Logan Roberson $20,000 “WORLD CHAMPION” The little team that not only could, but did!
In the day of technically advanced race cars, $500,000 haulers and full time crews, Logan Roberson proved you can win the $20,000 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP without any of that. He uses a 1998 24 ft Minnie Winnebago as his big hauler, a 28 ft enclosed trailer, no back-up car, a new Chevrolet Performance crate engine and only bought 3 new tires for the entire weekend of racing. His crew was his Mom and Dad and one other crew member. Roberson said his total expense was about $800 for both nights of racing. Roberson took home $800 on Friday night and $20,000 on Saturday in the World’s largest Chevrolet Performance Championship held at Bill Sawyer’s Virginia Motor Speedway in Jamaica, VA with the FASTRAK Racing Series.
Roberson (VA) started on the outside of the front row. Jensen Ford (TN) started on the inside and jumped out to an early lead, but on lap 5 Ford’s fan literally came apart going into turn 3 and ending his night. Roberson took the lead and under the choose format with each driver choosing inside or outside he chose outside and from that point took command of the race. With true double file restarts Roberson continued to lead after several cautions then here comes Michael Brown (SC) running him down. Brown was working in the top side of the track, hanging onto the cushion and was closing quickly during the latter stages of the race. Brown got by one time only to have a yellow flag come out to his demise putting him back to second place again. On lap 52 Brown passed Roberson again, but going into turn 1, Brown went to the bottom seeing a lap car up ahead and Roberson said oh no, this is my race and took the top side in 1 and 2 barely inching in front of Brown and between the lap car re-took command going on to take the $20,000 victory.
In victory lane on the front straight, young Roberson was almost speechless. Holding back the tears as he thanked the fans for coming and thanked his sponsors. At that point the top 3 cars went to technical inspection. Roberson’s engine was torn down to the crank shaft in the pits right in front of all the other competitors and 2nd and 3rd were inspected thoroughly as well. Long night leaving around 5:30 AM Sunday morning but everyone knew when they left, the race was won fair and square.
Roberson wanted to thank his sponsors: one anonymous helping him when he was down, Wells Customs, Dirt Defender, Champion Auto Parts, BPS Towing, All About Wraps, Blueridge TreeScapes, Panchos Racing Products, and QA1. Roberson will also be at the PRI show in December.
Specials notes of interest:
Roberson bought 1 new FT200 Hoosier spec tire for Friday and 2 new FT400 spec tires for Saturday.
Roberson utilized all used tires for the weekend with the exception of the 3 new ones.
Top 3 finishers were all factory sealed engines, not blue printed.
Passing: (numbers of cars passed from where they started)
Matt Long 15, Benji Hicks 13, Nick Davis 13, Corey Almond 12, Chris Blackwell 12, Trent Ivey 11, Carson Ferguson 10, Troy Fraizer 10, Henry Hornsby 10, Kyle Lukon 10, Rambo Dennis Franklin 7, Ross Bailes 5, Stephen Childress 5, Travis Pennington 4, Michael Brown 3, Kerry King 3, Justin Williams 1, Logan Roberson 1.
