WHAT TO WATCH FOR: Xtreme Outlaw-POWRi Challenge Series Takes on Spoon River Doubleheader
LEWISTOWN, IL (July 16, 2024) – The Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota returns to action from the summer break this Friday and Saturday night for a doubleheader at Spoon River Speedway with the POWRi National Midget League.
Now entering the second half of the season, Cannon McIntosh leads the Xtreme Outlaw championship standings by 145 points over Ryan Timms with 14 races complete and 15 remaining. Spoon River kicks off another extended stretch of action with the Series, racing in each of the next four weekends through the middle of August.
Rounds 5 and 6 of the 2024 Xtreme Outlaw-POWRi Challenge Series hits the high-banked, 3/8-mile oval for a 25-lap, $4,000-to-win main event Friday, July 19, before the 30-lap, $5,000-to-win finale on Saturday. Ashton Torgerson currently leads Challenge Series points by 11 over Ryan Timms; the champion of the miniseries receives a $2,500 bonus check at season’s end in October.
Tickets for both nights at Spoon River are available by clicking here. If you can’t be at the track to watch in person, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
Here are the drivers to watch and storylines to follow this weekend:
HALFWAY THERE – Cannon McIntosh leads the Xtreme Outlaw Series back into action as the points leader with only half of the season remaining in the quest for his first career national Midget series championship.
McIntosh, 21, of Bixby, OK, holds a 145-point lead over second place Ryan Timms with four Features wins in the first 14 races of 2024. He held similar statistics at the halfway point of the 2023 season, totaling four Feature wins and maintaining a points gap of over 100 on second place, but fell back to fourth in the championship standings after the season finale.
He’s also riding a streak of 14-straight top-five finishes in Xtreme Outlaw Series competition, going all the way back to the season opener in Du Quoin in March. This past weekend, McIntosh bagged two podium finishes in USAC Midget competition at Jefferson County Speedway (Fairbury, NE), giving he and his crew at Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports (KKM) a momentum boost before an extended stretch of Xtreme Outlaw Series racing for the next four weekends.
TARGET ACQUIRED – Sitting 145 points out of the lead in second place is McIntosh’s KKM teammate, Ryan Timms – a USAC winner over the weekend, now charged with momentum and ready to begin chipping away at his points deficit.
Timms, 17, of Oklahoma City, OK, scored his fourth Midget win of the season Saturday at Jefferson County and now has two wins with both Xtreme and USAC with half of each series’ schedule remaining. Timms is a winner with Xtreme at both Farmer City Raceway and Atomic Speedway this season, tying him for third-most wins with Illinois racer Karter Sarff at two apiece.
Though Timms has yet to see the high banks of Spoon River in a Midget, the speed and banking he experienced at Atomic will be similar, pointing to a potential third and fourth Xtreme Outlaw win of the year Friday and Saturday night.
GOT THE POWR – Similar to 2023, McIntosh leads the POWRi National Midget League points standings at the halfway point of the season but only by 10 points over full-timer Gunnar Setser.
McIntosh has two POWRi wins so far this season – one in the Challenge Series event at Doe Run Raceway in May and the other in the most recent POWRi National event at Macon Speedway during the tour’s annual Illinois SPEEDweek in June.
Karter Sarff clinched the 2023 POWRi National championship in the final race of the season over McIntosh last October. The 21-year-old from Mason City, IL, has won twice with the Xtreme Outlaw Series this year and currently sits eighth in Series points.
CHALLENGE SERIES – Spoon River will play host to Rounds 5 and 6 of the 2024 Challenge Series – a tight points race where the top-six drivers in the standings are separated by 100 points.
Ashton Torgerson currently leads the points standings by 11 over Ryan Timms. Torgerson, 18, of Glendale, AZ, has two wins and three top-fives in the four completed races and will go for his fifth Midget win overall this weekend. Between Xtreme and POWRi, he’s totaled four Feature wins so far in his rookie Midget season.
While Timms remains 11 points behind Torgerson, McIntosh sits 13 points back in third place, Chase McDermand is fourth at 30 points back, Gavin Miller is fifth at 96 points back, and Zach Daum is sixth, 100 points out of the lead.
PAST WINNERS – While national Midget series racing has not seen the high banks of Spoon River in three years, two Xtreme Outlaw Series full-timers and Illinois natives have graced its Victory Lane hill in Midget competition before.
Former Badger Midget Racing Association champion Chase McDermand won two D2 Midget-style IMRA-sanctioned races at the track in 2017. The 23-year-old from Springfield, IL, currently sits fourth in the championship standings, still looking for his first Feature win of the year.
Zach Daum – the inaugural Series champion from Pocahontas, IL – won a POWRi National event there in 2014, topping star open-wheel names like Rico Abreu, Tanner Thorson and Justin Peck in the main event. Fast forward to 2024 and the three-time POWRi National champion sits fifth in Xtreme championship standings with one win and seven top-five finishes in 14 races.
THIS WEEKEND AT A GLANCE
When and where
Friday-Saturday, July 19-20, at Spoon River Speedway in Lewistown, IL
On the internet
Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota
Twitter/X – @Xtreme_Outlaw
Instagram – @XtremeOutlaw
Facebook – @XtremeOutlawSeries.WRG
Live broadcast
DIRTVision – DIRTVision.com. Annual FAST PASS for $299 or monthly FAST PASS for $39/month.
Current championship points standings (view full standings)
- Cannon McIntosh: 3056 points | Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports #71K
- Ryan Timms: 2911 points (-145) | Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports #67
- Chase McDermand: 2812 points (-244) | CMR-Mounce/Stout Motorsports #40
- Ashton Torgerson: 2792 points (-264) | Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports #67K
- Zach Daum: 2608 points (-448) | Trifecta Motorsports #7U
- Hayden Reinbold: 2525 points (-531) | Reinbold/Underwood Motorsports #19AZ
- Trevor Cline: 2382 points (-674) | Cline Racing #55
- Karter Sarff: 2375 points (-681) | Karter Sarff Motorsports #21K
- Kale Drake: 2269 points (-787) | Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports #97K
- Tyler Edwards: 2260 points (-796) | Mounce/Stout Motorsports #14S
Toyota Feature winners (7 drivers)
4 wins – Cannon McIntosh (Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports #71K)
3 wins – Ashton Torgerson (Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports #67K), Karter Sarff (Karter Sarff Motorsports #21K), Ryan Timms (Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports #67)
1 win – Thomas Meseraull (Engler Racing #7x), Kale Drake (Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports #97), Zach Daum (Trifecta Motorsports #7U)
Toyota Feature laps led (13 drivers)
86 laps – Cannon McIntosh
70 laps – Ashton Torgerson
52 laps – Ryan Timms
44 laps – Kale Drake
41 laps – Karter Sarff
35 laps – Joe B. Miller
27 laps – Thomas Meseraull
25 laps – Zach Daum
12 laps – Taylor Reimer
11 laps – Jade Avedisian
5 laps – Michael Pickens
4 laps – Tyler Edwards
1 lap – Chase McDermand
Whitz RC Racing Products Quick Time Awards (8 drivers)
4 awards – Ethan Mitchell
3 awards – Kale Drake
2 awards – Karter Sarff
1 award – Cannon McIntosh, Ryan Timms, Kyle Jones, Trevor Cline, Zach Daum
Heat Race winners (19 drivers)
6 wins – Ashton Torgerson
5 wins – Kale Drake
4 wins – Zach Daum, Cannon McIntosh, Chase McDermand
3 wins – Ryan Timms, Tyler Edwards
2 wins – Gavin Miller, Jade Avedisian, Nick Hoffman, Trevor Cline, Karter Sarff
1 win – Thomas Meseraull, Shane Cottle, TJ Smith, Kyle Jones, Taylor Reimer, Ethan Mitchell, Tyler Edwards
High-points honors (10 drivers)
2 honors – Cannon McIntosh, Ryan Timms, Zach Daum, Ashton Torgerson
1 honor – Tyler Edwards, Chase McDermand, Karter Sarff, Gavin Miller, Kale Drake, Michael Pickens
Last Chance Showdown wins (10 drivers)
1 win – Taylor Reimer, Gunnar Setser, Austin Torgerson, Gavin Miller, Shane Cottle, Ethan Mitchell, Ashton Torgerson, Ryan Timms, Kyle Jones, Mitchell Davis
Hard Charger Awards (11 drivers)
3 awards – Hayden Reinbold
2 awards – Ryan Timms
1 award – Will Armitage, Ryan Timms, Kayla Roell, Gunnar Setser, Jade Avedisian, Chase McDermand, Elijah Gile, Zach Daum, Cannon McIntosh
Podium finishes (13 drivers)
10 podiums – Cannon McIntosh
6 podiums – Ryan Timms
5 podiums – Zach Daum
4 podiums – Chase McDermand, Ashton Torgerson
3 podiums – Karter Sarff, Kale Drake
2 podiums – Gavin Miller
1 podium – Thomas Meseraull, Taylor Reimer, Jade Avedisian, Michael Pickens, Trevor Cline
Top-10 finishes (32 drivers)
14 top-10s – Cannon McIntosh
13 top-10s – Chase McDermand
12 top-10s – Ryan Timms
10 top-10s – Ashton Torgerson
9 top-10s – Zach Daum, Karter Sarff
7 top-10s – Gavin Miller, Kale Drake, Jade Avedisian
6 top-10s – Trevor Cline, Hayden Reinbold
5 top-10s – Taylor Reimer
4 top-10s – Kyle Jones, Tyler Edwards
3 top-10s – Ethan Mitchell, Mitchell Davis
2 top-10s – Shane Cottle, Gunnar Setser, TJ Smith, Sam Johnson
1 top-10 – Joe B. Miller, Thomas Meseraull, Will Armitage, Trey Marcham, Rylan Gray, Todd McVay, Kevin Thomas Jr, Elijah Gile, Brayton Lynch, Nick Drake, Jacob Dykstra, Briggs Danner, Michael Pickens
2024 Schedule & Winners – Race No. Day, Date / Track / Location / Winner (Total Wins)
1. Fri, March 15 / Southern Illinois Center / Du Quoin, IL / Thomas Meseraull (1)
2. Sat, March 16 / Southern Illinois Center / Du Quoin, IL / Cannon McIntosh (1)
- Fri, April 5 / US 36 Raceway / Osborn, MO / Karter Sarff (1)
4. Sat, April 6 / Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex / Sweet Springs, MO / Kale Drake (1)
5. Fri, April 12 / Farmer City Raceway / Farmer City, IL / Ryan Timms (1)
6. Sat, April 13 / Farmer City Raceway / Farmer City, IL / Ashton Torgerson (1)
7. Fri, May 10 / Humboldt Speedway / Humboldt, KS / Ashton Torgerson (2)
8. Sat, May 11 / 81 Speedway / Park City, KS / Cannon McIntosh (2)
9. Tue, May 21 / Millbridge Speedway / Salisbury, NC / Karter Sarff (2)
10. Wed, May 22 / Millbridge Speedway / Salisbury, NC / Zach Daum (1)
11. Fri, May 24 / Atomic Speedway / Chillicothe, OH / Ryan Timms (2)
12. Sat, May 25 / Atomic Speedway / Chillicothe, OH / Cannon McIntosh (3)
13. Thu, May 30 / Doe Run Raceway / Doe Run, MO / Cannon McIntosh (4)
14. Fri, May 31 / Coles County Speedway / Matoon, IL / Ashton Torgerson (3)