On Friday, April 13th, TK Motorsports’ Swanson brothers set out to make their first career starts with the Must See Racing Xtreme Sprint series, and their first ever laps behind the wheel of a Winged Pavement Sprint car.
Of the 25 qualifiers, the duo timed in 6th & 8th, but less than 1/10th of a second behind 2nd quick time. They each transferred through their preliminary heat race, and prepared themselves for the 30-lap Feature event around the half-mile Five Flags Speedway. After that- it was a roll of the dice, literally. The Must See Racing series determines their feature line-up invert (a 6, 8, or 10) off of a dice roll from the night’s fastest qualifier. A 6, and Tanner starts on the pole, with Kody 8th. An 8, and Kody starts on the pole with Tanner 3rd. A 10, and the brothers start 3rd & 5th. Jason Cox rolled a 6, and Tanner Swanson would lead the field to green while his brother started deep in the pack. As Tanner led the field into turn 1, fast qualifier Jason Cox spun in front of Kody, pushing him into the outside wall and bringing damage to his #19. Kody came to the pits, and restarted at the tail of the field only to get collected in another lap 1 incident and retire for the evening. Tanner restarted the field a 3rd time, and ran away to a huge lead before another caution flag flew. Time and time again, Tanner restarted the field and continued his lead. As the laps wore down, Tanner had to fight off a valiant charge from Jimmy McCune on the final lap. But- driving Suellen & Don Wilshe’s BioBased.US #23, Tanner held on to pick up the win in just his first ever start with the Must See Racing series, and first attempt in a winged pavement sprint car.

Hammer-Down: Kody Swanson & the MSRXSS averaged over 128 mph at Pensacola's 1/2 mile. David Sink Photo

On April 13th & 14th, Tanner & Kody Swanson will travel with the BioBased.USA Racing Team to the "Royal Oak Southern Shootout" at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, FL and Mobile International Speedway in AL. Tanner & Kody will be driving the #23 & #19 for the Suellen & Don Wilshe owned team during the MustSeeRacing tour of the south. For more information on the Southern Shootout and the Must See Racing series, please visit: www.mustseeracing.com

Fans, please remember that you can find LIVE updates from the track for these events on the Swanson Brothers-TK Motorsports Facebook page, and you can sign up for the Racer's Edge, the Official TK Motorsports Newsletter to receive race results, post-race stories, photos and more directly through your email provider. Thanks for your interest!

Friday, March 30th - Night 1: Driving the Wilke-PAK Motorsports #11, Kody continued to show his speed, practicing near the top of the speed charts and timing in 3rd fastest in series qualifying.  For the series heat races, 8 cars were inverted, with the Top 5 finishers eligible to start in the first 6 positions of the night’s feature event.  Starting 8th in his heat, Kody tried to work his way through the field.  However, just three laps into the 8-lap event, Kody’s left front tire locked up going into turn 1, and he made contact with the car beside him.  This sent Kody spinning and flattened his left rear tire.  Kody was drug to the pit area on the hook, where the Wilke-PAK team went to work, changing his tire in the allotted time, and getting Kody back in the race.  Restarting last, Kody made good use of his team’s efforts, passing from 8th to 5th an earning a transfer to the feature event.  After starting 5th in the 30-lap feature, Kody battled among the front runners until a caution came out on lap 11. Battling a racecar that had started to tighten-up on handling, Kody prepared to use the racetrack to get to the front.  But, on the restart, his #11 had other plans. Under the caution, the stagger on Kody’s car shrunk way down, making the handling go away on the #11.  Kody held on as best he could, but a number of cars got past as Kody struggled to keep the car on the bottom of the racetrack.  He finished 11th. 

At the end of 2011, Kody Swanson partnered with Fortville, IN car owner Ted Slinkard for a few local dirt sprint car events.  With just 3 previous career dirt sprint starts, driver Kody Swanson had already picked up a Win and a 3rd in USAC Western Classic competition.  In their 3 events together, the Slinkard-Swanson combination found some success, running as high as 5th at Lincoln Park Speedway before a failing steering box ended their evening.  For 2012, the duo has planned to continue their relationship, running some select events with the USAC National Sprint series and others, starting with the Winter Dirt Games in Ocala, Florida.

After unveiling a new paint scheme that matches the USAC Silver Crown cars that Swanson drives for Team 6R Racing, the racers headed south for last week’s events.  Practice on Wednesday went well, as they were able to work out some of the bugs in their UltraMax Sprintcar and get ready for Thursday’s race.  On night #1, Kody had a solid qualifying effort going before getting very loose coming off of turn 4 for the white flag.  The effort resulted in a 23rd place qualifying position, lining him up for the pole of his heat race.  Kody led the field to turn 1, and ran among the leaders for the first part of the event before eventually sliding to the 5th position, just one spot out of a transfer.  In the Semi-Main, Swanson started 9th, and had worked his way toward the Top 6 when three other competitors tangled in turn 3, moving Swanson to the 5th position and into the main event.  On a very abrasive racetrack, that took rubber, Swanson moved from his 20th place starting position to finish 17th. 

Night #2 started with Kody being 5th quickest of the 31 cars in practice, only to have some unfortunate luck in time trials.  After drawing to be the final car to qualify, rain started to fall as the final few drivers took time, resulting in a very slimy racetrack and unfair qualifying attempt that left Kody 23rd at the end of time trials.  The balance of the night was rained out. 

With a fresh start to night #3, Kody found himself 5th fastest in practice for the 2nd night in a row.  Even though Kody drew a late qualifying position (30th of 31), he put together a lap good enough for 5th quick in the field! Starting 5th in his heat race, Kody looked poised to make a run at the 4th and final transfer spot when a small error slid Kody back to 6th, and into the Semi-Main.  Starting from the pole, Kody led the first two laps before sliding back to 2nd, where he would stay for the final 10 laps and earn himself a transfer to the A-main event.  Starting from the 7th position in the 30-lap finale, Kody was competing among the best in the nation.  At the drop of the green, Kody fell to the 8th position when Night #1 winner Damion Gardner moved toward the Top 5.  For the next 29 laps, Kody ran in the 8th position, and closed to the back of the 7th place car.  As the pair came off of turn 4 for the checkered, Kody completed the pass for 7th and his first USAC National dirt Sprint Top 10! However, the final scoring loop was shut off early, as the leaders made contact coming to the line, reverting every position after 6th back to lap 29, scoring Kody in 8th.  Although it was disappointing that the pass didn’t count, it was still a solid run in Ocala for the Ted Slinkard #19 and Kody Swanson.  With schedules still changing for the spring racing events, Kody & Ted have not yet announced when their next race will be for 2012. 

After finishing a 2010 season that left him just 11 points shy of his first USAC Silver Crown series Championship, driver Kody Swanson was eager to take on the 2011 racing season. Less than two weeks after he stole the show to win the return of “Thursday Night Thunder” at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, and just three weeks after getting married, his plans changed. Kody was life-flighted from the Hut 100 with serious head trauma, two skull fractures, two pelvis fractures and a broken clavicle. With his championship hopes demolished, Kody Swanson returned to racing in July of 2011, and won his first USAC Silver Crown race back from injury, the JD Byrider 100 at Lucas Oil Raceway. After finishing the season with victories in the Wayne Sue Classic and Rollie Beale 150, the young driver is looking forward to a fresh start with the upcoming racing season.

In 2012, Kody will return to Team 6R Racing in the USAC Silver Crown series, in pursuit of his first series Championship after he was kept from competing for the title one year ago. Swanson’s 3 series wins since September of 2010 has helped propel Team 6R Racing back to the All-Time lead in Silver Crown victories at 28.

For More on Kody's 2012 Racing Plans- Click Here!