KODY SWANSON TEAMS WITH BERTRAND FOR 4 LOR MIDGET RACES IN 2022

Brownsburg, Indiana (November 21, 2021)………Kody Swanson has announced a partnership with Tim Bertrand and Bertrand Motorsports to compete in all four races with the 2022 Pavement Midget Series at Brownsburg, Indiana’s Lucas Oil Raceway.

The dynamic duo of Swanson and Bertrand own an impressive 186 open wheel wins and a combined 22 championships across the midget, sprint car and Silver Crown ranks.

Swanson is USAC’s winningest Silver Crown driver and the second winningest USAC driver in the 61-year history at the .686-mile paved oval with 13 total victories (4 Midget, 2 Sprint, 7 Silver Crown).  He will team with Bertrand, a 10-time champion car owner with the Northeastern Midget Association, which regularly competes with wings.

Bertrand may be new to the non-wing midget ranks as a car owner, but no stranger to midgets.  His accomplishments also include 10 NEMA titles, 94 National NEMA feature wins and 98 overall NEMA victories.

“We are very excited about the 2022 season,” Bertrand said.  “We’ve always tried to associate ourselves with the best in the business, starting off in midgets with the Cicconi family, Danny Drinan, Dan Esslinger/Esslinger Engineering, etc.  I’ve been watching Kody for years and have been really impressed by his humble nature, family values, and of course, his tremendous talent.  He is undoubtedly one of the best open wheel drivers in the world, in my opinion.”

Swanson, the six-time USAC Silver Crown champion, and all-time USAC Silver Crown winner, has a resume of 88 career open wheel wins, 12 USAC sanctioned midget wins and three wins at the coveted Anderson Speedway “Little 500”.  Known as a humble, family man, Swanson, his wife Jordan, and two boys – Trevor and Adam, are devout supporters of open wheel auto racing.

“I'm fortunate to have been surrounded by great people throughout my career in racing,” Swanson stated.  “I'm very excited about the opportunity to work with Tim and the Bertrand Motorsports team.  They have been incredibly successful throughout the Northeast and the NEMA series and have established themselves as one of the top teams in the history of winged midget racing.

Over the past few years, Tim has demonstrated his commitment to competing at Lucas Oil Raceway and the dedication to develop his non-wing program into a championship caliber team as well,” Swanson continued.  “I'm thankful for the opportunity to join them in their dedication and effort.  I’m looking forward to working together more as we prepare for 2022 and can’t wait to get on the track next spring,”

The duo will be sponsored by Bertrand’s company, project44.  One of the highest growth companies in the United States, project44 is the world's leading advanced transportation visibility platform, providing real time visibility to global organizations across all transportation modes (ocean, trucking, air, rail and parcel).  During the Suez Canal crisis, as an example, project44 provided visibility to over 250 of the Fortune 500 to track their ocean containers, stuck in the Canal.  Project44 raised a $200 million round of funding on a $1.2 billion valuation, from Goldman Sachs in May of 2021.  Project44 was also recently ranked #1 on the FreightTech Index, beating out Amazon, after ranking #2 for the previous 3 years.

The midgets will compete four times at Lucas Oil Raceway in 2022, starting with Open-Wheel Opening Day on Saturday, March 26; the Carb Night Classic on Friday, May 27; Thursday Night Thunder Homecoming on Thursday, June 30; and Open-Wheel Championship Saturday on October 22.

All Midget and Sprint Car programs at Lucas Oil Raceway will be considered USAC non-points special events, meaning no points will be awarded toward the USAC National series' championship standings.

Additionally, all four midget events at Lucas Oil Raceway will pay $5,000 to win.  The end-of-season "track championship" point fund will be worth $10,000, with the champion taking home $2,500.  There will also be a bonus payout for the Rookie of the Year in midget competition at Lucas Oil Raceway.