Woody Watts

Wade William "Woody" Watts (born August 28, 1988) is an American race car driver and commentator. He is set to drive Power Steering Incorporated's third-car (#61) in the 2019 TM Master Cup season. Watts has competed in the TM Master Cup Series since 2007; however, significant injuries in a horrific crash in the 2011 Round of Daytona sidelined him until 2014.

Woody Watts is perhaps best known for his years in the now-defunct Vaughn Stock Car Championship (formerly RROL). He won two RROL Championships, in 2006 and 2007.

He currently serves as a commentator for the RROL North-Atlantic Open-Wheel Modified Asphalt Division.

Early racing career
After a short stint in the late model and modified championships of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, Woody Watts was spotted by RROL Cup Series regular and team owner, Chris Anderson, who picked up Watts for his first RROL start in the 2004 season-finale at Rockingham Speedway.

Watts was the RROL Cup Rookie of the Year in 2005, before winning the RROL Cup championship in both 2006 and 2007.

During the 2006 season, it was announced that Chris Anderson would step into the commentary booth for RROL coverage starting in 2007. In the offseason, Watts and his mother began a long-term purchase of The Anderson Group.

Woody Watts' ambitions to continue climbing up the racing ladder would soon be realized as he put together an effort to enter TM Master Cup Series races at the end of the 2007 racing season - as the RROL transitioned into the "Car of Tomorrow" model.

The big leagues
Woody Watts entered the final 3 races of the 2007 TM Master Cup Series season driving his own Watts Motorsports, #06 Sony/Comcast-sponsored Inglesby.

Watts’ first TMMC qualifying race, held at Talladega Superspeedway, was the same one that former series champion Steve Marshall died in. Watts did not qualify, finishing 18th out of 28, with only 15 drivers qualifying.

After finishing 5th in the next qualifier - Woody Watts made his TMMC debut at Mansfield, where Ross Peterson won in a rain-shortened race. On lap 46, Watts was spun out of turn 2 and down the track by Joel Rodriguez before colliding with the inside wall - bringing out the race’s 6th caution; however, Watts took minimal damage and was able to continue. He finished 16th and received a personal apology from Rodriguez after the race.

Woody survived a crash-filled Decatur qualifying race, finishing 11th and making the big show for the season finale. Watts turned out a fine performance, staying out of trouble, running as high as 5th and scoring his first top-10 with a 9th-place finish.

2008

In 2008, the Watts Motorsports TMMC effort began receiving support from FLASH Racing; however, this support wasn’t enough for Watts & Co to overcome the massive surge of competition drawn to TMMC that year. Watts missed out on qualifying for the season-opener at Daytona, shy of making the race by 1 on-track position. As qualifiers became overcrowded, TM officials formed the TM Junior Series to filter drivers back into TMMC with a Junior Series win. After failing to qualify for the first 3 TMMC races that year, Watts was demoted to TM Junior. Watts Motorsports then expanded with a second full-time team, fielded for New Hampshire native Leon Keniston.

Unfortunately struggles would continue for awhile, but things began to slowly improve over the course of the season. There were rumors concerning the future of the Watts Motorsports TM team and shortly after Salem it was announced that FLASH Racing agreed to a buyout of Watts Motorsports’ TM program and the purchase would go into effect before the end of 2008.

At Southern Illinois the team had a breakthrough with Keniston picking up his first win.

After Talladega, FLASH Racing’s buyout of Watts Motorsports’ TMMC outfit was officially confirmed and Watts’ name began circulating with rumors of a future in the Master Cup Series driving a FLASH Racing team car. Keniston, on the other hand, seemingly had his future up in the air.

Leon Keniston received a 1-race suspension from TMMC officials for stopping on track during a qualifying race in Russia for no apparent reason (Tom Delgado did the same thing and was also suspended - the two blocked the track, bunched up the field, and created more problems). Woody Watts stepped into the 60 car, substituting for Keniston at the Twin Ring Motegi and qualified with some help from a last lap, last turn wreck which allowed him to finish 11th. Watts managed to stay out of trouble in the main event and wound up with a career-best finish of 8th place. In his review of the race, commentator Dan Mullen said that this run may have saved Woody’s Master Cup series career.

2009

During the off-season, Woody Watts agreed to join James Dalton Racing and drive full-time in car #01, with sponsorship from Western Digital.

Watts successfully qualified for his first TMMC race at Daytona to start the season. With a strong showing, Watts bested his own TMMC personal-best finish for the third time in a row, collecting 7th-place. Unfortunately Watts was unable to build a strong run of form to start the season. After finishing off the lead lap at Carbondale and crashing out in Chicago, Watts was no longer locked into races and would then have make it through the qualifying races starting at Brands Hatch, where he did not qualify for the first time in 2009.

Woody did qualify for the 5th race at Texas World Speedway, but the TM Master Cup Series experienced [[2009 Texas strike|a now infamous strike}} by all non-Saar and Lenard teams over dispute regarding the tire compounds and legality of the Saars and Lenards. After failing to qualify in Brazil for race #6, an angry Woody Watts told reporters, “I don't think our team should have pulled out of the last race, even if we had no shot. We needed those points.” When asked why he didn’t keep car #01 in the race at Texas World, he said, “I was listening to orders.”

Woody Watts made his first start in the Karjala Grand Prix after a last lap, last turn pass to sneak through the pre-qualifier into the qualifying race where he finished 8th. Unfortunately he didn’t have the same success in the Grand Prix, being collected in an incident on the first lap and later had an on-track tussle with Tony Durbin.

Watts won the qualifier in New York, before finishing 18th in the 8th race of the season. For race 9 at Salem, Watts and both teammates (Marcos Leonard and James Dalton) would advance from the qualifying race. Woody ran in the top-5 and kept his nose relatively clean before ending up with 17th. This was followed by DNQs at Indianapolis and Grand Detour. Watts qualified for the 12th race of the season at Talladega but wound up 34th, retiring from the race after a wreck with Alexis Rainsford in which both smashed the inside wall just before the pits and the outside wall in the tri-oval before Todd Wodarczyk piled into the #01 car. Watts DNQed again in during his first trip to Australia.

Watts added to his impressive Twin Ring Motegi resume in the 14th weekend of TMMC competition, finishing 9th in both the qualifier and the main event - scoring his 2nd top-10 of the season, his 2nd top-10 in Motegi, and the 4th of his TMMC career thus far. Woody failed to qualify in Russia, but bounced back in the 16th round at Spa-Francorchamps with a career-best 6th-place finish (5th TMMC top-10), duking it out with the likes of Alexis Rainsford and Leonid Roderick late in the race. Watts did not qualify for the final three races of 2009.

2010

After his top-10 in Japan, it was announced that Woody Watts would join Russian TMMC outfit Katzev Engineering to pilot the #041 car, full-time in 2010, with sponsorship from Woodwings, an American home furnishing company. After nearly winning his first qualifying race of the season, Watts turned out two unspectacular races in Japan and Australia, before leading on-route to a 6th-place finish in Brazil. This would tie for Watts’ career-best TMMC finish and put him 16th in points. In the next race, at Carbondale, despite Katzev engine concerns during the race, Woody collected his 2nd top-10 in a row with a 9th-place finish - boosting him to 12th in the point standings. This run of good form continued into the 5th round (Texas), where Watts managed a 15th-place finish after starting 2nd-to-last in 38th and found himself 9th in the points.

Watts’ first DNF of 2010 was at Brands Hatch, getting collected in a tangle between Franz Redlich and Louis Kingston at the end of lap 1. Watts’ career-best point standing meant he was locked into the Karjala Grand Prix for the first time in his career and went onto have his best showing in the legendary race. Katzev’s reliability had been a major concern all season so far and Watts’ teammates dropped out of the Grand Prix early. "When Julia [Nosova] and Vlad[imir Siminov] went out, it worried me a bit; and to be honest, I changed my gameplan as a result. I went for a good points run," Watts explained to reporters while being interviewed after his 6th-place finish.

Katzev Engineering, as a whole, struggled at EuroSpeedway in Germany. The engine in Watts’ #041 car gave out after 29 laps - DNF #2 of 2010. Watts rebounded at Spa with his 2nd consecutive top-10 finish in a row at the track, this time picking up 10th, his 4th top-10 in the first 9 races of 2010. With just less than half the season in the books, Watts was 11th in points.

After rather un-noteworthy results in Italy and the Czech Republic; during the 12th round of the season at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Watts piled into the 2nd caution of the race late, hitting Leonid Roderick’s car at considerable speed. Watts was the first driver to retire from the race, later calling the incident “a stupid mistake” and apologizing to Roderick for whom he expressed concern. Woody had another top-10 run going at Quincy, but was taken out after being collected in an incident just before him, involving Mike Whitmore, Drew Eisenman, and Milano Rossini. Watts wound up 22nd and held 17th in points. In Michigan, Watts would suffer a third consecutive DNF - this time due to mechanical failure.

Watts followed those 3 DNFs with two quiet runs - 16th at Road America and 22nd in Canada. Watts did not compete in Russia as the TM officials were forced to reschedule the Russian round to the same weekend as Talladega, later mandating that drivers can only complete in one of the two races.

Woody Watts was involved in the controversial wreck on lap 7 at Talladega. Watts, Brian Sendack, and Matt Taylor took some of the hardest hits at about 230 MPH. Watts did not drive away from the accident, mainly due to being knocked out with a mild concussion. When Watts' helmet was removed in the infield care center, it revealed a huge knot near his right temple, apparently this developed immediately at contact with Matt Taylor's car. Other than that, Watts only noted some bruising were his seat belt had held him in and he mentioned some pain in his right knee, which apparently shot up and hit the bottom of the dashboard in the accident. After exiting the infield car center, Watts was asked about the crash and told a reporter "I don't blame anyone, at this kind of track these wrecks happen all the time, and every driver needs to know that risk before they step into one of these cars. Zach Duff and Azuma [Kazeyama] stopped by and talked to me already, and they both felt bad about the whole thing, and I completely understand. We've all been there and these kinds of wrecks happen a lot." Another reporter followed up asking, "What changes do you think could be made to avoid wrecks like this?" Watts was quick to answer - "Lower the speeds. 230 MPH is too fast. At 200 or 210 MPH, this wreck would not have been as bad. It probably still would have happened, but it would not have been as bad. I don't think there's another way to put it."

Watts failed to qualify for the season finale at Decatur Raceway.

2011

For the 2011 season, Woody Watts changed teams again, this time joining the Bolden Speedstable to drive car #6. His season started very well at the Las Vegas Autoring, leading at the white flag in a dash to the finish which saw Watts end up 10th. Despite running out of fuel in with only 5 laps to go in the 2nd race of the season at the Lone Star Supercell, Woody managed to finish in 12th and leave Texas 11th in the point standings. At Carbondale, Watts was the first driver to retire from the race after an incident under caution with Louis Kingston - Watts dropped to 17th in the point standings. After another forgettable race at Brands Hatch, Watts finished 21st and fell out of the top-20 in points. In Sweden, Woody Watts managed a 10th-place effort and moved up to 19th in points; however, at this team reports began to circulate that there was tension between Watts and Bolden. Watts finished 16th EuroSpeedway Lausitz before failing to qualify for the 2011 running of the Karjala Grand Prix; although Watts did rebound with a 12th-place finish in Russia. Watts had troubles in the Czech Republic's rain-filled round, getting involved in the lap 1 chaos and eventually dropping out early due to a transmission failure, finishing 31st.

Injury/Hiatus
At the 2011 Round of Daytona, Watts spun in an accident that also collected John Parker Jr, Chris Johannes, and Morgan Hamburg. The initial incident sent Watts barrel-rolling down the backstretch into turn 3 where Watts's car returned to the racing surface. At that point Leslie Riggs hit the side of Watts' #6 Bolden Chaser at full speed. The race was immediately red flagged and ultimately halted for 45 minutes, as Watts and Riggs were both airlifted to a local hospital. Watts was in serious condition for about a month, and recovery took 8-9 months. In an interview in February 2012 with High Gear, Watts reported that he could not walk without crutches and that he plans to return to VSCC competition if he is able to.

Comeback
By late 2014, Watts had recovered enough to attempt to qualify as a one-off entrant for the 2014 Round of Decatur, which he successfully did, to the pleasure of the TM Master Cup paddock. Unfortunately his return to the Master Cup series was brief and he exited the race early after involvement in a multi-car wreck.

2019

For the 2019 racing season, it was announced that Woody Watts would serve as the lead commentator for the RROL's new NOMAD project along with Eric Reed. Watts also was named the driver of Power Steering Incorporated's third part-time entry, #61, for the 2019 TM Master Cup season. Watts teams up with Kurt Plissken and Greg Woodard, driving for what is arguably the most competitive team he has ever driven for in the TM Master Cup Series.

Personal Life
Watts is a born-again Christian. In a 2019 interview on Christline Radio, he described his horrific crash in the 2011 TM Master Cup Series Round of Daytona, and the recovery he endured afterward, as "humbling." The physical damage done to his body was not the only obstacle in Woody's comeback to motorsport. After making his return to the driver's seat, he revealed a personal struggle with depression and an addiction to painkillers.

Career Statistics
TM Master Cup Series