ALGER — Many sprint-car drivers know their car down to the smallest rattle or the most obscure part.

Colton Heath takes it to another level.

Heath, who is having a strong year in the 410 Sprint division at Skagit Speedway, is also a talented welder who works for a Sedro-Woolley company and turns out many of the parts he uses for his own cars.

Heath believes that helps him understand the car better.

“When I make something, it’s not somebody’s stuff. I built it from the get-go. When I change something and I’m like, ‘This feels different,’ I know what it is. It just works out better when I’m driving and when I’m creating it.”

That knowledge may be helping Heath, who is running second behind speedway stalwart Barry Martinez heading into this season’s points race.

Heath has 1180 driver points to Marinez’s 1181. He won his first 410 A Main earlier this season, and took second in one of the track’s signature races — the 360 Nationals.

Heath said the entire team has been working well this season.

“We’ve been fast, we’ve always been running up front,” he said “The whole season we’ve been super competitive, and that’s what I’ve strived for.”

Like many drivers, Heath, who hails from the Marysville area, grew up watching a parent race — in his case his mother Carla.

Colton took the plunge himself. He began racing quads, then moved to go-karts, then spent two seasons at Deming, where many successful Skagit Speedway drivers have gotten their start.

Over the years, Heath honed his welding skills like he did his racing skills.

“I never had my own welder. But I’ve done some of my own stuff like go-karts and quarter midgets,” he said. “I’ve kind of always been naturally good at it. I never had any schooling.”

Heath said there’s a certain creativity to the work.
“I think it’s a lot of finesse. You’ve got to get your rhythm down,” he said.

About a year and a half ago, Heath got a chance to audition with Sedro-Woolley’s Rocket Chassis, a company that had been founded in 1991 by Mark Richards Racing Enterprises that has turned out over 1,000 late-model chassis and currently produces almost 250 a year.

“I said, ‘I know what I’m doing. I don’t know if I’m good enough to work for you guys. But I know what I’m doing,’” Heath recalls.

He passed the audition, and has been working there ever since.

Both of the cars Heath drives at Skagit and Deming — where he races mini-sprints on Fridays — are prototypes for future chassis.

That way, he gets to use both skills, driving and welding.

“I work on it, change things and find out what works and what doesn’t,” he said. “If something doesn’t work we’ll cut it off and do something different.”

• Trevor Pyle can be reached at 360-416-2156 or by e-mail at