Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series rookies shine in new challenge – St. Louis Racing

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ROOKIE CLASS: 2024 Xtreme Midget Rookies thrive in new challenge

CONCORD, NC (July 5, 2024) – The Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota welcomed several drivers new to midget racing and the series in 2024, and their progress was evident in the first half of the season.

Seven rookies have committed to running the entire series schedule – including Ashton Torgerson, Brayton Lynch, Jayden Clay, Elijah Gile, Kale Drake, Trevor Cline and Tyler Edwards – who have combined for four wins, 11 top-fives and 29 top-10s through the first 14 races.

Four of them are currently in the top 10 of the points standings and are poised for more success when the season returns from the summer break in two weeks – Friday-Saturday, July 19-20, at Spoon River Speedway. Tickets are on sale now at the link below.

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Catch each of the newcomers in action again at the Xtreme Outlaw Series on the track or via live stream on DIRTVision.

No. 67K – Ashton Torgerson (Glendale, AZ)

If there were an award for the best rookie in the first half of the Xtreme Outlaw Series season, it would be Ashton Torgerson in 2024 with three wins, five top-5 finishes and ten top-10 finishes in the first 14 races.

The 18-year-old former Micro Sprint champion wasted no time getting competitive in his Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports (KKM) race, securing his first top-10 finish in the second event of the season at the Southern Illinois Center. From there, he posted finishes of 11th (US 36 Raceway), 7th (Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex) and a second-place finish on the first night at Farmer City Raceway in April before earning his first career national midget feature win on Saturday at Farmer City.

Torgerson also won the series’ next event at Humboldt Speedway in Kansas before closing out the first half of the season with another win at Coles County Speedway in May, moving him fourth in the series point standings with 15 races remaining.

“Overall it’s been great so far and we’re only halfway through,” Torgerson said of his season after the win at Coles County. “I think we’ll keep getting wins and hopefully we can get more.”

No. 1K – Brayton Lynch (Springfield, IL)

Eleven Feature enters his rookie season with the Xtreme Outlaw Series. Brayton Lynch has been working to get back into the rhythm of competing in a full national midget series racing program and competing against today’s top talent.

Lynch, along with the multiple Chili Bowl Nationals-winning crew chief Rusty Kunz drove the Rexroad Racing car to a ninth-place finish at Atomic Speedway in May – a new personal best in the series – but Lynch said he is not satisfied so far.

“It was a little disappointing, honestly, because I think we’re a little faster most nights than our results show,” Lynch said. “I struggled a little bit to get comfortable at first, but now I’m comfortable. I think it’s kind of a confidence thing now.”

Halfway through the season, Lynch sits 11th in the series points standings, but his method of improving over the final 15 races on the schedule is fairly clear to him.

“I know how fast the car is and I know my abilities. I just need to get myself back to a point mentally where I know I can be better than I have been,” he said.

No. 66 – Jayden Clay (Newcastle, OK)

Still grappling with the challenges of his first full season in Midget, Jayden Clay has gained speed and confidence in his time with Mounce/Stout Motorsports. While he said he hasn’t seen the results he’s worked for, he knows his car is fast enough to get him the results he wants.

“This is definitely not how I would have liked to start the season, but I think where we are now and having done so many races, I’m getting faster,” Clay said. “I definitely think my car is fast enough to be in the top 10, I just haven’t been able to get up there.”

He posted two 13th-place finishes at Atomic Speedway in May, his career-best Midget finish, demonstrating his ability to control his car at high speeds, an ability he has steadily improved since moving up from the Micro Sprint ranks in 2023.

“I definitely think I’ve made tremendous progress since the beginning of the year, from where I started to where I am now,” Clay said. “I still have a lot to learn in terms of the drivers I’m racing with, controlling the car and so on.”

No. 98K – Elijah Gile (Phoenix, AZ)

The youngest driver ever to join the full-time Xtreme Outlaw Series roster has undergone a major transition in his first full season behind the wheel of a Midget. 14-year-old Elijah Gile began the year by driving the first six races of the season in his family’s No. 13 Gene Gile Racing car before switching to Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports in April.

Gile said that while it has been an adjustment to get used to the coaching and guidance of Keith Kunz and his team of crew members, the knowledge he has gained from their teachings over the past eight races has helped him develop his skills so early in his career.

“They help me figure out what mistakes I made and what I can do differently,” Gile said. “I go out and try to correct it, and if that doesn’t work, they’re always there just waiting to tell me what I did wrong and what they’re going to change on the car to make it better.”

“It’s pretty cool. They’re very respectful, I respect them a lot and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the year.”

His best finish of the season came in May at Atomic Speedway, where he finished 10th on the large, 3/8-mile oval – a place where his new Toyota Racing Development (TRD) engines shined brightest in maintaining high speeds.

“Keith’s stuff has TRD engines, so you have to drive a lot harder and throttle more gently, and you can’t give it as much throttle,” Gile said.

No. 97 – Kale Drake (Collinsville, OK)

Kale Drake has moved from the micro sprint ranks to the midget world and has already left his mark in the national midget racing series and with the most decorated team, Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports.

RELATED: How Kale Drake went from Micro Sprint champion to Xtreme Midget winner with Keith Kunz Motorsports

The 18-year-old Oklahoman joined the team as a crew member in February and got his first chance at the spot in April in the Xtreme Outlaw Series at US 36 Raceway. A seventh-place finish there was a sign of his early ability, but didn’t top the winning performance he put on the following night at Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex, when he took the lead on the final lap coming out of Turn 4 to score his first career Midget win.

“I didn’t think it would happen this quickly,” Drake said. “It definitely wasn’t easy. I was always super confident at Sweet Springs; I’ve been able to get along really well in the store from the beginning.”

Since then, Drake has had mixed results, but managed to finish in the top 10 of the points standings despite missing the first two races of the season. He currently sits ninth in the points standings with four top-five and seven top-10 finishes in 12 starts.

“Going into the second half of the season now, I feel like I have a lot more confidence knowing we’ve been on both ends of the court in some ways,” Drake said. “We’ve struggled, but we’ve been really good. Putting it all together and meeting in the middle to have consistent, solid nights is really the name of the game.”

No. 55 – Trevor Cline (Mooresville, NC)

In the first eight races, 16-year-old Trevor Cline never managed a top-10 finish and his best result was 14th. But on a trip back to his home track, Millbridge Speedway, in May, he saw the light and his winning streak began.

Cline, the two-time and reigning micro sprint champion at the 1/6-mile oval in North Carolina, secured his first two top-10 runs of the season at the two-day midweek event, finishing 10th on Tuesday and ninth on Friday, showing the speed and consistency that had been lacking in his program in the early rounds of the season.

“I definitely learned a lot as a driver,” Cline said. “Going to Millbridge, we were very confident because I’ve done about as many laps there as you can in a Midget or Micro.”

From there, Cline secured two more top-10 finishes at Atomic Speedway later in the week before scoring his best career finish and first-ever Midget podium with a third-place finish at Doe Run.

“I think it went better than we expected,” Cline said of the first half of his season. “Obviously we struggled a lot at the beginning of the year; we almost wrecked a race car at Du Quoin. We’ve struggled since then, finally got our program back on track and then finished third at Doe Run.”

No. 14S – Tyler Edwards (Salina, OK)

Tyler Edwards, 30, is the second of two new additions from Mounce/Stout Motorsports to this year’s Xtreme Outlaw Series roster. He is currently 10th in the overall standings, with his best finish being fourth place at Atomic in May.

Atomic is just one of many new tracks the former Sprint Car and Micro Sprint driver has had to adapt to, but he has handled the challenges well, also scoring four top-10 finishes in the first 14 races.

“Getting to know some of these tracks has been the biggest learning curve for me,” Edwards said. “But I definitely feel like we’ve improved since the beginning. Also, as a team, we’ve gotten to know each other, what we like and don’t like about each other and what we need in the race car every night.”

Although Edwards also struggled with some mechanical issues, he is still in good spirits and said he is ready to take on the rest of the season in a bid to earn his first win in the national midget series.

“Overall, it’s not bad considering what we’ve been through – engine problems and having to learn all these new tracks,” Edwards said. “I feel like we’re getting closer to the finish and can be up there at the front every night.”

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