The story was the same on both nights at the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series’ Double Down Showdown at Millbridge (N.C.) Speedway.
Cannon McIntosh was essentially untouchable and drove his No. 08 Dave Mac-Dalby Motorsports entry on back-to-back trips to victory lane. During Wednesday night’s finale, he surged from fifth to the lead by lap 15.
Leaving Millbridge, McIntosh owns an 89-point lead over Chase McDermand in the series standings.
Jade Avedisian is third, 98 points behind.
A Tough Two-Night Stay
Defending Xtreme Outlaw champion Zach Daum had a difficult two-night stay in North Carolina.
After finishing 15th in Tuesday’s feature, his luck continued to trend downward on Wednesday. Daum wasn’t able to make the final feature after Carson Hocevar made contact with the No. 5d during the Last Chance Showdown, pushing Daum into the wall and resulting in a horrifying flip on the frontstretch.
When asked what his takeaways from Millbridge will be, Daum answered, “Nothing in my notebook. We were not very good, either car, all weekend. Hopefully, just write this down as what not to do.”
As the 31-year-old is fielding his own midget in the Xtreme Outlaw Series, the damage the No. 5d sustained in the wreck will fall on him to repair between now and the next Xtreme Outlaw race on June 1 at Tri-City Speedway in Illinois.
“I’ll get it apart tomorrow and see if its fixable. It definitely going to need a whole front clip. I’ll see if we can fix it in-house and if we can, cool,” Daum said.
He recently picked up a USAC national midget victory on May 20 at the Belleville (Kan.) High Banks, driving for Ramco Speed Group.
Millbridge Review
Taylor Reimer, who has made laps at Millbridge in both a micro sprint and a midget, found a groove during the 35-lap feature that allowed her to rocket from a 12th-place start to second at the finish line.
“For some reason, I’m able to rip the middle line here. And when you have people on the bottom and people trying to kill themselves on the top, you’re able to rip through the middle just as fast,” Reimer said.
After being caught in a seven-car pileup on night one, finishing 14th, Reimer was relieved to leave her troubles in the dust on night two. She sneaked past McDermand during the closing laps to finish second.
McDermand, on the other hand, had never seen Millbridge Speedway before this week, and he wasn’t sure he’d be a fan of the bullring when he first arrived.
The one-sixth-mile dirt oval was one of the smallest tracks he’d ever raced a midget at. But the No. 40 driver left with his head held high and a smile on his face, as he scored two third-place finishes during the Double Down Showdown.
“I’m a little upset that we gave away a second. Made some contact with Taylor, and gave it away, but I don’t know if I would’ve been able to hold her off with the line she was running,” McDermand recalled. “Solid points weekend. Hopefully, we can carry it into a bigger track that I’m more familiar with.”
What’s Next?
For most drivers on the Xtreme Outlaw midget circuit, their next start will be June 1 at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Ill. The midgets will race in Illinois three nights in a row, with events set June 2-3 at Wayne County Speedway.
The trio of races leads into the USAC-sanctioned Indiana Midget Week, which takes place from June 4 to June 11 at seven different Hoosier state dirt tracks.
“I think it’s 11 races in 12 days,” said Avedisian, who plans to fight for wins during the intense stretch. “The team has a long, long week ahead.”
But a few drivers have plans between now and then.
Ryan Timms will be racing a 410 sprint car at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway this weekend. Daum is also looking to run his sprint car at a trio of races over the weekend. His next start with Xtreme Outlaw Series will be dependent on his timeline for repairs.
Meanwhile, Gavan Boschele, who wheeled the No. 5g entry for Keith Kunz Motorsports at Millbridge, isn’t sure what’s next.
“I don’t know when the next race is, but I hope to be standing at the top step,” Boschele said.
Other than the Chili Bowl Nationals, the Double Down Showdown was only his second midget race with KKM. He expects to be at 14 races with the midget team over the year, between Xtreme Outlaw, POWRi and USAC.