By Brady Extin | Daily Reporter
GREENFIELD — Racing is something that has been running through Eastern Hancock student Logan Adams’ blood his entire life.
From learning to race go-karts at the New Castle Motorsports Park to racing karts in various events and tournaments around the country, Adams has now taken the next step in his racing career.
For the 2023 season, Adams will be competing in his first open-wheel events as part of the Formula 4 United States Championship Series.
“I can’t wait,” said Adams. “I am excited to have the opportunity to race with Jay (Howard), and his program is a great start for my open-wheel racing efforts. Racing runs in our family, so I am anxious to continue that.”
Adams enters the season as part of the Jay Howard Driver Development team, who earned the 2022 F4 championship behind driver Lochie Hughes.
“We welcome Logan to the JHDD efforts and look forward to helping mold and mend his career in car racing,” Howard said. “I am not only looking forward to working with Logan, but also to having Mark Dismore’s [Logan’s grandfather] input and influence involved in Logan’s progression to help get the most out of him each race weekend. This is just the first step for Logan in what I am sure will be a long and successful motorsports career, and I am excited to be a part of it.”
Family is what got Adams into the sport at a young age, and is what has kept pushing him to get to this point in his career. His grandfather, Greenfield’s Mark Dismore, is a former IndyCar Series driver, and Logan’s father, Mike, works at the New Castle Motorsports Park.
“My grandpa raced IndyCar when he was younger, so I grew up around racing, and he owned a few businesses that were centered around racing, primarily go-karts, which got me into racing and started my career,” Adams said. “My grandpa has helped me improve a ton, but my parents have also. They are the main people behind my racing career. They help me do everything, and I can’t thank them enough.”
From the age of seven, Adams began racing go-karts and would go on to win various races and events all across the country in the United States Pro Kart Series, the Route 66 Sprint Series, and the SuperKarts! USA tour.
It wasn’t until last December that he made the jump over to F4. In preparation for the 2023 season, Adams tested with Radford Racing School, where he said he learned a lot and got used to racing a bigger car.
Now as a member of the Jay Howard team, and with the 2023 season underway, Adams relies on his grandfather to help with a lot of his training.
“My grandpa helps me improve,” Adams said. “He watches all my sessions, and he tells me what I need to work on when I come in. He’s just great.”
Learning to control a car opposed to a kart has been the biggest obstacle for Adams since making the jump to F4.
“Weight difference and momentum are the biggest things. That’s really what you need to carry in cars, in karts you can kind of slide around a bit and pivot them. You are the weight, so you’re the heaviest thing about a go-kart, so you decide where it goes. In a car, it’s about where it wants to go,” Adams said. “You just have to get used to driving and getting experience, which I don’t have yet. I’ve been racing a lot on my simulator, so between that and being in the car, I think it’s going to be a good combo.”
His first F4 event was March 9 where he competed in the NOLA SpeedTour in New Orleans. An incident in race No. 1 that tore the left side of Adams’ car off led to a weekend that didn’t go as hoped for.
“I’m really excited about what’s to come. New Orleans didn’t go great for us, but I think there’s going to be massive improvement coming up. I was fast and had the speed, but luck just wasn’t really on our side,” Adams said. “I enjoyed the racing and being around all those people, though. It was a good experience learning to get really used to it, but it just didn’t really go that well.”
With his family behind him, grandfather helping him train, and a full season of races ahead, Adams hopes to use this year as a starting point in his racing career.
“I want to learn a lot to improve and hopefully get to the USF series next year, that’s my main goal, just to continue my racing career,” Adams said. “This year is not really focusing as much on winning a championship, but just learning and getting used to driving the cars.”
The next F4 event is May 18 through May 21 at Road America in Plymouth, Wisconsin.
