By Jordan Delucia
CONCORD, NC (July 24, 2024) – Midget racing is headed for the “Sooner State” during the summer this year as the stars of the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota visit Oklahoma for a two-race event this Friday and Saturday night.
The trip begins with a stop at the brand-new Arrowhead Speedway in Colcord, OK, on Friday, July 26, featuring a 30-lap, $4,000-to-win main event. The track, formerly known as Flint Creek Speedway, underwent new ownership and complete property renovation, which was completed last year, and hosts national Midget series racing for the first time ever in 2024.
Teams will then head west to Tulsa for a visit to the Tulsa Speedway on Saturday, July 27. Focus Midgets made several appearances at the track before it ceased operations in 2005, but with its revival in 2021 comes a national Midget series for the first time in track history this year with a 30-lap, $4,000-to-win Feature on Saturday.
Tickets for both events will be on sale at the gate on race day. If you can’t make it to the track, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
Here are the drivers to watch and storylines to follow this weekend:
CHAMP HATH RETURNED – Reigning Series champion Jade Avedisian returns to the seat of the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports (KKM), Toyota-powered LynK Chassis No. 71 alongside a brand-new teammate.
Avedisian, 17, of Clovis, CA, missed last weekend’s Xtreme races due to her Toyota GR Cup Series duties at Virginia International Raceway. She’s projected to rejoin the Xtreme Outlaw roster for the rest of the season, excluding the season finale at Jacksonville Speedway in October, still searching for her first win of the season.
She’ll be joined on track by new KKM teammate, Gunnar Setser. The 15-year-old from Columbus, IN, suffered mechanical failure in his own car during Friday’s main event at Spoon River and was offered to fill the vacant seat in the KKM No. 98 for Saturday’s program, which he will keep for this upcoming weekend.
OKIE FROM BIXBY – Xtreme Outlaw Series points leader Cannon McIntosh comes into his home state holding a 153-point lead in the standings, fresh off a fifth win of the season last Saturday at Spoon River Speedway.
The 21-year-old from Bixby, OK, is still riding his streak of 16 consecutive top-five finishes – the most ever strung together by one driver in Series history. This weekend, he would love nothing more than to get another win in front of his home-state fans, friends and family, racing only 20 miles from his hometown Saturday night.
While national Midgets have never competed at neither Arrowhead nor Tulsa, McIntosh has turned laps at both. He finished 10th with the POWRi West Midget League at Arrowhead in 2017 and has also tested a Sprint Car at Tulsa in the past.
OKC THUNDER – Fellow Oklahoma racer Ryan Timms also took a checkered flag at Spoon River last weekend, topping McIntosh for his third Series victory of the season.
Timms, 17, of Oklahoma City, OK, chipped into McIntosh’s lead slightly after the win Friday but lost more following McIntosh’s victory Saturday. Timms started sixth on the grid and moved up only one spot to collect his 11th top-five finish of the season but lost a net total of eight points over the weekend.
He’ll be looking for another win this weekend as he tries to cut further into McIntosh’s points lead in efforts to claim his first career national Midget series championship.
STOUT BUNCH – The Collinsville, OK-based operation Mounce/Stout Motorsports has a home game this weekend, as do two of their four drivers set to be in the field this weekend, racing in front of friends and family with a national Midget series for the first time.
Series regulars Tyler Edwards and Jayden Clay are the resident Oklahoma drivers on the team, both in their rookie national Midget seasons. Edwards, 31, of Salina, OK, bagged his fifth top-10 of the season Friday at Spoon River and moved up to ninth in the Series points standings. Clay, 16, of Newcastle, OK, is still navigating the learning curve in his first full season of Midget racing, but both he and Edwards will have a leg up on their opponents this weekend, having tested at Arrowhead with their Midgets earlier this summer.
Additionally, young California racer Taylor Hall will join the roster for the weekend, piloting a Mounce/Stout, Stanton-powered Spike Chassis No. 19. The 17-year-old from Roseville, CA, has dabbled in various areas open-wheel racing this year, racing Midgets with both POWRi and USAC Western States and driving a Velox Racing Micro Sprint entry at the Tulsa Shootout over the winter.
HOMETOWN TEAM – The Trifecta Motorsports team makes its home directly in the city of Tulsa, OK, utilizing the former OFIXCO Racing shop that housed several famed Sprint Cars in the 1970s and 1980s. This weekend, they’ll take two cars to race in front of their biggest fans, friends and family.
Inaugural Series champion Zach Daum – 32, of Pocahontas, IL – posted finishes of eighth and fourth last weekend in his home state and now turns his attention to his team’s homeland for two races at two tracks brand-new to him. While still down 490 points in the standings, Daum is going for his second win of the year in his second season under team owners Steve Carbone and Staton Flurry.
Returning to the seat of the No. 5U Midget for the first time since suffering injury at 81 Speedway in May, Peter Smith is back as Daum’s teammate for both races this weekend. Smith, 19, of Anthony, NM, has fully recovered from the concussion he sustained and will return to the roster with brother and crew chief Mark Smith on the wrenches.
THIS WEEKEND AT A GLANCE
When and where
Friday, July 26, at Arrowhead Speedway in Colcord, OK
Saturday, July 27, at Tulsa Speedway in Tulsa, OK
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: 3506 points | Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports #71K
Ryan Timms: 3353 points (-153) | Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports #67
Chase McDermand: 3227 points (-279) | CMR-Mounce/Stout Motorsports #40
Ashton Torgerson: 3184 points (-322) | Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports #67K
Zach Daum: 3016 points (-490) | Trifecta Motorsports #7U
Hayden Reinbold: 2958 points (-548) | Reinbold/Underwood Motorsports #19AZ
Karter Sarff: 2742 points (-764) | Karter Sarff Motorsports #21K
Trevor Cline: 2728 points (-778) | Cline Racing #55
Tyler Edwards: 2642 points (-864) | Mounce/Stout Motorsports #14S
Gavin Miller: 2577 points (-929) | Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports #97