Story By: JORDAN DELUCIA / XTREME OUTLAW SERIES – DOE RUN, MO – The busiest stretch of the season for the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota continues this weekend with three races spread across Missouri and Illinois.
After four races through North Carolina and Ohio last week, the Series now heads to Missouri for an appearance at Doe Run Raceway on Thursday, May 30. The banked 1/6-mile oval is home to weekly Micro Sprint competition and hosted its first-ever national Midget series event with the Xtreme Outlaw Series’ debut in July 2023. The Xtreme stars will return to the track with a $4,000 grand prize on the line, racing in conjunction with the POWRi National Midget League.
Next, the Series heads back to Illinois for a first-time appearance at Coles County Speedway in Mattoon, IL, featuring another $4,000-to-win main event. The event will mark a moment in track history as the first time national Midget series racing has graced its 1/8-mile confines. This event will also be run in conjunction with POWRi as Race No. 4 of the Xtreme Outlaw-POWRi Challenge Series.
Finally, the weekend wraps up with a trip back to Wayne County Speedway in Wayne City, IL, where the Series ran two races in 2023. A $4,000 grand prize is on the line for the Feature winner at the banked 1/5-mile oval.
Races three and four of the Challenge Series will commence at Doe Run and Coles County. Ashton Torgerson is the points leader of both the Challenge Series and the POWRi National standings with two Feature wins.
Tickets for all three races will be on sale at the gate on race day.
Here are the drivers to watch for and storylines to follow this week:
CLIMBING BACK – Right when it looked as if Zach Daum and Trifecta Motorsports had freed themselves from their string of bad luck, fate tipped them off on another stretch of misfortune that they’ll again try to bounce back from this weekend.
Daum, the 2022 Series champion from Pocahontas, IL, scored his first win of the season last Wednesday at Millbridge Speedway, finally breaking through on the track that had frustrated he and his team for the past two seasons. However, two days later at Atomic Speedway, a crash took them out of the main event early, damaging their primary car and forcing them to go to a backup for Saturday.
But things may be looking up for the 32-year-old open-wheel veteran. He and the Trifecta team race Doe Run on Thursday, where they won in July of last year, and Wayne County on Saturday, where they won on back-to-back nights last June. All three of those wins came in succession, marking the first three-peat in Xtreme Outlaw Series history.
THE STREAK CONTINUES – Cannon McIntosh’s streak of top-fives continued last week, bringing him up to 12-straight Xtreme Outlaw Series races finishing no worse than fifth as he maintains his points lead.
McIntosh, 21, of Bixby, OK, scored his third Xtreme Outlaw Series win of the season last Saturday at Atomic over his Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports (KKM) teammate Ryan Timms, who he leads in the standings by 127 points with 18 races left on the schedule.
Last year at Doe Run, McIntosh crashed out of the main event but had success at Wayne County, notching a third-place run at the Illinois oval.
HELLO, OLD FRIEND – New Zealand racer Michael Pickens begins his first racing trip to the States – aside from the Chili Bowl Nationals – since 2022 this weekend with the Xtreme Outlaw Series.
Pickens, 41, of Auckland, NZ, has not been seen in Series competition since 2022, when he won at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 during Ironman 55 weekend in August.
This weekend, he’ll join the Oklahoma-based Mounce/Stout Motorsports team, piloting a Spike/Stanton package for all three races as teammates to Tyler Edwards and Jayden Clay in his first Midget appearances at all three tracks.
DYNAMIC DUO – The partner drivers of Chase Briscoe Racing will be on the Xtreme Outlaw Series roster this weekend after a strong showing at Millbridge.
Briscoe, the NASCAR Cup Series regular from Mitchell, IN, plans to be in attendance Thursday at Doe Run and Saturday at Wayne County, where he finished eighth and sixth in the two Series events held there last year.
His part-time hired Sprint Car driver, Karter Sarff, is also scheduled to be in attendance in his family-owned ride. The 21-year-old from Mason City, IL, posted finishes of seventh at Wayne County and eighth at Doe Run last year. He scored his second Feature win of the season last Tuesday at Millbridge and ran second to Daum on Wednesday.
LOOKING UP – After being involved in a hard wreck last Wednesday at Millbridge, Gavin Miller is set to return to competition for all three races this weekend.
Miller, 17, of Allentown, PA, will head back to Doe Run on Thursday, where he ran fifth last July, and Wayne County on Saturday, where he ran second and third in the two starts he made there with the Series last year.