ATVriders.com: Are you racing a SxS as well this year?
Michael Swift: Yeah you know, our SxS adventure started out last year and we kind of tip toed through it and we learned half way through the series that we could be competitive and win races; so this year we’ve decided to continue that. We will be racing a Polaris RZR XP 900 in the XC2 Pro-Am class in GNCC.

In addition to racing in the newly formed GNCC 4x4 Pro Class, Swift will also be racing a Polaris RZR XP 900 in the GNCC Racing Series

ATVriders.com: How much time have you been practicing, training, and working on these new machines before the races?
Michael Swift: It takes a lot of time and it took a lot of time to get where we were on the other machines. We got to start with everything mid December and have been going full-speed ahead trying to get prepared for race season. We’ve done the best we could with the time frame we’ve had, and I feel like I’ve gotten used to it and made the transition well.

Michael Swift has been training at his family farm in Tennessee

ATVriders.com: I saw at your house, you have a little practice loop, can you tell me about that?
Michael Swift: Yeah in Tennessee there isn’t too many places to go and ride because it’s all privately owned land. The off road parks they do have here are more for the rock climbers and mud people, so there’s not much here to choose from so the family farm here where I live there’s 120 acres and most of it’s woods. So we’ve, the past eight years, worked on it and we have an eight-mile loop here.

Michael Swift is looking to make a statement on his new ride in the GNCC 4x4 Pro Class at the GNCC Racing Series Season Opener in Florida this weekend

ATVriders.com: How excited are you for the GNCC season to start here this week?
Michael Swift: I’m very excited and it’s a bit of a mixed feeling. I’m a little bit excited, a little bit nervous but a lot of things have changed and Utility racing has gone down here recently instead of going up the last couple of years and we needed something to get it to go up. We only had one manufacturer and now we have two so there’s some competition. We’ve talked to Racer Productions into changing the classes up and there is now a Pro 4x4 class which is what we’ve been trying to get them to for years, so it’s drawn a lot of hype to it and I think there’s more talk about the 4x4 Pro class than there is the Sport Pro class right now. So that makes it a little nerve racking; there’s going to be all of us doing our best. With all of the 4x4’s racing against each other in one class, instead of being spread out like we have been in other classes. So I’m a little excited, a little nervous, but it’s going to be fun!

ATVriders.com: You know that’s a big deal! Normally you’re racing against Buckhannon, Trantham and all of the other guys out there but now you’re going to be racing head-to-head.
Michael Swift: Yeah we normally just get in behind each other and find a good pace and just roll on and wasn’t too worried about the logistics of it and we’d just fall into a pace. Now it’s totally different and racing for first, second, and third and it’ll be a lot of fun and make for some very exciting racing.

ATVriders.com: You guys are all going to be starting on that front row now too and it’s going to be a lot more guys going into that first turn now as well.
Michael Swift: There is and we’ve gotten used to it over the last few years and having maybe 3-6 ATV’s on the line, it was getting a little old and it wasn’t too big of a deal to get down there and get through the first turn. Now it’s more important and I think all of the utilities will make it more important to get a better starting position.

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