On his 17th birthday, Logan Watt received a birthday surprise. Kevin Graver was on the phone, and he had an offer.
“When I picked up the phone I heard, ‘Do you want to drive our [TQ midget] at the indoor race in Allentown?’” Watt, of Boyertown, Pennsylvania, said.
Of course, Watt answered with a resounding “yes.” Watt knew Graver from competing with him and his son at Grandview Speedway. The ride opened when two-time USAC national champ Justin Grant had a schedule conflict between the Allentown Indoor Race and practice for the Chili Bowl.
Graver fields good equipment. Briggs Danner, who drives the other car for the team, won on Friday at Allentown. However, Watt, who races dirt modifieds, had to acclimate to TQs on pavement indoors.
“The TQ was different than anything I drove before, even .25 midgets, which I drove at the beginning of my career,” Watt said.
Graver helped Watt become more accustomed to the TQ midget.
“In the TQ, it’s drive in as hard as you can, almost come to a stop in the turns, turn the car, and accelerate quickly,” Watt said. “I came in, and Kevin explained what he observed, and what his car was trying to do. I explained what I felt while driving. We talked about the minor changes we would make before qualifying and after qualifying we talked about the setup for the next events.”
Highly variable track conditions also threw Watt in for a loop.
“After they opened that door, one corner of the track was slick, the other gripped up,” Watt said. “It was was like driving in two different worlds. The second night the door was shut and the track condition was the same in both turns.”
The TQ midget has no power steering and Watt had to fight abrasive rubber collecting on the track. He seemed to get the hang of it. Watt timed eighth quickest, which put him in the 10-car Will Cagle Shootout. There, he finished seventh. He qualified and finished 13th on Friday, and came in 21st on Saturday, but he made both shows.
Watt battled brake issues on Friday and Saturday. The Graver team changed master cylinders between Friday and Saturday, but it did not help. Watt said the brakes faded throughout the feature until he had no brakes, forcing him to pull off.
The next round of the Indoor Auto Racing Championship takes place on January 30-31 at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Grant will return to his ride, but Logan Watt wouldn’t mind another phone call with a TQ midget ride offer on the other end.
“Would I jump at another chance to drive a TQ? Absolutely, 100%,” Watt said. “I enjoyed driving the car and I loved working with Kevin and his crew.”
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.
