Drag Illustrated Issue 132, May 2018 | Page 74

While announcer Steve Logan makes the call over the PA system for Radial vs. the World compet- itors to make their way to the staging lanes for the fourth qualifying session, all Swanstrom can do is sit and wait until his grudge race against PDRA Pro Nitrous star Jay Cox. The two drivers are locked in for a big-money race at 2 p.m., one of the numerous high-profile grudge races tak- ing place during the second annual Wooostock event put on by Keith Berry, Lance Stanford and Travis Harvey. “There’s not much I can do at this point,” Swans- trom says. “Here in a couple hours I’ll get ready to make a shakedown, make sure everything is good to go. Then I’ll get ready to go back up there and do my deal at 2 – not a minute later.” Swanstrom and his father, Corey “Big Country” Swanstrom, rolled into the rural South Carolina track early Friday morning after driving through the night from their home in Zephyrhills, Florida. They planned to leave Wednesday night, but a last-minute service call came in to their busi- 74 | D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com ness, a vacuum and video service that cleans and inspects storm and sewer lines. Upon arriving at Darlington, Swanstrom unloaded his “Arma- geddon” ’04 Mustang and proceeded to make a series of test passes in preparation for his Satur- day-night race with Cox, who was brought in to drive and tune Al Boogie’s Camaro. There’s an unlikely calm surrounding Swans- trom’s pit area. He’s mere hours away from mak- ing one run worth $10,000. One of the most feared nitrous tuners in the Southeast will be in the other lane. Rather than pacing around frantically or poring over data and pondering a tuneup change that really shouldn’t be made, Swanstrom is laid back, chatting with one of his crew guys about a new Instagram post from Demi Lovato, a pop star who he very publicly crushes on. Make no mistake, Swanstrom understands the intensity of what is about to take place. He just doesn’t seem to feel the pressure. “With my grudge races, nothing is guaranteed,” Swanstrom points out. “Hell, no race is guaran- teed, but I race against the top line of the guys. Me and Dad, our name and all that requires us to race against the top guys. Like this afternoon, I’m going up against Jay Cox in a big-tire wheelie bar car. I’m staying on 315s. This will be a real test of our abilities. I believe I have a good chance. We’re going to see what happens. That’s just how it goes.” This type of racing is just about all Swanstrom knows. He made his first pass in a ’91 Mustang with a naturally aspirated big-block Ford at age 14 after a few years playing around in Jr. Drag- sters. He tried running in X275, but the all-motor combination wasn’t enough to contend with the power adders filling the class. Swanstrom then upgraded to a nitrous-assisted small-block, but his first big move in X275 came when he pur- chased the silver “Skywalker” Mustang he used to reset the small-block world record. The need for continuous improvement led the Swanstroms to move on, though. “That’s when we got introduced into grudge racing,” Swanstrom remembers. “I was proba- Issue 132