Rookie driver Logan Watt wasn’t eying a championship as he entered the season at Grandview Speedway. However, when 2023 drew to a close, he earned the sportsman title at the Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania, dirt oval.
While technically a rookie at Grandview Speedway, Watt has raced sportsman modifieds at nearby Big Diamond Speedway since he was 12. Grandview Speedway, which runs under the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series banner, sets the age minimum at 14 years old.
“At the start of the season, my intention was to race at Grandview for experience, by getting more laps,” Watt, of Boyertown, Pennsylvania, said. “After the third race, which I won, I told myself I think I can pull this off [and win the championship], if we kept riding like we are.”
Watt had a banner year at Grandview Speedway. He won two features and scored eight top-fives in a division that regularly sends cars home. Watt attributed some of that success to running at Big Diamond Speedway in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, on Fridays.
“Racing on Friday night allowed us to test new things for Saturday night,” said Watt. “We adjusted shocks and the chassis on Friday. I was able to feel what the changes would do to the car.”
Watt used the car his father, Ryan Watt, campaigned six years ago to win multiple championships and dozens of feature victories.
“I worked on the car when Dad raced Bridgeport [Motorsports Park in New Jersey], and I couldn’t even get into the pits,” Watt said. “I have background knowledge of the car. Now, technology has gone through the roof. Engineering is playing a bigger part in racing.”
Winning the championship hit him the day after the season concluded.
“I sat up in bed and couldn’t believe what happened — I won the championship,” said Watt. “I was just a little kid watching [track legends] Craig Van Dohren and Jeff Strunk.”
Logan Watt looks to continue racing sportsman modifieds in the near future along with some small-block modified events. The youngster does have his eyes on bigger things down the road, hoping to race some day in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
“NASCAR is cool — it’s about being a professional, acting professionally and speaking professionally,” Watt said. “To win a championship at a NASCAR-sanctioned track is a dream come true to me.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
