Swanson Moving to SK Lights at Stafford
Star Modified Champion in SPAFCO No. 89
Matt Swanson of Acton, MA will havae a new home this year at Stafford Motor Speedway. The reigning Modified champion at Star Speedway will drive the SPAFCO Chassis/FMR Racing No. 89 in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Light Modifieds.
“I’m really excited about the opportunity I get to run with Kenny and to run at Stafford,” Swanson said. “We’ve always liked Stafford. They have a really good fan base and they get a lot of good cars every week, and we wanted to race there for awhile. So we put a deal together with Kenny and just formed together from there.”
“My goal is just to really have fun, see what I can do, but mostly it’s just to have fun. I like to have fun driving the car and Kenny and his staff are also going to be around, so we’re just going to try and have fun.”
Swanson will be driving a car with a championship pedigree, the SPAFCO No. 21 that Justin Bonsignore drove to the VMRS title. “It’s going to take some time for me to get used to such a big track, but I guess all me and Justin can do is try to get wins for SPAFCO and do our best and try and have fun doing it.”
“Kenny and his staff always give me a good car, even with the tour car I ran at Star. It was a real good competitive car and we were competitive at the three Tri-Track races we ran. And to know that that car won the MRS championship, you know you have a good piece of equipment.”
Swanson made nine NEMA Lite appearances for Matt and Bobby Semour last year. He had six top fives and eight top tens. A third at Oswego represents his limited experience on larger tracks.
“The Seymours have a really, really big history, and a really good history with all of the drivers. They’ve had people like Ken Schrader driving for ’em, so it was cool to be able to drive for people that have that past experience. …We didn’t get a win out of it, but we still have fun doing it.”
Swanson would like to expand his schedule if sponsorship can be found.
Swanson will run his family’s Tour Type Modified in six to 10 races, although it is unclear what events. He will drive for the Seymours again on dirt and pavement. A deal with his Star Modified owner Marco Turcotte, who is fighting cancer, is “up in the air, but were going to try and do some stuff with him.”
Swanson won the Modified championship at Star Speedway at the age of 14. Swanson began driving for Turcotte in the second part of the 2013 season.
“It was a real fun season. We came into the season not really knowing what to expect. We just tried our hardest and we came out with the championship and a couple of wins, which felt pretty good.”
The unique 1/4 mile oval ran Tour-Type Modifieds for the last handful of years. The track will field the small block 350 Supermodifieds next year. The Modifieds and the headline SBM 125 event will not return in 2015.
Swanson qualified fifth in time trials at the SBM 125 at Star, “against the names of Ryan Preece, Rowan, Jon McKennedy.” With the learning curve of tire conservation, engine problems plagued the Turcotte machine. He called winning a heat race at Lee USA “a confidence booster.”
“We’re definitely supporting Jim Schaefer to try and get that show going again. … It was definitely a good experience to get to race with those guys (open competition from the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and Valenti Modified Racing Series), and just see what their competition is like versus what I race with at Star.”
While the SBM 125 was among his favorite events, Swanson is not surprised that the Modified era is over at Star. He would support the return of a Modified race because of the Webber family who owns the facility. “The Webbers gave me such a good opportunity to race a Modified at their racetrack at 13 years old.”
“The car counts weren’t really up racing with the Modifieds this past year, so I think they had a lot of people that wanted the 350s back. So I think with the amount of cars they were gonna get for the 350s, I don’t think it was a bad decision.”
“The variety of cars I’ve run I think have really helped me. Like running a Midget you have to learn to respect people when you racing ’em ’cause you’re so close, and you don’t have radios like you’re not going to have radios in SK Lights. So I feel like that helped me. That’s one learning curve that I’ve already experienced before running an SK Light. … Actually (in) every car I’ve driven, throttle control is a real key, especially on dirt in a midget.”
Supporters of Swanson’s career include Frank Manafort at FMR Racing, Joe’s Racing Products, Wilwood Brakes, Randy LaJoie at the Joie of Seating, and Magnus Transmissions. T&A Engines built the SK Light engine, while the Tour Type Modified uses Performance Engines by Billy the Kid.
Swanson began his career at age eight in Quarter Midgets and raced for four years. Next Swanson purchased a former Seymour No. 29 NEMA Lite, but was unable to race due to age. Following extensive practice the team purchased a Microsprint in 2013 and raced half a season in Pennsylvania to get experience on dirt.
Sources: Nicholas Teto/YankeeRacer.com