15; the Twin
25 midget races at IRP on Saturday, Aug. 12, and the Howard Companies Championship
Saturday at IRP on Oct. 21. All three of the events at IRP are marquee events of the United
States Auto Club (USAC) and part of the National Pavement Midget Championship, while the
Boston Louie Seymour Memorial is a cornerstone of the Northeastern Midget Association
(NEMA) schedule each year.
It will mark the second year of Swanson’s participation with the Southwick, Mass.-based team,
which has won 11 NEMA championships. The team finished first and second in the NEMA
championship this year with Avery Stoehr of Lakeville, Mass., and Randy Cabral of Plymouth,
Mass., respectively.
Swanson, a native of Kingsburg, Calif., who resides in Indianapolis, is the winningest driver in
USAC Silver Crown history with seven championships. He and his brother, Tanner, are tied for
the most USAC Silver Crown victories ever at IRP with seven. Kody Swanson also sewed up the
inaugural championship of the 500 Sprint Car Tour in October at IRP.
Bertrand said he plans to field three cars, and possibly a fourth, in the events at IRP. Cole Carter
of Brownsburg, Ind., and Nathan Byrd of Goodyear, Ariz., will be Swanson’s teammates in those
races.
The team owns seven pavement midgets in all. It will continue to field two full-time in NEMA
events for Stoehr and Cabral. Cabral has won eight NEMA championships driving for Bertrand
Motorsports; Stoehr has won two for the team, and Todd Bertrand, Tim’s brother, was the
NEMA champion in 2020. The team is second on the all-time NEMA win list with 101 feature
victories.
Bertrand Motorsports has won the Boston Louie Seymour Memorial eight times, including this
year with Stoehr.
The team’s primary sponsor is project44, a software company based in Chicago which is the
world’s leading advanced visibility platform for shippers and third-party logistics firms. It helps
thousands of the world’s largest brands make their supply chains work.
Other sponsors include Esslinger, Bass Plating, Plas Tec Coatings, Eibach Springs, TJ Forged, ARS,
CSI, JRC Transportation and Stanton.
“There were many reasons we hired Kody,” Bertrand said. “He’s the all-time USAC Silver Crown
winner and a master at IRP, and winning a race at IRP is definitely on my bucket list. It’s
something I’ve been aiming to do my whole career. It would rank up there with any other
victory we’ve had in our team’s history.
“I would say that being involved with him this year has fast-forwarded our program about five
to 10 years,” Bertrand continued. “The knowledge he brings about the cars and the tracks and
open-wheel cars in general brings us to a new level. We were a threat for a win or a podium at
every race this year, but we had some mechanical issues that caused our results on paper to
not really match Kody and the car’s actual performances. We’re headed into the new year
much more aware of how to fix some of the issues we had, and we’re really excited about next
year.
“Another reason is that we really enjoy working with him and the Dorans and with the Swanson
family; they’re first-class individuals,” added Bertrand. (Swanson’s four Silver Crown victories
this year and the 500 Sprint Car Tour championship came driving Doran Racing-fielded cars.)
“Part of the reason I do this is to be with good people, and that’s something that he and his
team and his family bring to the table.”
“I’m excited to return to the Bertrand Motorsports team in 2023,” said Swanson. “It was great
to get to know them this year, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to have raced with them.
They have a great team atmosphere, and I enjoy working with everyone that is part of it. While
our final results weren’t what we hoped for, we made real progress throughout our first
season, and I felt like we were still in contention for a podium finish in each race. So I’m looking
forward to continue building on what we’ve learned so far, and giving it our best shot in the
upcoming season.
“I’m thankful for the chance to compete in the Boston Louie race,” Swanson continued. “The
Bertrands have such a long history of success in the NEMA series, and with winged midgets, so
I’m really looking forward to being able to try my hand at this new discipline with them.”
Towing halfway across the country to race adds to the challenge, and Bertrand said that his
team couldn’t make the IRP events without the help of his father, Gil. “He drove back and forth
from Connecticut to Indianapolis to support this operation,” he said. “Between testing; working
on the cars; going to Doran’s shop in Lebanon, Ohio, and towing to the races at IRP, we
wouldn’t be able to do this without my dad.”
Bertrand also singled out longtime TQ midget racer John Smith and veteran midget and TQ
racer Rich Tolerico for their help; Glen Cabral, longtime crew member; Nick Makrianis; Andy
Weeks; Brandon Igo, Kevin Park, and of course, his family: wife, Cara; daughter, Norah; brothers
Todd and Patrick; sister-in-law, Mariah, and niece and nephew, Ellie and Tucker.
“Kody brings a couple of great helpers too,” he added. “Ryan Roberts has been with Kody for a
long time, as has Clark Lamme. His wife, Jordan, is his spotter. We’ve put together a little crew
of people we’re both comfortable with to help build the best-possible crew that we could for
this effort, and we’re all looking forward to 2023.”
For more information on Bertrand Motorsports, follow it on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram
(BertrandMotorsports) and Twitter (BertrandMS). For more information on Swanson, see
kodyswansonracing.com and shopkodyswanson.com and follow him on Facebook
(KodySwansonRacin) and Twitter and Instagram (kodyswanson).
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Speedway, Indiana (October 24, 2022)………Throughout the first 51 years of the USAC Silver Crown series’ existence, the number 1 had never captured the championship.
But if there’s anybody who was up to the task to alter that half-a-century narrative, it was certainly Kody Swanson.
Swanson’s efforts led him to become just the third driver in USAC history to earn seven national championships within a single division. A.J. Foyt grabbed seven USAC Championship Car titles between 1960-79. Mel Kenyon performed likewise, scoring seven crowns with the USAC National Midgets between 1964-1985.
Kody has made quick work of his seven USAC Silver Crown championships, which have all been earned in a nine-season span between 2014-2022.
In a unique partnership, Swanson wheeled entries for both Doran Racing and Chris Dyson Racing as completely separate entities throughout his quest to the 2021 series championship. In 2022, the two teams combined forces on paper to earn each team’s first ever entrant title.
The newly christened Doran-Dyson Racing partnership operated from separate shops to house Doran’s pavement car and Dyson’s dirt car for Swanson to drive. The shared team name and number presented an opportunity for all parties to compete under the same umbrella for the same united goal – to win a season championship.
What’s unparallelly interesting about the Doran and Dyson pairing is the two team’s shared backgrounds in road racing. In fact, a photo from the 1980s currently hangs in the Doran team shop and features Al Holbert at speed in IMSA Camel GT competition, driving the famed Lowenbrau Porsche 962 that Kevin Doran was the crew chief of. In the background of that same photo, as fate would have it, was a Dyson Racing machine.
All these years later, the two teamed up for left turns only, and became champions of the oval track variety.
“I’m really fortunate to have the opportunities that I’ve had,” Swanson acknowledged. “I’ve driven for a lot of great race teams and I’m thankful for each one. This year, to have driven for Doran and Dyson in a combination effort, what a special year to do it and have it come down right to the end. We gave it all we had and it’s really special to win the championship any way you can. Winning a USAC title really means a lot and to have it be a seventh is really special.”
While finishes of 7th at Terre Haute, 2nd at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, 8th at Port Royal and 4th at Madison and a third-place position in points may not seem that unsettling to most observers, consider this. The four-race drought was the longest winless stretch Swanson has endured to start a Silver Crown season since 2013, nearly a full decade ago.
Oddly enough, it was a non-points, special event that kickstarted Swanson’s summertime turnaround which put the Kingsburg, Calif. native in the driver’s seat of the championship run following the first non-championship Silver Crown event of its kind since 1996.
Swanson led the 25-lap, 10-car shootout wire-to-wire in June at IRP. It’s a roll he matriculated into Winchester Speedway where he avenged the previous year’s half-car-length defeat with a triumph in which he was 10 seconds ahead of the field at the finish line, putting all but second place finisher Logan Seavey a lap down.
Since 1976, there had been one individual who stood head and shoulders above all others in terms of USAC national feature victories at Ohio’s Toledo Speedway. That was Rollie Beale. In August, Swanson topped the 1973 USAC National Sprint Car champion’s long-standing win record in the race named after the legend he passed. Swanson once again led all 100 laps in succession for his sixth career Toledo victory.
Onto mid-August, it was relatively the same story at Illinois’ World Wide Technology Raceway. Earlier in the day, Swanson became the first to reach 40 career USAC Silver Crown pole positions during a qualifying run which set a new world speed record for a traditional USAC Silver Crown with a time of 30.675 seconds, which translates to 146.699 mph, eclipsing the former speed record for a traditional Silver Crown car set by himself at Iowa Speedway with a 146.212 mph in 2012.
The term “traditional” is used in this matter due to the utilization of a “New Generation” “Super Speedway” car that was used in competition solely during the years of 2006-07. Aaron Pierce turned a qualifying lap of 175.012 mph during the brief era in USAC history at Florida’s Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2006.
At WWTR, Swanson saw the lead slip away early, but made his way back to the front to lead the final 48 laps of the 80-lap affair at the 1.25-mile paved oval located in the shadow of the St. Louis arch.
Now 63 points ahead, the championship seemed well within hand for Swanson as the series moved into a stretch of dirt races. However, that part of the equation suited second place points runner Seavey quite well down the stretch.
Seavey made up ground with a victory in an attrition-filled race at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds, which saw just seven of the 30 starters still running at the checkered of the 100-lap distance. In doing so, Seavey became the third driver to win both a stock car and champ car race at the Du Quoin Mile along with Jimmy Bryan and A.J. Foyt.
Swanson still maintained full control of the point standings by late September after a somewhat sluggish beginning, but one bit of misfortune can spell near doom and gloom, and that’s what eventually came to be.
“We struggled at the beginning of the year; it was just kind of the way it went,” Swanson recalled. “We didn’t have the dirt race finishes that we wanted, and it was the same with the pavement. We struggled at Madison, but we got hot there in that stretch of summer to resurrect it, but I hate that I made an error at Eldora and almost gave it all away.”
The 4-Crown Nationals at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway in September proved to be exhilarating for Seavey and crushing for Swanson. While Seavey was punishing the field en route to his third consecutive dirt Silver Crown victory of the season, Swanson experienced the complete other end of the spectrum in the first turn on the first lap.
That’s when fifth-starting Swanson and fellow third row starter Carmen Perigo collided, sending Swanson backwards into the outside retaining wall where he was then clipped by the right rear tire of the oncoming Matt Westfall, resulting in a bent axle for Swanson which knocked him out of the race and into a 27th place result, the worst finishing position of his entire USAC Silver Crown career.
The melee accrued disastrous consequences for Swanson as his commanding 57-point lead entering the race dwindled to zero by the end of the night and emerged knotted up alongside Seavey atop the standings with two races remaining.
Seavey and Swanson stayed pretty much in lock step following October’s run at the Illinois State Fairgrounds dirt mile. There, Seavey took third and Swanson fourth, giving Seavey a three-point edge entering the finale right in Swanson’s wheelhouse a week later on the pavement at IRP.
Swanson performed as expected, winning the pole to grab three bonus points which drew him even with Seavey going into the final 100 laps of the year. Swanson took off with the lead while Seavey stayed in the hunt, running a solid third on lap 12 when the proverbial carpet was pulled from beneath him. The culprit for Seavey was a broken oil pump belt, ending his shot at a title run.
Meanwhile, when Swanson crossed the line in front on lap 51, he clinched three more bonus points for leading the most laps which elevated him ahead of Seavey once and for all. With Seavey on the sidelines, Swanson finished 4th once more and ultimately took the title by a 41-point margin. He also became the 14th driver overall, and the first since 2016, to overtake the point leader for the championship in the final race.
Seven driver tallied victories during the 2022 Silver Crown season with Seavey and Swanson both putting one on the board on three occasions. All three for Seavey came on dirt and all three came on pavement for Swanson.
Justin Grant (Ione, Calif.) won the season opener in May at Indiana’s Terre Haute Action Track via a pass of Jerry Coons Jr. with four laps remaining and extended his consecutive start streak with the series to 71, which ranks as the fourth most all-time behind Brian Tyler’s 97, Kody Swanson’s 88 and Dave Darland’s 79.
Bobby Santos (Franklin, Mass.) earned his first USAC Silver Crown score in more than four years after regaining the lead back from Kody Swanson late in the going during a late-May go at IRP.
So-called “dirt guy” C.J. Leary (Greenfield, Ind.) displayed his pavement prowess with a dominant performance in June at Wisconsin’s Madison International Speedway, his first win on pavement since he was behind the wheel of TQ Midgets and karts during the early stages of his racing career.
Shane Cockrum (Benton, Ill.) became the 26th driver to win a AAA/USAC Champ Car race at both Illinois dirt miles in his career. He found redemption in October at the Illinois State Fairgrounds with popular victory after previously winning at Du Quoin in 2014-15.
Tanner Swanson (Kingsburg, Calif.) made it an all-Swanson evening in October’s finale at IRP, passing brother Kody for the lead with 35 laps to go on his way to his first series win in two years while his older sibling celebrated a series championship.
Swanson led or was tied in nearly every single statistical category. His 322 laps led were the most as were his top-tens (10) and pole positions (5). He and Seavey each pegged eight top-fives throughout the run.
Gregg Cory (Shelbyville, Ind.) made his first foray into USAC Silver Crown racing a successful one in 2022 after previously finding success in TQ Midgets and Sprint Cars, bagging a Paragon (Ind.) Speedway track championship in 2006. He made starts in 10 of the 11 main events and finished a best of 10th at IRP in May.
Third place was the best finish by a series Rookie in 2022 with two drivers reaching the mark. Mario Clouser (Auburn, Ill.) snared a third in August at World Wide Technology Raceway while Tyler Roahrig (Plymouth, Ind.) rode the high line to pick up third in the last show of the year at IRP.
Casey Buckman (Chandler, Ariz.) recorded his best career USAC Silver Crown finish at the Du Quoin 100-miler where he also made the biggest move of the season. Buckman, the track and facility manager at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park by day, charged from his 23rd starting position to finish 5th.
Six drivers made feature starts in all 11 events during the 2022 campaign: Grant, Leary, Seavey, Swanson, Brian Tyler (Parma, Mich.) and Travis Welpott (Pendleton, Ind.).
Women made a huge impact on the USAC Silver Crown scene with historical performances from two different drivers. Taylor Ferns (Shelby Township, Mich.) became the first woman to finish on the podium of a USAC Silver Crown event at IRP in May, then repeated her feat with another third place result in July at Winchester (Ind.) Speedway.
Kaylee Bryson (Muskogee, Okla.) captivated the audience with a rim-riding effort on seven cylinders at the Illinois State Fairgrounds while becoming the first woman to lead a single lap in the history of the Silver Crown series. In fact, she led 72 out of the 100 laps before finishing in the 5th spot.
The series was saddened to learn of the death of Terre Babb (Decatur, Ill.), who passed away from a heart attack while leading a winged sprint car feature in a non-USAC sanctioned event at Missouri’s Saint Francois County Raceway in July at the age of 55. Babb had competed with the USAC Silver Crown series since 1989, and in May of 2022, made his 31st and final USAC Silver Crown start at Terre Haute, finishing 9th. His career best finish with the series came at the same track in 2010 where he earned a 4th.
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Brownsburg, Indiana (October 22, 2022)………The Brothers Swanson corralled all the USAC Silver Crown headlines during Championship Saturday at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
While Tanner Swanson took the feature victory in the 100-lap battle of the Kingsburg, Calif. siblings, it was Kody Swanson who emerged as the series champion once more for the seventh time in his illustrious career.
Tanner tracked down Kody in lapped traffic with 35 circuits remaining, then led the balance of the distance to earn his seventh career USAC Silver Crown win at IRP, tying himself with, you guessed it, Kody, as the all-time winningest series driver at the track.
Meanwhile, Kody, who trailed Logan Seavey by three points entering the event, collected three points for winning his 41st career pole position to lead off the festivities. Kody officially moved atop the series point standings when he led the 51st lap, clinching the three-point bonus awarded to the driver leading the most laps in the feature.
Simultaneously, Kody was experiencing an assault upon the unconditional expression of “Brotherly Love.” Tanner continuously applied pressure to the rear bumper of Kody until executing his move in traffic on lap 66 to make the pass and make himself a happy winner after capturing his first series victory in more than two seasons aboard his Bowman Racing/Bricker’s Pub – T.J. Forged/Beast/Kistler Chevy.
Near midway, Tanner came to the realization that he was pushing too hard. Once the seed of information was planted from his newfound communication via the spotter, Tanner whoa’d up and recalibrated his approach.
“It’s just a high-speed chess match here,” Tanner related. “You’ve got two cars that are that good and I didn’t have any radio communication for the first half of it. I really didn’t know how many laps were left, so I was pushing him a little bit and trying to see where he was at and where I was at. I thought we were feeling pretty good, then I finally got somebody to come over the radio and say ’40 to go,’ and I was like, ‘Uh oh, we’ve been pushing way too hard!’” So, I backed off a little bit, then I got lucky with some lapped cars. Once we got into clean air, we were able to log some good laps.”
“Lucky” is a bit of a misnomer with luck usually playing into the hands of the driver who finds himself in the right place at the right time. That’s precisely where Tanner was on lap 66 when Kody found himself sandwiched between the tail-end lead lap cars of Nathan Byrd and Brian Tyler in turn four. Kody was forced to check up while Tanner carried a full head of steam and dove under all three to snare the lead away at the line.
“Being in second while going through lapped traffic is the best place to be,” Tanner acknowledged. “I was able to make the easy decision while Kody had the hard decision, and I just did whatever he didn’t do. I got really lucky with those two guys who pinned him in. If that hadn’t happened, I don’t know how it would’ve played out.”
Three-quarters of a lap later, the caution fell for the first of the race when Kyle Robbins (13th) spun at the exit of turn four. Jake Day (15th) attempted to avoid by maneuvering to the high side, but clipped Robbins’ left rear wheel with his left front, sending Day on a straight path into the inside wall. Both drivers were okay, but both saw an early end to their races.
Thereafter, Kody lost second when C.J. Leary dove under in turn one to steal the position away on the lap 74 restart. Kody further slid back to fourth when series Rookie Tyler Roahrig, debuting a new Legacy Chassis for the Silver Crown debuting team of Legacy Autosport, impressively went to the topside of turns three and four to squeeze around Kody for the spot with nine laps to go, trailing only race winner Tanner Swanson and runner-up C.J. Leary to the line on the 100th lap.
Despite dropping off the podium during the late stages, the story was already written for Kody’s championship ending. Early in the race, Logan Seavey was running a steady third when the oil pump belt broke, knocking him out of the race on lap 12 and dropping him down to a season-worst 20th place result.
It was a bitter end for Seavey and his Rice Motorsports team who broke a cam in their engine during Friday’s open practice at IRP, then pulled an all-nighter to drop their dirt car engine between the frame rails. However, the struggle to make it fit didn’t initially go as well as hoped. The oil pan was retrofitted by Cold Hard Art to help the cause, and by that point, it was already 4am. Work continued in the shop close to 7am and the trailer and racecar ultimately appeared in IRP’s infield a mere 20 minutes before the first practice session.
Likewise, Kody spent his fair share of shop time as well, practically camping out at Dyson Racing headquarters from the time last Saturday’s Illinois State Fairgrounds race ended until Wednesday night of this past week. When the final checkered waved, the whole plan had come to fruition with Doran Racing and Chris Dyson Racing earning first ever USAC Silver Crown entrant titles while Kody became a USAC Silver Crown champion for the seventh time. That is, despite finishing fourth and having to chase his younger brother to the aforementioned checkered flag.
“Tonight, I’m not even the best in my own family,” Kody said with a laugh. “My brother, Tanner, does an amazing job. He put it on us tonight. We just missed (the setup) a little bit, but these championships are hard to come by and I’m thankful to be surrounded by great people who never give up. We were here until midnight last night trying to get the thing fixed to make it 100 laps, and it did. We still came home fourth and had a solid finish. To cap it off with a championship is a little bit of a silver lining.”
C.J. Leary (Greenfield, Ind.) made a sweet move late to grab a second place finish in his Klatt Enterprises/Wilwood Disc Brakes – Lucas Oil – Brown & Miller Racing Solutions/Beast/Ford. It marked the best career USAC Silver Crown finish by a Leary at IRP. C.J.’s father, Chuck, finished third in 1999. C.J. also took home a career-best third in the final series points.
It was a terrific USAC Silver Crown debut for the Legacy Autosport team with driver Tyler Roahrig (Plymouth, Ind.) bringing home a third place finish in his Legacy Autosport/Legacy Brand – Metalloid Corporation/Legacy/Legacy Chevy. Roahrig, who won the accompanying 500 Sprint Car Tour feature earlier in the night, charged from ninth, then used a high side pass of Kody Swanson with nine laps to go to swipe the third spot. In two career IRP Silver Crown starts over the past two seasons, Roahrig has now finished second and third.
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