Brandon Carr is moving his talents from pavement road courses in the United Kingdom to the dirt ovals in the United States with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota in 2025.
The former karting champion will live out a childhood dream of racing on dirt tracks across the states driving a No. 98 Lynk Chassis for Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports in his quest for the Series Rookie of the Year title.
“I’ve always been interested in dirt racing and racing in America, really,” Carr said. “I’ve always been interested, well, since I started racing. We’ve been to watch loads of dirt races and that’s how I got to know about it. I got to get a feel for it when I used to go watch. It’s about putting myself in the best opportunity to try and do that, so that’s how we worked forward with it.”
The Sheffield, England native took his first laps aboard a dirt car in November with a Micro Sprint at Millbridge Speedway. That experience fueled his interest in continuing to race on dirt, so he prepared the Micro Sprint and purchased a Midget for the Tulsa Shootout and NOS Energy Drink Chili Bowl Nationals in January.
“I jumped in a dirt car for the first time at Millbridge in November,” Carr said. “I enjoyed it a lot, so we sat down at home with my dad, and my sponsor (Jamie Davidson), and we put together a car for the Chili Bowl and Tulsa Shootout to get a feel for it. We went to DuQuoin (IL) before and it was so weird. It was crazy with the track so small with a (Midget) that has so much power and it was the one thing I struggled with the most was keeping the wheels on the ground.
“I don’t mind jumping in at the deep end, then going straight for it because it’s good learning for me. The Shootout taught me how the track changes what things happen in the building. The Chili Bowl was on another level of its own really. I was like, ‘Let’s go out, do the best that we can, and do as well as we can.’ That’s what we did so I was happy with that.”
Carr made a name for himself through karting’s largest divisions, with a Stars Championship Series title in 2023, and top-five points finishes in the SuperKarts! USA Pro Tour and the United States Pro Kart Series in 2024.
That time has taught him lessons about managing car control and smoothness in his racecraft that he will carry into the dirt Midget world.
“There are a few things I can take from karting,” Carr said. “The biggest thing is that the steering needs to be nice and smooth, you don’t want to be erratic and all over on the steering. The smoother you can be, the faster you’ll get.
“Outside of that, what everyone told me when I came in from the first (test) session in the Midget was about the car control, seeing that, and understanding it. That helped a lot knowing that there are other people watching and helping. It kinda gave me a little bit more of a boost of confidence. The aspect of racing and having to change lines throughout the race, passing people through sliders, and keeping (the car) from going around on the cushion was very different from what I’m used to.”
Carr is taking his rookie Midget journey by learning each track on the 2025 schedule one at a time. He already has a few circled like the season-opening Illini 100 at Farmer City Raceway and the season-ending Xtreme Outlaw World Championship at Millbridge.
“I’ve looked towards the first couple of tracks, and Farmer City looks like a good track,” Carr said. “It looks different to where I’ve been because the first couple corners are quite flat and wide, then the other corners is quite banked to the wall right up against it, so it looks good.
“Millbridge, at the end of the year, I’m excited to go around there in a Midget. But the others, I’m taking it one track at a time to get to know them, race them, then get to the next track to get prepared.”
Carr begins his new national touring endeavor with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota in Farmer City, IL for the World of Outlaws Illini 100, April 10-12. Tickets are available for purchase now:
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.
