Story By: JORDAN DELUCIA / XTREME OUTLAW SERIES – DOE RUN, MO – Summer break is over, and racing is back in session. The Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota returns to action this weekend, bringing national Midget racing back to a pair of tiny Midwest ovals.
Never in the 29-year history of Doe Run Raceway have Midgets raced within its 1/6-mile confines; that is until Friday night, when the Xtreme Outlaws make their Series debut, competing for a $4,000 grand prize.
Southern Illinois Raceway welcomes the return of Midgets to its 1/8-mile course for the first time in four years. The POWRi National Midget League held the last Midget event there in 2019 and teams up with the Xtreme Outlaw Series for a $4,000-to-win show to cap the weekend Saturday night.
Both shows will be run in conjunction with POWRi as part of the Xtreme Outlaw-POWRi Challenge Series, which pays the points champion $2,500 at season’s end.
Tickets for both events will be on sale at the gate on race day.
Here are the drivers to watch and storylines to follow this weekend:
MR. CONSISTENT – Up by 121 points in the Xtreme Outlaw standings, Cannon McIntosh has been nothing but consistent through the first third of the 2023 schedule.
Through the first 10 races, the 20-year-old Oklahoman has podium finishes in every event except for two; one of which he took a DNF after an early incident while running inside the top-five. With four wins and no finishes outside the top-six in Xtreme competition thus far, McIntosh is inching closer toward his first career national Midget championship.
He’s currently riding a wave of momentum from a dominant display through POWRi’s Illinois SPEEDweek, where he won three of the four scheduled races and finished second in the lone race he did not win en route to his third-straight miniseries championship.
McIntosh leads the field into Doe Run on Friday, aiming to become the track’s first-ever Midget Feature winner. He’s also started two previous Midget races at Southern Illinois with POWRi – one in 2018 (17th-place) and the other in 2019, when he took a DNF after starting third.
MOST IMPROVED – After coming so close to his first career national Midget Feature win with the Xtreme Outlaws on multiple occasions before the summer break, Gavin Miller finally cashed-in – twice – and is one of the nation’s most rapidly improving Midget drivers.
The 16-year-old from Allentown, PA, nearly won the Xtreme Outlaw Showdown at Wayne County Speedway, leading by a lengthy margin in the final laps before getting into the outside wall and surrendering the top spot to eventual winner Zach Daum. Three nights later in USAC action, he took a hard tumble after leading 12 laps at Circle City Raceway.
On June 9, Miller finally broke through to Victory Lane, beating a stout USAC Indiana Midget Week field to score the win at Bloomington Speedway. Most recently, Miller cashed-in with POWRi, winning the latest national event at Lake Ozark Speedway in Missouri.
With podium finishes in three of his last four Xtreme Outlaw starts, Miller now sits 121 points behind McIntosh in the championship standings.
7-UP – Since joining the Trifecta Motorsports team days before the most recent Xtreme Outlaw race weekend in June, Zach Daum dramatically turned a slow start to the season around.
Daum, the 32-year-old open-wheel veteran from Pocahontas, IL, was sitting ninth in Series points after a tough weekend at Millbridge Speedway, getting involved in a wreck that destroyed his new King Chassis that he put together before the start of the season. He soon received a call from car owner Steve Carbone about filling the open seat in the team’s flagship #7U and grabbed his equipment with renewed ambition.
In their first Xtreme race together at Tri-City, Daum drove from 10th on the starting grid up to fifth before sweeping both races Friday-Saturday at Wayne County Speedway. Daum’s first two victories of the season surged him all the way up to fifth in the standings, where he currently sits 270 points back of leader McIntosh.
Daum has two previous starts with POWRi at Southern Illinois, finishing 12th in 2018 and eighth in 2019. He’s back in the Trifecta #7U this weekend in search of his fourth career Series victory.
REBOUND RUN – After surviving a wave of tough luck in the last Xtreme Outlaw race weekend, things are starting to look up again for Jade Avedisian.
A blown tire while running inside the top-five at Tri-City and a pass attempt for the lead gone awry on the first night at Wayne County ruined the 16-year-old Californian’s would’ve-been podium finishes last month. She’s since dropped to fourth in the Series standings, 180 points out of the lead.
However, a fourth-place result in USAC Indiana Midget Week points and three-straight top-five finishes to cap POWRi Illinois SPEEDweek indicate the three-time Xtreme Outlaw winner’s rebound behind the wheel of the Keith Kunz Motorsports, Bullet/Toyota #71 as she prepares to take on Doe Run and Southern Illinois for the first time this weekend.
POWRed-UP – The second and third Xtreme Outlaw-POWRi Challenge Series events on the 2023 schedule will commence this weekend.
The 11-race schedule, now shortened to eight races due to weather cancelations, tabs points across each Xtreme Outlaw & POWRi co-sanctioned race this season, awarding a $2,500 champion’s check to the driver with the most points after the Xtreme Outlaw season finale at I-44 Riverside Speedway in October. Cannon McIntosh (231) leads the current standings after one race by 10 points over Zach Daum (221) and 15 over third-place Kyle Jones (216).
The Xtreme Outlaw stars will take on POWRi’s best in both events this weekend, led by POWRi National Midget League points leader Corbin Rueschenberg, Sweet Springs (MO) winner Karter Sarff (third in points), and Keith Kunz Motorsports’ newest team member Cooper Williams, who sits fourth in points.