If you ask Karter Sarff what his favorite tracks to race at are, he’ll tell you one of them is I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park.
He has enough reason to enjoy the 1/3-mile track, as he’s scored three of the last four Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota Features during the Federated Auto Parts Ironman 55 weekend aboard his Sarff Motorsports No. 21K.
However, the track has recently bitten Sarff, as an accident while leading with seven laps to go in the first 2025 Series visit to I-55 for the St. Louis Firecracker Faceoff kept Sarff out of racing dirt Midgets for three weeks until June 18 at Spoon River Speedway. However, his enjoyment for racing in Pevely, MO, remains the same entering his comeback weekend.
“It’s by far one of the coolest races to be a part of with the Outlaws there,” Sarff said. “Sweeping it last year was pretty awesome, especially with it being $7,500 to win the second night, that check is up in my room and one of the first things you see when you come in.”
Yeah, super cool to do that, I remember the first night and second, the track conditions were way different from each other. We had a slick track in the second night, and it was hammer down, so it goes to show how good Paul (May) is really. How he makes things good no matter what the conditions are like, it helps him that I have confidence at that racetrack to just go out and run our own race. It’s why it’s one of my favorite tracks.”
Though Sarff is not competing for the overall Series championship in 2025, his Provisio-sponsored Toyota is second in the Xtreme-POWRi Challenge Series standings, 38 points back from Jacob Denney.
While an extra $2,500 is a helpful bonus for the Mason City, IL driver, he’s more focused on leaving the racetrack with trophy hardware in his truck than the points situation when he’s competing.
“The Challenge Series is fun, but at the end of the day, we just want to win,” Sarff said. “We’re just there so we can win, and the last time we went there, we crashed, so I don’t usually think too much about points because we just wanna win races, so that’s what we’ll keep trying to do here.”
Sarff credits much of his success he’s had behind the wheel of a Midget to his veteran crew chief, Paul May. Since the two were initially paired together at Chase Briscoe Racing’s Sprint Car and Midget program in 2023, they’ve accounted for six Xtreme Outlaw Series Feature wins.
“You find the right people that you just click with,” Sarff said. “Me and Paul have clicked ever since Chili Bowl, so I’m grateful I got that opportunity with Chase Briscoe’s Midget, and Paul was the crew chief at the time. Ever since then, me and him click really well together. Even though he didn’t really like Midgets before, I think he likes them now. We have fun no matter what happens, and I think that’s how we’ve found so much success.”
The Ironman is the sole weekend of the 2025 Xtreme season where they get to share the track with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars between the two nights of racing.
With a year’s difference since racing with “The Greatest Show on Dirt,” and the last visit to Pevely featured the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Models presented by DIRTVision, Sarff is throwing away the past track experiences and sticking to what he knows best around I-55.
“I’m just seeing what it’s gonna do, really,” Sarff said. “I’m sure we’ll still be pretty close to what we always do there. That’s the good thing with Paul, he’s good at keeping an eye on the track and figuring out what we need to do that makes it good.
“I gotta get my head right and feel comfortable. It feels like it’s been a while, we’ve only ran one ran once since we crashed at Pevely, so it’s been a lot of work getting a new car put back together, and I’m just excited for this weekend, hopefully it’s a good one.”
Sarff will strap his helmet back on for the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets clash with the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars at I-55 for the marquee Federated Auto Parts Ironman 55 on Friday-Saturday, Aug. 1-2.
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.
