Kody Swanson. (Indy Racing Images photo)
BELLEVILLE, Kan. – Kody Swanson’s stint with DePalma Motorsports between 2014 and 2018 made them the most successful USAC Silver Crown pairing in the sport’s history.
In fact, Swanson and DePalma’s 21 wins and four championships in five years are unmatched.
Five years ago, it seemed like the days of the iconic white and red number 63 were gone forever. The team had retired from the sport at the height of its game, and in doing so, USAC made an unprecedented decision to permanently ban the No. 63 from action in Silver Crown competition.
Whilst the number 63 itself won’t be returning to the circuit any time soon as it turns out, a large part of the 63 squad will be starring in the upcoming Silver Crown season for Swanson and the Doran-Binks Racing team he drives for.
For the last two seasons, 2021–22, Swanson and Doran have teamed up to run exclusively on the pavement. This year, however, the team planned to add an all-terrain vehicle to the stable. However, one important factor remained unresolved. They needed a dirt car.
This is where the 63 comes into play.
A few years ago, a friend of Swanson’s purchased the last DePalma Motorsports number 63, which was in action throughout the 2018 season. His plans also included use on the classic car race track.
After half a decade, however, the car remained in place, just a phone call away. When the time came, Doran-Binks Racing re-acquired the same Maxim chassis and frame and brought the car out of “retirement” to race in 2023 for the first time since it hit the track in September 2018 at the Eldora Speedway in Ohio.
A lot has changed around us in that time. But some things have remained the same since then. Swanson is still winning USAC Silver Crown races in record numbers and still clinching championships. His dirt car hasn’t changed its features either, just its stripes, with Mission Foods sponsorship and a big and prominent 77 adorning the tail tank and nose.
“A lot of it is the same,” Swanson explained. “It’s got a new look, a new number and new vinyl, but almost everything else is exactly the same.”
Being the car in which he won the Silver Crown Championship for the fourth time in his career, Swanson has a special fondness for the machine, which he recently got behind the wheel for a test and tune-up at Eldora, where the team did a few laps and made sure everything was in order.
“The car competed in one of my favorite Dirt Silver Crown races of all time at Terre Haute that year,” Swanson recalled of the 2018 dirt season opener. “We had engine issues, missed qualifying and then an engine changed. We started at the end of a 12-car field in the B-Main and finished second. Then we came from the end to the top of the feature and got destroyed, then we came back from the end and finished second. That was the first race with this car and in our next race with the car we won our fourth Hoosier Hundred.”
Like a pair of broken-in shoes that just feel right, this situation gives Swanson an air of comfort, not only towards the car itself, but also towards the people it brings to the team when Swanson entered service in the mid-2010s .
“I talked a lot about it with (National Sprint Car Hall of Famer) Bob Hampshire and Clark Lamme, who was a longtime mechanic with Hampshire, and he came over and helped out at the Doran shop as well,” Swanson said. “Having Clark’s support makes me feel a lot better about venturing into a new discipline for the rest of the team and stepping back into that role.”
Lamme will be traveling with the team to all dirt races this season, while Hampshire is making his extensive knowledge available on the phone. Kent Wolters, himself a longtime racer for whom Swanson raced in sprint cars with great success, will also help out during the season.
“It’s really nice to have these people by your side, as well as a familiar car,” says Swanson. “It also really helps to have some good friends around.”
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