 |
| Turkey Night Qualifying - www.marvsphotography.com |
Lots of news to cover for this new 2013 season! First off, last year we took a little break from midget racing halfway through the year and geared up for one of the most prestigious midget races of all time; the 72nd running of the Turkey Night Grand Prix at the Perris Auto Speedway. It was a very successful weekend for us. The race was a national event so the competition was intense. I didn't qualify in but I was able to race my way in through the first qualifier. The 98 lap feature was a test of driver stamina as well as a tough test on equipment. We finished a solid 20th of the 34 cars to start the feature. Just finishing that race is a feat in itself, so we were pretty pumped for that run.
From there the car got rebuilt for the big K24 engine test day. The test took place in February, and the goal was to put as many laps on the new engine as possible in a 2 day span as a true test of durability, performance, and drivability. This test was also a success. We put approximately 500 laps on the new engine, as a matter of fact, we ran out of tires and had to cut the test short. About 40 tires were burned off (literally). We learned so much valuable information and I'm very excited for it's competition debut sometime in the near future.
After the test, the engine was given to Honda for further inspection as we got busy with yet another complete rebuild of the #05 Stealth. The first competition of the season was the USAC Western States Season opener at Canyon Speedway in Peoria, Arizona. We put the Turkey Night engine back in the car for this race (F engine) and set off to go racing for the first time in 2013!
The first night of the two day show, we had to get a feel of the track and after struggling most of the day, we had a good charge in the main after starting 20th and finishing 10th.
On night two we improved even further by starting 8th and running in the top 5 most of the race. We ended up finishing 6th to Clauson, RJ Johnson, and a few of the Kuhnz Toyota Team cars including Larson who finished just in front of me. It was a great way to start off 2013!
We've got Eibach Springs on board sponsoring us this year and also Swanson Inspections for all your home and property inspection needs. Welcome to the team and thank you very much for your support! I'd also like to thank the rest of our sponsors for their support over the years and helping get this team extremely competitive week in and week out; Goodwine Glass, Lucas Oil Products, DC Racing Cams, HPD and Honda Racing, PBH Indy, K&N Filters, Simpson Race Products, and One Day Signs.
The Swanson Motorsports Team headed back to the beautiful Ventura beach this past weekend for VRA's season opener and what a night it turned out to be. We had 11 midgets in the field and the top 6 cars were all within 2 tenths of each other. The quantity of cars may be down, but the quality of cars is pretty equal across the board.
