By Matt Skipper
After finishing on the podium in Friday night’s World of Outlaws Illini 100 Feature, Karter Sarff knew he could leave the weekend with a trophy.
He completed the goal on Saturday night with a performance that saw him battle against multiple drivers for his first Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota win at Farmer City Raceway.
Sarff started the Feature on the pole with Thomas Meseraull on his outside at the drop of the initial green flag.
The Mason City, IL driver led the first five circuits until Jacob Denney took over the lead on the sixth lap by using the familiar high line that helped him win on Friday.
Sarff fell to third on Lap 10 when Trifecta Motorsports’ rookie Kameron Key passed him for second place, forcing the No. 21K to defend his position from reigning Series champion Cannon McIntosh and Springfield, IL’s Chase McDermand.
“The Shark” smelled blood in the water when Key and Denney slipped up on a restart with 10 laps remaining – retaking the lead and never looking back.
Behind Sarff, Key had to defend his position from McIntosh’s No. 71K until a clip of the Turn 4 cushion sent McIntosh flipping with four laps remaining.
On the final restart, Sarff stuck to the high side of the ractreack to hold off Key for his seventh career Xtreme Outlaw win. The triumph moves him up to fourth in all-time Feature wins – tying 2023 Series champion Jade Avedisian.
“I really had to stay up on the wheel,” Sarff said. “You had to run the curves super hard, and if you let up a little bit, it’d bite you. I’m super happy with the whole night, and everything went our way. Last year, it wasn’t too good for us here, so to come back, run third, and win the next night is pretty awesome.”
Key ended his first trip to Farmer City Raceway with a second-place finish to complete his debut weekend with the Series.
“It was really interesting,” Key said. “I went into it thinking it was just gonna be follow the leader on the bottom, and then the racetrack changed so much. It got crummy in the middle, and you could hold speed through there, you could rip the top and still roll the bottom. You had your choice of what you wanted to run, and I moved around everywhere trying to find stuff and keep my nose clean, stay out of trouble, and we found our way to the front.”
Meseraull dropped to seventh in the early stages of the Feature with ill-handling at the start. However, he found a chance to reset behind the wheel of his No. 7X at the halfway mark that pushed him up the field to finish the weekend with a podium result.
“At the start, you have a full load of fuel, the car was tight, and it wasn’t that good on the bottom,” Meseraull said. “I really had to ride it out, let the bottom slow down a little bit, and that allowed the top to speed up. I was sending it on the top to try and go forward. I think we had a bent wheel that we didn’t realize was bent, but I’m real happy about the night.”
Denney finished fourth, and McDermand ended the night with his second consecutive fifth-place finish to cap off the Illini 100.
RECAP NOTES:
Smith Titanium Quick Time Award: Karter Sarff
Toyota Heat 1 Winner: Thomas Meseraull
CASM Safety Products Heat 2 Winner: Jacob Denney
TJ Forged Heat 3 Winner: Chase McDermand
Summit Racing Equipment Hard Charger: Tyler Edwards (+10)
Honest Abe Roofing 16th Place Finisher: Zach Boden
Up Next: The Xtreme Outlaw Midgets return to racing in Oklahoma and Kansas, with the Series making its debut at Creek County Speedway on Thursday, May 8, Humboldt Speedway on Friday, May 9, and 81 Speedway on Saturday, May 10.
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If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either online or by downloading the DIRTVision App.
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 21K-Karter Sarff[1]; 2. 9U-Kameron Key[5]; 3. 7X-Thomas Meseraull[2]; 4. 67-Jacob Denney[3]; 5. 40-Chase McDermand[4]; 6. 5D-Zach Daum[6]; 7. 5U-Michael Faccinto[9]; 8. 56E-Tyler Edwards[18]; 9. 67K-Colton Robinson[15]; 10. 55-Trevor Cline[10]; 11. 63-Cale Coons[16]; 12. 72-Alex Karpowicz[13]; 13. 94-Hayden Wise[20]; 14. 16C-David Camfield Jr[21]; 15. 97-Gavin Miller[11]; 16. 51-Zach Boden[22]; 17. 16TH-Kevin Newton[17]; 18. 26-Corbin Rueschenberg[12]; 19. 20-Cody Weisensel[24]; 20. 50-Daniel Adler[14]; 21. 71K-Cannon McIntosh[7]; 22. 12-Corbin Gurley[25]; 23. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[8]; 24. 10C-Dalton Camfield[27]; 25. 98K-Brandon Carr[19]; 26. 73W-Luke Wackerlin[23]; 27. 17C-Devin Camfield[26]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 7X-Thomas Meseraull[2]; 2. 5U-Michael Faccinto[1]; 3. 5D-Zach Daum[3]; 4. 97-Gavin Miller[4]; 5. 67K-Colton Robinson[5]; 6. 56E-Tyler Edwards[9]; 7. 16C-David Camfield Jr[7]; 8. 51-Zach Boden[6]; 9. 12-Corbin Gurley[8]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 67-Jacob Denney[2]; 2. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[1]; 3. 71K-Cannon McIntosh[3]; 4. 55-Trevor Cline[4]; 5. 50-Daniel Adler[6]; 6. 63-Cale Coons[7]; 7. 98K-Brandon Carr[5]; 8. 20-Cody Weisensel[8]; 9. 10C-Dalton Camfield[9]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 40-Chase McDermand[2]; 2. 9U-Kameron Key[1]; 3. 21K-Karter Sarff[4]; 4. 26-Corbin Rueschenberg[3]; 5. 72-Alex Karpowicz[5]; 6. 16TH-Kevin Newton[7]; 7. 94-Hayden Wise[6]; 8. 73W-Luke Wackerlin[8]; 9. 17C-Devin Camfield[9]
Qualifying 1 (3 Laps): 1. 97-Gavin Miller, 00:13.278[1]; 2. 5D-Zach Daum, 00:13.303[2]; 3. 7X-Thomas Meseraull, 00:13.330[9]; 4. 5U-Michael Faccinto, 00:13.548[6]; 5. 67K-Colton Robinson, 00:13.581[3]; 6. 51-Zach Boden, 00:13.729[5]; 7. 16C-David Camfield Jr, 00:13.734[8]; 8. 12-Corbin Gurley, 00:13.782[7]; 9. 56E-Tyler Edwards, 00:13.905[4]
Qualifying 2 (3 Laps): 1. 55-Trevor Cline, 00:13.249[5]; 2. 71K-Cannon McIntosh, 00:13.314[8]; 3. 67-Jacob Denney, 00:13.321[3]; 4. 19M-Ethan Mitchell, 00:13.419[1]; 5. 98K-Brandon Carr, 00:13.479[2]; 6. 50-Daniel Adler, 00:13.483[7]; 7. 63-Cale Coons, 00:13.538[6]; 8. 20-Cody Weisensel, 00:14.528[4]; 9. 10C-Dalton Camfield, 01:00.000[9]
Qualifying 3 (3 Laps): 1. 21K-Karter Sarff, 00:13.116[5]; 2. 26-Corbin Rueschenberg, 00:13.126[3]; 3. 40-Chase McDermand, 00:13.184[9]; 4. 9U-Kameron Key, 00:13.265[8]; 5. 72-Alex Karpowicz, 00:13.329[1]; 6. 94-Hayden Wise, 00:13.555[2]; 7. 16TH-Kevin Newton, 00:13.587[7]; 8. 73W-Luke Wackerlin, 00:13.643[4]; 9. 17C-Devin Camfield, 00:14.241[6]
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