BERTRAND MOTORSPORTS BRINGS THREE MIDGETS WEST FOR OPEN WHEEL SHOWDOWN
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA (September 19, 2023) – Car owner Tim Bertrand and Bertrand Motorsports will travel west December 1-2 for Davey Hamilton, Jr.’s Open Wheel Showdown, bringing three Midgets for the $10,000-to-win feature in Las Vegas. A wide-variety of Midgets from all over North America will challenge for the strong purse at the .375-mile Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Bertrand will field Midgets for his brother Todd of Brooklyn, CT., multi-faceted driver Nathan Byrd of Phoenix, Ariz., and USAC Silver Crown standout Kody Swanson of Kingsburg, Calif. Swanson leads the Bertrand brigade into Vegas as one of the few drivers with a victory at the speedway. Swanson won a USAC Western States Midget race there in 2010.
“Kody has run Vegas before and he even won there. Another advantage to working with him is he knows a lot about these cars and places he’s run in the past,” Bertrand said. “Our history in Midget racing on pavement is Winged Midget racing in the Northeast. We’ve won 12 or 13 championships. But Non-Wing is something we are a bit newer at. When we hired Kody to drive for us, that was our time to get serious.”
Bertrand Motorsports has made waves in the winged Northeastern Midget Association, scoring its 105th career win last Saturday night with Avery Stoehr at the controls. The team is just one win shy of the all-time owner’s record in the esteemed series. Bertrand Motorsports also teamed up with Swindell SpeedLab to win the 2023 Chili Bowl Midget Nationals with driver Logan Seavey.
Swanson will drive the No. 47 Midget powered by a Stanton SR-11x at Las Vegas. Swanson drove the one-of-a-kind car formerly owned by Jerome Rodela in May at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. Swanson will drive the car again on October 14 before it heads west with Bertrand Motorsports.
“The current plan is to run IRP in October and then we are going to leave the cars out there,” Bertrand said. “David Byrd has a tractor trailer lined up that we think can fit seven or eight cars. We’re trying to build a cost-effective way to get everyone out there.”
Swanson will also be one of several drivers planning to race in both the $50,000-to-win Winged Sprint Car feature and the Midget feature. His Winged Sprint Car entry will be for Doran Enterprises in the No. 77 Diablo-Chevrolet.
The Californian is one of the most accomplished drivers in pavement open wheel history. Seven USAC Silver Crown championships are joined by three Little 500 triumphs and countless wins across Silver Crown, Sprint Cars, and Midgets.
Registration is moving quickly for the inaugural Open Wheel Showdown, with just 75 spaces available for the Winged Sprint Car division. Drivers can learn more at www.OpenWheelShowdown.com
Tickets are also on sale though the Las Vegas Motor Speedway ticket office and online. Details can be found at both www.LVMS.com or the Open Wheel Showdown website.
The event will be telecast through Speed Sport on the new Speed Sport 1 channel. More broadcast details will be announced soon.
