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Click on an issue of "The Racer's Edge" to open the Official TK Motorsports Newsletter!

2011 Volume 3, Issue 1

Issue 2

Issue 3

Issue 4

2010 TK Motorsports Newsletter Archives

2011 Volume 3, Issue 1

Issue 15

Issue 14

Issue 13

Issue 1

Swanson steals Night Before the 500 win in first start at ORP!

The "Night Before the 500" National Midget event at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis is very prestigious, and has a storied history at the .686 mile paved oval. Kody made his first start in the event in 2007 driving for Steve Lewis' Nine Racing, and was running 2nd with 2 laps to go when he lost an engine. This year, Kody would be making his first start behind the wheel of a famed Wilke-Pak Motorsports #11, while Tanner would be making his first ever laps at the speedway, driving the DeBeaumont Motorsports #51. In qualifying, the brothers ended up 4th (Kody) and 7th (Tanner) in the 40+ car field. In order to make the starting grid for the 50-lap affair, the brothers would each have to finish in the Top 4 of their preliminary heat races. In Tanner's heat race, he drove from 5th to 3rd to transfer to the feature, while Kody came from 6th to 3rd to make the historic event. With the 2nd place qualifier losing an engine in preliminary events, and an invert of the 6 fastest qualifiers to start the feature, it put young Tanner on the pole of the event, and left Kody to start from the 4th position. At the drop of the green, Tanner took the lead and led the opening lap before falling into the 2nd position. While Kody fell to 5th at the start, in the next few laps he battled up to the 3rd position, behind his younger brother. For the next 30 laps, Tanner hounded leader Bryan Clauson, often driving to the bottom of the racetrack and pulling alongside the race leader in the battle for the top spot. However, on lap 32, Tanner shot to the inside of the wide, fast racetrack, and was able to officially retake the lead. From there, Tanner "checked-out" from the competition, driving to over a straight-away lead by feature's end, and winning the "Night Before the 500" in only his first attempt! Older brother Kody drove his car to a solid 3rd place finish to give the "Swanson Brothers" duo a 1st-3rd podium finish!