For more information:
Linda Mansfield, Restart Communications
E-mail: LKMRestart@gmail.com
Cell: (317) 201-0729

 

Swanson Comes from Sixth to Third
In 500 Sprint Car Tour Race Saturday Night at Berlin Raceway
In Doran Binks Racing’s Mission Foods No. 77

MARNE, Mich., July 24 — Doran Binks Racing’s Kody Swanson qualified third, started sixth due to the invert, and charged back up to finish third Saturday night at Berlin Raceway in a 40-lap feature sanctioned by the 500 Sprint Car Tour Presented by Auto Value Bumper to Bumper Parts Stores.

Driving the Mission Foods/Glenn Farms No. 77 asphalt sprint car which is powered by a Binks Chevy engine, Swanson got right to work at the drop of the green flag. The Kingsburg, Calif., native who now lives in Indianapolis passed fellow row three starter Bobby Santos III for fifth on the first lap. He got around Jackson Macenko for fourth on lap two. In just one more lap Swanson, the defending series champion, passed Taylor Ferns for third on lap three.

Polesitter Derek Bischak led the first three laps, but his fellow front-row starter, Kyle O’Gara, got the lead from Bischak working lap four. Swanson passed Bischak for second place on lap six right before the event’s only caution flag waved with seven laps down, reportedly for debris on the track.

Swanson did his best to pass O’Gara on the restart, but O’Gara wouldn’t budge. Swanson was still only 0.322 of a second behind him on lap 10, but Tyler Roahrig, who was the fastest qualifier and started eighth, had made his way through the field too and was right on Swanson’s rear bumper.

Roahrig dipped under Swanson on the backstretch working lap 11 to relegate Swanson to third, and that’s where Swanson finished. Roahrig passed O’Gara for the lead on the following lap and then marched away from the field, taking the checkered flag 7.424 seconds ahead of O’Gara before a big crowd.

Swanson was 1.042 seconds behind O’Gara at the finish, and 0.436 ahead of the fourth-place finisher, Ferns. Dakoda Armstrong rounded out the top five.

Roahrig set the fastest lap of the race on lap 12 with a time of 15.894 seconds for the nearly circular and very challenging 0.4375-mile asphalt oval, which has 13-degree turns and 9-degree straightaways. Swanson set the second-fastest lap of the race on lap seven with a 16.022, while O’Gara was third-fastest with a 16.031 on lap five.

Roahrig topped the charts in qualifying with a lap in 15.507 followed by Armstrong with a 15.735 and Swanson with a 15.738. The top five qualifiers were within 0.340 of each other.

“Berlin is such a nice racetrack, but it is really quite unique and tricky too,” Swanson said. “Congrats to Tyler; he’s got a great handle on this place, and I just haven’t been able to get it figured out yet. I’m so thankful for this Doran Binks team; they’ve been working really hard to try to help us find what we need to make us better when we come here, so we’ll have to take the podium as a solid finish and get ready for Nashville this week. As always, I’m thankful for Mission Foods, Glenn Farms, and everyone who continues to support this team.”

The race was streamed live by MAVTV for Flo Racing.

Swanson led Roahrig by 11 points in the series’ standings going into Saturday’s race. Roahrig now leads Swanson by 13 points with four events remaining. O’Gara is currently third in points followed by Dakoda Armstrong and Santos.

The next 500 Sprint Car Tour race is in just a few days, as the series visits Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville, Tenn., this Saturday, July 29. The series doesn’t have any races in August, but it has events at Lorain Raceway Park in Amherst, Ohio on Sept. 9; Anderson Speedway in Anderson, Ind., on Oct. 7, and Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in Brownsburg, Ind., on Oct. 14.

Doran Binks Racing also fields cars for Swanson in the USAC Silver Crown series, where the team and Swanson lead the current entrant and driver point standings. That series has three races in August: Toledo (Ohio) Speedway Aug. 5; Illinois State Fairgrounds Aug. 19, and World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Ill., near St. Louis on Aug. 27.

For more information see DoranRacing.com.

Linda Mansfield/Restart Communications
E-mail: LKMRestart@gmail.com
Cell: (317) 201-0729