Motor racing driver. Born Bernard James Swanson in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the son of Mr & Mrs Bernard Swanson Jr. I cannot improve on the following - Here is what Gordon Kirby wrote about B. J. Swanson in 1975:
"It is exquisitely rare. It has happened only once or twice in a generation of American road racing. A driver comes from nowhere and is almost immediately running with the best. There have been others before, Dan Gurney, Mark Donohue. This time it was B. J. Swanson.
There was something special about Swanson. Something that triggered memories of a young Gurney or a young Donohue. It was partly his smoothness. On the track he was cool, precise, consistant. His driving had that stamp of inbred maturity drawn from a source more amorphus than experience.
Away from the track he was matter of fact. He seemed to accept the fact that he was capable of driving his Bay Racing Lola only a tick or two slower than Andretti or Redman, as if it was a perfectly natural occurance. Yet, he did so with a modesty that rang true. He would give a calm assessment of his performance that would virtually lull a listener into believing that there was nothing very special about a young driver, only months removed from club racing, emerging as a serious challenger to two of the fastest and most experienced driver/team combinations in motor racing.
July thirteenth at Watkins Glen was potential realized. Racing for the first time on that very fast and demanding New York circuit, Swanson qualified fourth, bested only by Andretti, Redman, and Jean-Pierre Jarier. In that, his third professional race, Swanson was faster than Al Unser, Jackie Oliver, David Hobbs, Graham McRae, and Warwick Brown. In the feature he was nipping at Unser's tail and cooling holding off the accomplished Jarier. He finished a spectacular third."
(I live two hours from Mid-Ohio. I can't imagine why I didn't go to the 1975 race.) On the first lap of the August 10, 1975 event his throttle jammed open on the first lap, and he crashed into the earthen embankment of the auto bridge. Kirby reports that he died three days later. He was twenty-six.
I saw Swanson in the garages at Watkins Glen that year. There was a fan who was taking a photo of Swanson with his arm around the fans' wife. "Kiss him, Bev," the guy said. Corny, but Swanson smiled and played the part gracefully. As would Gurney or Donohue.
"It is exquisitely rare. It has happened only once or twice in a generation of American road racing. A driver comes from nowhere and is almost immediately running with the best. There have been others before, Dan Gurney, Mark Donohue. This time it was B. J. Swanson.
There was something special about Swanson. Something that triggered memories of a young Gurney or a young Donohue. It was partly his smoothness. On the track he was cool, precise, consistant. His driving had that stamp of inbred maturity drawn from a source more amorphus than experience.
Away from the track he was matter of fact. He seemed to accept the fact that he was capable of driving his Bay Racing Lola only a tick or two slower than Andretti or Redman, as if it was a perfectly natural occurance. Yet, he did so with a modesty that rang true. He would give a calm assessment of his performance that would virtually lull a listener into believing that there was nothing very special about a young driver, only months removed from club racing, emerging as a serious challenger to two of the fastest and most experienced driver/team combinations in motor racing.
July thirteenth at Watkins Glen was potential realized. Racing for the first time on that very fast and demanding New York circuit, Swanson qualified fourth, bested only by Andretti, Redman, and Jean-Pierre Jarier. In that, his third professional race, Swanson was faster than Al Unser, Jackie Oliver, David Hobbs, Graham McRae, and Warwick Brown. In the feature he was nipping at Unser's tail and cooling holding off the accomplished Jarier. He finished a spectacular third."
(I live two hours from Mid-Ohio. I can't imagine why I didn't go to the 1975 race.) On the first lap of the August 10, 1975 event his throttle jammed open on the first lap, and he crashed into the earthen embankment of the auto bridge. Kirby reports that he died three days later. He was twenty-six.
I saw Swanson in the garages at Watkins Glen that year. There was a fan who was taking a photo of Swanson with his arm around the fans' wife. "Kiss him, Bev," the guy said. Corny, but Swanson smiled and played the part gracefully. As would Gurney or Donohue.
Motor racing driver. Born Bernard James Swanson in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the son of Mr & Mrs Bernard Swanson Jr. I cannot improve on the following - Here is what Gordon Kirby wrote about B. J. Swanson in 1975:
"It is exquisitely rare. It has happened only once or twice in a generation of American road racing. A driver comes from nowhere and is almost immediately running with the best. There have been others before, Dan Gurney, Mark Donohue. This time it was B. J. Swanson.
There was something special about Swanson. Something that triggered memories of a young Gurney or a young Donohue. It was partly his smoothness. On the track he was cool, precise, consistant. His driving had that stamp of inbred maturity drawn from a source more amorphus than experience.
Away from the track he was matter of fact. He seemed to accept the fact that he was capable of driving his Bay Racing Lola only a tick or two slower than Andretti or Redman, as if it was a perfectly natural occurance. Yet, he did so with a modesty that rang true. He would give a calm assessment of his performance that would virtually lull a listener into believing that there was nothing very special about a young driver, only months removed from club racing, emerging as a serious challenger to two of the fastest and most experienced driver/team combinations in motor racing.
July thirteenth at Watkins Glen was potential realized. Racing for the first time on that very fast and demanding New York circuit, Swanson qualified fourth, bested only by Andretti, Redman, and Jean-Pierre Jarier. In that, his third professional race, Swanson was faster than Al Unser, Jackie Oliver, David Hobbs, Graham McRae, and Warwick Brown. In the feature he was nipping at Unser's tail and cooling holding off the accomplished Jarier. He finished a spectacular third."
(I live two hours from Mid-Ohio. I can't imagine why I didn't go to the 1975 race.) On the first lap of the August 10, 1975 event his throttle jammed open on the first lap, and he crashed into the earthen embankment of the auto bridge. Kirby reports that he died three days later. He was twenty-six.
I saw Swanson in the garages at Watkins Glen that year. There was a fan who was taking a photo of Swanson with his arm around the fans' wife. "Kiss him, Bev," the guy said. Corny, but Swanson smiled and played the part gracefully. As would Gurney or Donohue.
"It is exquisitely rare. It has happened only once or twice in a generation of American road racing. A driver comes from nowhere and is almost immediately running with the best. There have been others before, Dan Gurney, Mark Donohue. This time it was B. J. Swanson.
There was something special about Swanson. Something that triggered memories of a young Gurney or a young Donohue. It was partly his smoothness. On the track he was cool, precise, consistant. His driving had that stamp of inbred maturity drawn from a source more amorphus than experience.
Away from the track he was matter of fact. He seemed to accept the fact that he was capable of driving his Bay Racing Lola only a tick or two slower than Andretti or Redman, as if it was a perfectly natural occurance. Yet, he did so with a modesty that rang true. He would give a calm assessment of his performance that would virtually lull a listener into believing that there was nothing very special about a young driver, only months removed from club racing, emerging as a serious challenger to two of the fastest and most experienced driver/team combinations in motor racing.
July thirteenth at Watkins Glen was potential realized. Racing for the first time on that very fast and demanding New York circuit, Swanson qualified fourth, bested only by Andretti, Redman, and Jean-Pierre Jarier. In that, his third professional race, Swanson was faster than Al Unser, Jackie Oliver, David Hobbs, Graham McRae, and Warwick Brown. In the feature he was nipping at Unser's tail and cooling holding off the accomplished Jarier. He finished a spectacular third."
(I live two hours from Mid-Ohio. I can't imagine why I didn't go to the 1975 race.) On the first lap of the August 10, 1975 event his throttle jammed open on the first lap, and he crashed into the earthen embankment of the auto bridge. Kirby reports that he died three days later. He was twenty-six.
I saw Swanson in the garages at Watkins Glen that year. There was a fan who was taking a photo of Swanson with his arm around the fans' wife. "Kiss him, Bev," the guy said. Corny, but Swanson smiled and played the part gracefully. As would Gurney or Donohue.
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