Edition 6, May 23rd - 2007

Hankscraft Announces Possible Driver Swap*

In a possible action that has never been documented, the editor of this newsletter, released a statement that outlined a possible driver swap of the Berge Racing Chevrolet, with a very well know Nextel driver. When interviewed Francisco stated “The call came out of the clear blue about one week ago. We never even thought about trading James until the phone rang and the next thing we were talking with a team manager located in Concord North Carolina.” Although the very well known Nextel celebrity can not be named, it appears that this offer of “driver swap”, is linked to a recent major announcement of a driver leaving his present race team.

“We felt that this move could be good for both drivers, with the yet un-named Nextel driver racing on the short tracks of the upper Mid West, and Swan reporting immediately to his new Charlotte based multi-million dollar cup deal.” When we tried to reach Swan for his reaction to this move, he could not be located, but was last seen doing back flips, (sans Carl Edwards) and ordering a fleet of new gift Corvettes for all his Berge racing crew friends and Hankscraft associates. In a related story Hankscraft is attempting to locate other finances to pay the 20 million dollar annual salary negotiated by their new driver as we believe race purses will leave us just a little short and we may be forced to rely on sales of driver autograph cards.

*(of course the story above is only an imaginary farce fabricated by this writer, due to racing boredrum. We are perfectly happy with the performance of the race team and also driver James Swan)*

Back to real racing news:

 The 97 team has been busy filling in non Mid Am sanctioned race weekends with entering the car in the Late Model Sportsman division at Slinger Speedway. Car owner Adam Berge was not happy with the car performance since the beginning of the season, so the crew threw a whole new set up at the car and the team is much happier with the way the car handles on the Slinger track. The car has fast time in the two most recent outings at Slinger, (12.618 at the last race) and the driver reports much better responsiveness. The team is now getting impatient as they carry the American flag for fast time each week, yet we have not put the first win in the book for this season. As the car sponsor we are also patient for the first win, but know the car is fast during qualifying which is most important for the next step. The tools are there, we just need hard work and some luck to be in the right position for the last pass when it counts. In a related matter continue to watch for more news on James racing at the Slinger speedway throughout the summer.

 We now move on to Grundy Speedway, and we are confidently inclined to believe that Memorial weekend will be memorial for our first win of 2007. Please join us in Illinois as we cheer on the defending Mid Am champion James Swan.

 Well must go now, my phone is ringing and it appears to be another call from Charlotte area code, so probably another offer for James. It’s tough to be famous.

Racing to the Checkers

Jim