Bertrand’s real-world job takes him around the globe and consistent with other like-minded and successful people, he has a difficult time sitting still. Yet, he was in Mexico last winter doing just that when he got a text from Kevin Swindell. Bertrand couldn’t resist following up.
“Kevin asked me if I ever thought about owning a dirt car and I said, ‘Tell me more.’ He said he was thinking about putting a car together for the Chili Bowl and maybe for some outdoor races,” Bertrand explained. “As it turned out, my wife and I had just sold one of our NEMA cars and I had the money. So my wife and I went to dinner and I told her about Kevin’s call. She said that’s an awesome race. Let’s go for it and see what happens. I also had four Stanton engines, so this helped me make the decision, too.”
Technically, it wasn’t Bertrand’s first involvement with the Chili Bowl or the Swindell family.
“Our relationship with the Swindells began with Dan Esslinger, who is an absolutely fantastic guy,” Bertrand said. “He called me after Kevin had gotten hurt and said they needed a motor for his car at the Chili Bowl. It was going to be there as a backup for Sammy, and they also wanted to have the car at the event. It was going to be on display and maybe run a few laps.
“Dan asked if I would be willing to lend him a motor and I was like, ‘I have a chance to be involved with Sammy Swindell? Sign me up,’” Bertrand said. “I lent him the motor but they didn’t end up running the car, but they were all super thankful. So the following year Sammy asked me if I would lend him a motor.
“That is how we got going and that became a regular thing. Then, I asked him in 2017 if he wanted to come out and run a pavement midget race. He said, ‘You have been good to me and I would love to come out and help you out.’”
Yet, this was Kevin Swindell’s deal and Bertrand was asked to take on a greater role. Swindell didn’t enter the partnership blind. He had a good sense of what Bertrand Motorsports had accomplished in a full-blown assault on the NEMA record book.
Second-generation driver Avery Stoehr had just waxed the competition, only failing to land on the podium once over the course of the year. With his brother Todd Bertrand, Randy Cabral and Stoehr, the team has now earned 11 NEMA championships. The past year the squad surpassed the 100-win mark with the series. The late Gene Angelillo still sets the NEMA standard with 14 crowns and 107 wins.
What really got Swindell’s attention was Bertrand’s involvement in the revival of pavement midget racing at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. It all started with a one-off race to see if there was still interest among fans and competitors. Kasey Coler, IRP leader and an NHRA vice president, reached out to Bertrand and asked if he was willing to bring a fleet of cars to his track.
Several owners in the NEMA ranks responded enthusiastically and it became apparent that midget racing at IRP still had appeal.
“What I learned in that one race was if we want to compete, we have to get with the program on equipment,” Bertrand recalled. “So we did that and had a decent run the following year. Then, I realized we needed to come out and do some testing and we had to have a driver who really knew IRP. That’s when we struck the deal with Kody Swanson. That fast-forwarded my program by five to 10 years. He is such a wizard with these cars.”
Kevin Swindell paid attention to these developments and surmised that the time was ripe to see if Bertrand wanted to expand his horizons.
“We had talked about doing a couple of outdoor races last year, but we just couldn’t get the stuff together in time,” Swindell said. “So when I talked to him about the Chili Bowl, he thought it would be a cool thing to do. He was dabbling into the stuff happening at IRP and I think bringing in Kody (Swanson) and making such an effort on the pavement side showed he just wanted to go win races. I think he felt like we gave him a really good shot to win, so he jumped in.”
The deal that was crafted worked for both men.
“I said, ‘Let’s be clear on this,’” Bertrand explained. “I said, ‘I’ll own the car and I’ll provide the engine. You get the tires and wheels, you get the sponsors and you operate it. You’re the expert. It’s your job to put it together how you want and set it up. Then, you pick the driver, get the logistics done to get the car to the Chili Bowl.’ Kevin said, ‘That sounds good to me.’”
For a man with Swindell’s talent and background this was music to his ears.
“He pretty much left me alone and gave me complete freedom in terms of what I built and what I had,” Swindell said. “It was his motor and it was fully on me to dig around and pick the pieces I thought were the best for our car.”
In his sprint car life, Swindell is always recycling a car for the next season in some degree, but this was different.
“It was fun,” he said. “I had never seen a brand-new car from top to bottom since I started doing all of this years ago.”