OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — It has been a while in the making, but Arizona’s Hayden Reinbold finally reeled in his first career win in National Midget competition by topping Saturday night’s Xtreme Outlaw/POWRi season finale atop the fifth-mile I-44 Riverside Speedway clay oval.
Reinbold took advantage of his pole starting position and stayed in command throughout the 30-lapper to capture the $5,000 winner’s share in the 19th annual Charlene Meents Memorial finale.
“This is special, it feels great to finally get this one,” the 19-year-old Reinbold commented after the triumph aboard the AME Electrical No. 19 machine.
It wasn’t without a hitch though, as a loss of brakes put the young Reinbold to the test from the outset.
“I lost my brakes before we even took the green flag,” Reinbold explained. “We just got lucky to never get into heavy lapped traffic and the track never got too tricky.”
While Reinbold posted the landmark win, a trio of drivers secured 2023 season championships including Jade Avedisian, Karter Sarff and Michelle Decker.
Avedisian became the first female racer to capture a National Midget title by taking the Xtreme Outlaw Midget title, Sarff overcame a 100-point deficit to overtake Cannon McIntosh for the POWRi National Midget League championship and Michelle Decker put the finishing touches on her career by topping the POWRi West Midget League championship point charts.
The championship feature got off to a tumultuous start, as Avedisian and new track record holder Chase McDermand made contact exiting turn four to complete the first lap. The resulting contact sent McDermand into the wall and upside down, collecting nearly half the 22-car starting feature field in the process with McDermand among a handful unable to return.
Reinbold took off from the pole position on the ensuing restart and fended off Avedisian in the early going for the point before Zach Daum began pressuring the young lady racer for the second position. The heated battle for second allowed Reinbold to slip away and despite several cautions, never faced any serious challenges for the point.
In his wake as Avedisian and Daum diced for second, the seas parted for 16th-starter Sarff. When McIntosh exited near the midway point, Sarff needed a finish of sixth or better to claim the POWRi National title.
Still a position out of sixth, Sarff soon made his way to fourth and then emerged with the runner-up finish behind Reinbold in a wild scramble for position over a final green-white-checkered run as Avedisian settled for an Xtreme Outlaw title-clinching show position.
Ryan Timms slipped into the fourth position with Daum rounding out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[1]; 2. 21K-Karter Sarff[18]; 3. 71-Jade Avedisian[2]; 4. 67-Ryan Timms[8]; 5. 7U-Zach Daum[3]; 6. 97-Gavin Miller[9]; 7. 25K-Taylor Reimer[5]; 8. 7P-Kyle Jones[11]; 9. 19A-Daison Pursley[16]; 10. 13-Elijah Gile[21]; 11. 43-Gunnar Setser[13]; 12. 14R-Jonathan Beason[7]; 13. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[6]; 14. 97K-Cooper Williams[17]; 15. 32-Trey Marcham[20]; 16. 31K-Kyle Beilman[19]; 17. 08-Cannon McIntosh[15]; 18. 40-Chase McDermand[4]; 19. 19K-Riley Kreisel[10]; 20. 26R-Corbin Rueschenberg[12]; 21. 5U-Peter Smith[14]; 22. 19U-Pierce Urbanosky[22]