Davidson
Goes State Side
J
amie Davidson, stock car
philanthropist and all round Stock Car
nut, has decided to go International - if
not Global - in his quest to see his
company name on as many different race
cars as possible. The current owner of F1
team Davidson, now running drivers Rob
Speak and Luke Davidson, is an ex-racer
himself and fancied the idea of seeing his
name on the side of an American Sprint Car.
Not just on any old thing, but on one of the
leading cars.
During the last Kings Lynn F1 meeting,
Jamie was chatting away to Ben Hissitt. (a
Go-Kart racer he sponsors) While they were
chatting, it came up in conversation that
Jamie would love to see his Company name
on a World of Outlaw Sprint car and
hopefully go and watch them race in the
USA. It transpired that Ben has a strong
relationship with the legendary Swindell
family over in the states who just happen to
race Sprint Cars.
Sammy Swindell is a former World of Outlaw
Champion, a Knoxville Nationals Champion
and a former Indy car and NASCAR star. He
has a son, Kevin who is already the current
and four times “Chilli Bowl Champion” and is
currently making a name in the NASCAR
nationwide series. His aim is to move into
the Sprint Cup series in the very near future.
While this is his goal, Kevin decided he was
going back to his roots to race on the dirt in a
winged Sprint Car and running a full Iowa
speed week schedule, concluded with the
7
biggest Sprint Cars race of them all - The
Knoxville Nationals
Jamie gave Ben the go-ahead to make
contact with his friend Kevin Swindell. He
told the Swindell family the situation and
Kevin decided that this fitted in with his plans
and seemed keen and exited to work with a
UK company. The whole deal was put
together in less than two weeks and as with
most things state side, an efficient team
worked tirelessly over the next few days.
Within the week they had press releases and
a full range of merchandise carrying the
Davidson logo, all produced ready to go on
sale at the opening night of racing!
It wasn’t long before Jamie, Ben and a handpicked bunch of friends found themselves
Knoxville bound for a few days of Sprint car
action. The racing couldn't have started
better for the Indy race parts/Davidson #71
machine. Kevin ran Third on his qualifying
night for the 360ci Nationals locking him into
Saturdays “A” main Feature race, where he
ran in the top three all night, ending the race
in second place behind four time 360ci
Champion Shane Stewart. Considering
Kevin had been out of a winged Sprint-car
for nearly a year - it didn’t take him long to
knock the rust off.
Sunday night was the Captain “I” Classic, a
weekly 410ci show where over 90 cars rolled
into Knoxville with the best outlaw regulars.
It was to be the last run of the famed halfmile oval before the Nationals, beginning
later that week. After a tough qualifying heat
race, Kevin battled to the lead of the “A”
Main, after contending with several restarts
Swindell managed to put on the perfect show
and parked the “Davidson”# 71 Sprint Car in
Victory Lane!
Next up on the busy Schedule was the halfmile Raceway at Oskaloosa in Iowa. It was
the running of their Annual front row
challenge. This is a big race with a big
payday. If you qualify on the front row