SWAN SOARS TO SECOND MID-AMERICAN NSTC WIN

Topics:  James Swan, National Short Track Championships

Matt Panure
Mid American Stock Car Series
October 3, 2010

LOVES PARK, Ill. (October 3, 2010) – James Swan is no longer an unlucky ducky. Just one week after flipping in a violent wreck at Madison International Speedway, Swan caught the breaks to secure his first Mid-American Stock Car Series National Short Track Championship win at Rockford Speedway since 2001.

Swan restarted in the preferred outside line on two consecutive restarts and avoided collecting the leader Jimmy Becker when his steering column broke while pacing the field on lap 33.

“Everything happened the way it needed to today,” Swan said. “It was just the exact opposite of the way the rest of the year has gone. I was in the right place, at the right time, with the right breaks and the car was good. That was all I could ask for.”

The win was hard-earned by Swan and his Brian Holtz owned team. A march to the checkered flag began last week when the team unloaded after the wreck at Madison and assessed the damage to Swan’s Monte Carlo.

“Jake (Finney) hit me in just the right spot,” Swan said, alluding to last week’s melee. “It bent the frame a little, but all the suspension and mounting points were still good. We did a lot of work this week and had a great weekend.”

Added to his second-place finish in Saturday’s Big 8 Late Model 108-lap feature, Swan lived Rockford’s “one great racing weekend” mantra for the NSTCs. “To win today was just phenomenal,” he said. “I never expected it and I’m happy as heck.”

With the heavy lifting of repairs behind him, Swan’s workload picked up again when the green flag fell. Starting in the seventh spot Swan had to find ways around two-time Rockford winner Lyle Nowak and Spring Classic winner Mark Pluer.

As Becker paced the field from his outside-pole starting spot, Swan swung into the top five by the fifth circuit. The field spaced out and set a steady pace through the first 30 circuits with the top five breaking away. The complexion of the race began to change on lap 33 when Becker reeled in lapped traffic.

Just as Becker hit two-by-two lapped cars, Ron Vandemeier and Troy Shear Jr. made contact on the front straight. Vandemeier spun and brought out the first of seven cautions.

The restart pitted Becker against a second row with Bobby Gutknecht on the inside line and Mark Pluer on the outside. Pluer got the edge over Gutknecht and brought Swan along for the ride on the top side into third. Another caution on lap 36 set up Swan in perfect position to challenge Becker.

A caution right after the drop of the green for a three-car incident stalled Swan’s charge on Becker. He was granted a second chance on the restart and towed Lyle Nowak into the third spot behind Becker by the halfway point.

Challenging Becker over the next three circuits, Swan surveyed the dreaded inside groove. As Swan swung to the inside exiting turn four coming to lap 39, Becker suddenly slowed and veered toward the infield, almost collecting Swan. A steering shaft failure took Becker out of contention, but he would rejoin the tail of the field after the caution period.

Twelve laps after Swan led Nowak and Gutknecht back to green the caution was displayed for a Dave McCalla spin, giving Nowak another chance to hold pace with Swan. Over the final two restarts Swan continued to prove too strong to be challenged.

As Swan and Nowak logged laps up front, Tyler Bauknecht continued his ascent through the field. Mid-American’s leading rookie contender swiped the third spot from Gutknecht on lap 50, and gave several challenges to Nowak in the waning laps. While challenging Nowak, Bauknecht also had to deal with the advances of Kyle Shear who raced his way into the top four from his 11th-place starting spot.

Although the spots were heavily disputed over the final ten circuits, the top four remained the same behind Swan as the checkered was displayed. Brian Back made a last-lap pass of Bobby Gutknecht to round out the top five.

Swan was not the only driver to rebound from a rough Madison go. Nowak fared better than Swan with a top ten last week, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t work to be done on his Monte Carlo, as well. But perhaps a trip to Rockford was a good remedy.

“We had a long week in the garage after crashing at Madison last Saturday,” Nowak said. “I love the (Rockford Speedway) facility and the racetrack, but I was kind of nervous today. The car was good, but I was worried about getting caught up in a wreck or having a DNF because it’s pretty easy to do that here.”

Staying out of trouble and securing a second-place finish, Nowak built a 79-point lead over Brian Back. Should Nowak snag his 25 appearance points and five heat race points at La Crosse next week, he will clinch the 2010 MASCS championship, his first to be added to the list of 16 career championships.

“I wanted to try to put us in a really good spot at Rockford. In the past we have struggled a little bit at La Crosse and I didn’t want to have to worry about that,” Nowak said. “We’ve raced for a lot of championships in past years. To be able to compete with the level of competition that’s in the Mid-American Stock Car Series…I’m just thrilled.”

Mid-American will round out its 18th season as part of the 41st annual Oktoberfest Race Weekend at La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway in West Salem, Wis. The series is slated to run the final feature of the Saturday, Oct. 9 portion of the historic racing weekend.

La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway is located on the La Crosse Interstate Fairgrounds.

The Fairground is located at the intersection of Hwy 16 and County Road M, next to the town of West Salem, Wis. For more information visit www.lacrossespeedway.com or www.oktoberfestraceweekend.com