Tanner Swanson WINS Night #1 of the Royal Oak Southern Shootout
The Inside Track: Episode 3- Must See Racing's Southern Shootout
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.
All Smiles: Tanner Swanson & Co. enjoy the photos from Five Flags Speedway Victory Lane. Richard Golardi Photo
With Tanner fresh off of a Feature Win, and Kody looking to make-up for a night that crashed him out of the feature race, both of the Swanson brothers we’re looking forward to tackling the high-speeds of Mobile International Speedway.
In qualifying, both brothers lapped the .55 mile Speedway in under 14.5 seconds, and averaging over 136mph. It was another tight field, Tanner ended up 3rd on the charts, with Kody in 7th. Again, the brothers transferred through their preliminary heat races and waited for the “dice-roll” to set the feature line-up. Kody needed an 8 to start on the front row- but again a #6 popped up, and the duo would start 4th & 7th.
As the field entered turn 1 on the start of the 30-lapper, Kody dove to the bottom of the racetrack, three-wide with the cars in front of him and went from 7th to 5th in the opening corner. Tanner and Kody ran 4th and 5th for much of the race, and caught the top 3 as the lead pack entered heavy lapped traffic near the half-way point. The brothers began splitting lapped cars, running high and low trying to advance their position. As the race wore on, Kody’s motor began to lose power, as the engine timing magneto began to fail. He held on to finish in the 7th position. Tanner continued his battle among the frontrunners, passing up to 3rd in lapped traffic before being shuffled back, and ended up falling to 6th after a late-race restart. Still, not a bad weekend for the brothers’ debut with a new team, new cars and new series. Tanner & Kody will return to the Must See Racing Xtreme Sprint series when it travels to Winchester, Indiana on May 20th. 5 Flags Speedway MSRXSS official finish 4/13/12
1. Tanner Swanson
2. Jimmy McCune
3. Mickey Kempgens
4. Todd Fayard
5. Jacob Wilson
6. Brian Olson
7. Mike Larrison
8. Jerry Caryer
9. Jim Sheets
10. Aaron Pierce
11. Dave Baumgartner
12. Billy Wease
13. Brian Gingras
14. Hank Lower
15. Collin Cabre
16. Tim Cox
17. Shane Morgan
18. Jojo Helberg
19. Kody Swanson
20. Jason Cox
