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

 

Dream Comes True for Bertrand Motorsports Owner
With Swanson’s Midget Victory at IRP

SOUTHWICK, Mass., Oct. 30 — A dream came true for team owner Tim Bertrand when driver Kody Swanson and the rest of the Bertrand Motorsports team won a special 30-lap midget race at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP) on Oct. 15.

Bertrand has always wanted to see one of his cars win a feature at the storied 0.686-mile asphalt oval in Brownsburg, Ind., but prior to that day his midgets had always come up shy of the top spot there. Despite his best efforts, an IRP victory remained an unchecked line on his bucket list.

So when Swanson took the checkered flag, both Bertrand and his driver got a little emotional.

The race was one-third of the Howard Companies Championship Sunday at IRP, and part of IRP’s three-race Browns Oil Service National Pavement Midget Championship. Since it was coupled with the USAC Silver Crown and the 500 Sprint Car Tour season finales, many of the nation’s top open-wheel asphalt drivers were on hand and had midget rides too.

But it was Swanson who took the checkered flag first after grabbing the lead from Davey Hamilton Jr. on lap seven and showing the way the rest of the race in one of the Bertrand Motorsports cars, as Todd Bertrand (Tim’s brother) and Nathan Byrd were his teammates. Swanson’s car is a Gerhardt chassis previously owned and meticulously maintained by Jerome Rodela with a Stanton SR-11X Mopar engine. Swanson had a whopping 4.593-second margin of victory over Justin Grant, who just sealed up his second consecutive USAC AMSOIL national sprint car championship.

Swanson, a native of Kingsburg, Calif., who resides in Indianapolis, and his brother, Tanner, are both masters at IRP. They have the most USAC Silver Crown victories ever at the track. Tanner just broke their tie with eight, and Kody currently has seven.

Kody Swanson is the winningest driver in USAC Silver Crown history with seven championships, and both brothers are also aces in an asphalt sprint or midget.

It marked the second year of Kody Swanson’s participation with the Southwick, Mass.-based Bertrand Motorsports, which has won 12 Northeastern Midget Association (NEMA) championships, including this year. In fact, Bertrand Motorsports drivers Avery Stoehr of Lakeville, Mass. and Randy Cabral of Plymouth, Mass., finished first and second in the NEMA point standings this year, just like they did in 2022. Bertrand Motorsports now has 12 NEMA championships and 105 NEMA feature victories. That puts the team just one win away from the late Gene Angelillo, the all-time NEMA car owner winner, who has 106 feature victories.

Indy is a long tow from New England, but that didn’t dissuade Bertrand from wanting to see one of his cars in victory lane at IRP.

“Winning at IRP has been a life-long dream for our team,” he said. “It has been an absolute pleasure to work with Kody and his family the last two seasons. He has helped to bring our program to the next level. It was also great to have our good friend Danny Drinan at the last IRP race. We would not have run as well as we did without him.

“IRP is one of the toughest tracks in the world,” Bertrand added. “One cloud that moves in and covers the sun before race time, and your day could be ruined. It is such a technical track — both from a setup and driving perspective.

“IRP also has a ton of history with the midgets. Newman, Stewart, Drinan, Vogler, Fedorcak — the list goes on of the amazing drivers who made their name at IRP. I recall watching ‘Thursday Night Thunder’ when I was a kid, and dreamed of either racing or owning a car that ran there some day,” Bertrand said. “I’ve been aiming for an IRP win my whole racing career.”

“Thursday Night Thunder,” which originally aired on ESPN and ESPN2 from 1989 to 2002, drew national attention to racing on short tracks, including IRP. The Emmy-awarding winning program also saw the birth of some of the sports’ legendary drivers.

“IRP can be such a challenging track, and winning in any division is tough, but I feel like the midgets can be the toughest,” Swanson said. “They seem to be the most affected by any changes in track conditions, and it makes them so difficult to keep up with on what the cars need on any particular day.

“Tim has never been shy with his passion for racing, or his drive to win, and he has never wavered in his pursuit to win at IRP,” Swanson continued. “His family and his entire team have continued to put in the time and effort— bringing multiple cars from such a distance to support this type of racing, and continue towards a chance to win. It has been a special team to be a part of, to witness how motivated everyone has been to work through the low spots, trying to get faster, or get better, or just find what might be missing.

“I'm really thankful for the opportunity to race with Tim, his family and this team, and I'm extremely excited to have been able to win one at IRP together.”

Bertrand Motorsports also started 2023 with a bang when it was part of a joint effort with Kevin Swindell and driver Logan Seavey that resulted in a victory in the 37th running of the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals in Tulsa, Okla., in January. The Chili Bowl is the biggest indoor dirt midget race in the world, and a winter happening.

The team has one more race in 2023, as it will field three midgets for Swanson, Todd Bertrand and Byrd in the first annual Open Wheel Showdown at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring, a three-eighths-mile asphalt track, on Dec. 1-2. A modern version of the former Copper World Classic, it’s a tripleheader for midgets, winged sprint cars and supermodifieds.

But no matter what happens in Vegas, it’s been a very good year for Bertrand Motorsports, especially now that IRP is finally crossed off its bucket list.

Team sponsors include Stanton, Lakeview Advisors LLC, Pinnacle Financial, Bass Plating, Eibach, and JRC Transportation.

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).

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