Nearly 100 years of Midget racing in the United States means nearly 100 years’ worth of evolution, change and other positive advancement for one of dirt track racing’s most exciting disciplines.
They’re still four-cylinder engine cars with four wheels and a driver cockpit, capable of putting on some of the most entertaining programs in motorsports. But with modern-day advancements in technology and season-long points championships, the effort necessary to keep a competitive car on the track, almost year-round, is now at an all-time high.
The Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota is the newest organization in the national Midget world and has hosted several different driving, building and coaching talents at its events since its inception in 2022 — all of whom have experienced firsthand each of the elements that go into putting a car into Victory Lane.
Experience Matters
Ask any veteran open-wheel racer in the pit area today and they’ll not be shy in talking about it — Midget racing has changed over the last 25 years.
For better or worse, Midget racing and its constant evolution has given the motorsports world some of the best racing action and most iconic moments. And there’s a reason for that.
“Midgets are always about as exciting as it gets,” said veteran open-wheel racer and multi-time Xtreme Outlaw Series Feature winner, Thomas Meseraull. “That’s because you’ve got these awesome race cars, and they’re a little bit smaller than everybody else like a Stock Car or a Sprint Car, and they’re racing on the same track, so you’ve got way more room to be two, three and four-wide.”
Meseraull, 43, of San Jose, CA, began his professional Midget career in the 1990s and has since established himself as one of the nation’s most experienced open-wheel racers. He’s seen the evolution of the sport firsthand, from equipment and technology upgrades to several different driving talents come through the ranks.
Though he’s now one of the few remaining veterans on the national Midget scene, he recalls his days as an up-and-comer racing against the generational heroes.
“When you went to the national scene, you had to bring your best A-game, for sure,” Meseraull said. “It was (Dave) Darland, Jerry Coons, Jay Drake… it was pretty obvious that the big teams — you had Steve Lewis, and even back then, Keith (Kunz) was one of the veterans of the sport — there were some teams you could tell it wasn’t a family operation, it wasn’t built out of their garage. It was tough in the beginning.”
Racing with his family-owned operation, Meseraull admits he was, at first, more focused on the pavement side of Midget racing over dirt. In turning laps on the asphalt, and through extensive testing sessions at his home tracks in California — including Madera Speedway, Stockton 99 Speedway and Altamont Speedway — he learned the discipline and determination necessary to be competitive, which he still uses to this day on dirt.
“We would test a lot and just try things,” Meseraull said. “I really feel like that kind of put me where I am now, where I’m just open for whatever because that’s kinda how we grew up racing. You buy a car, and you just put every bar package you have in it and see what it does. You put all the springs in it and see what it does. You talk to your neighbor and see what they’re doing. Try to get faster.”
In the dawning of his career at the national level, Meseraull raced with the equipment his family team could bring together. Now piloting a new package for car owner and engine builder Tim Engler, featuring a special-built EA Stealth engine and MF1 Chassis by Farrell FrameWorks, he’s experienced the change in dirt racing technology and the impact it’s had on the racing.
“Even Midget motors were starting to make more power,” Meseraull said. “When I started, the Midget motor I was running made 300 horsepower. Now, they’re making over 400, 420, I think. And that’s kinda changed the way the cars race.
“I think the shock packages and the technology, and the torsion bars and springs have come a long way, and maybe even so the tires. Because the cars didn’t do what they do now. They’ve really figured out how to make these dirt cars have so much grip in the middle of the corner, where back then, they didn’t, and it was kind of just… the bravest man wins.”
Not only have the cars changed, so have the tracks they race on. The 2000 USAC National Midget Series schedule featured 23 completed events on both dirt and asphalt — only seven of which were on tracks of less than a half-mile in length. Fast forward to 2024, and it’s rare to see a single half-mile track on any of the three national touring Midget schedules.
“Nowadays, the big tracks are harder on equipment, motors, and (are) more dangerous,” Meseraull said. “Things have definitely gotten to smaller tracks, which probably made the racing a little more aggressive too because the risks aren’t as big on some of these smaller tracks. But it seems like the racing is at a high either way.”
The route in which most of national championship contenders take into the sport has changed as well. While several of the sport’s most historic names began in Quarter Midgets — including inaugural Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series champion Zach Daum — much of the new wave of youth sweeping the sport was brought into Midget racing an entirely different way.
“It’s impressive how Micros and Outlaw Karts can really hone a driver,” Meseraull said. “Keith (Kunz) has a Micro program and Chad Boat has a Micro program, and those guys are at the Micro races and can see the kids that have potential and bring them into the next round and bring them in right away in good equipment. Stuff that’s capable of winning.”
Lessons in Laps and Life
From the most experienced veterans to the newest rookies, time in the seat is invaluable at the professional level. The more laps driven in the car — any car — the shorter the learning curve.
Reigning Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series champion Jade Avedisian is getting more laps in more cars than she thought possible in 2024 after signing a multi-year agreement with Toyota Racing’s driver development program after clinching her first national Midget series championship last fall.
This year, the 17-year-old from Clovis, CA, is taking on the entire Toyota GR Cup Series schedule, piloting a Toyota GR-86 car on a nationwide tour consisting of 14 races at some of the country’s famed asphalt road courses. She said it’s been an onslaught of new racing information far different than what she applies to Midget racing.
“An asphalt car or a road course car — you have to have a lot of patience,” Avedisian said. “The simple race craft is a lot different. I feel like when you go get in the Midget, yeah, you have to have patience at some points, but for the most part it’s as hard as you can go for 30 laps.”
While she’s been developing her skills outside the Midget world, Avedisian’s not been shy about staying active on the dirt. In both 2023 and 2024, she’s taken to the 1/6-mile red clay oval of Millbridge Speedway multiple times in the track’s weekly events for Micro Sprints — the division in which she first made headlines in after winning several marquee events in 2020 and 2021.
After being discovered by CB Industries team owner Chad Boat, Avedisian set sail on her Midget career and signed with Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports (KKM) for the 2023 season, where she joined several teammates who also came from the Micro Sprint ranks.
“I’ve always said this, but I think it’s hard to beat someone with a lot of experience and a lot of laps,” Avedisian said. “You can take Gavin Miller, for example, during Mid-America Midget Week — he ran the Micro and the Midget in the same nights, and he said it’s helped.”
While both drivers saw new heights of success in 2023 — Avedisian with five wins and a national championship; Miller with two wins and a third-place championship finish — both were separated from the KKM crew chiefs they worked with throughout the season. Together, they formed bonds that made them more successful than the sum of their individual abilities — another crucial attribute of successful Midget racers.
“Last year, I clicked with the team from weekend one,” Avedisian said. “Times have changed; my crew chief left last year and I’m now working with a different group of guys, but it’s the same thing.
“It’s whoever can build the best relationship the fastest. Honestly, whatever crew chief and driver clicks the best is who’s gonna do the best.”
In racing with her new teammates and crew members at several new tracks across the country, Avedisian and her life have never been the same since breaking through in the motorsports world with her first Midget win in 2022. She’s since moved out to Mooresville, NC, to be closer to the Toyota Racing family and get access to their amenities and receive direct coaching on her lifestyle to help improve her game at the track.
“I’m grateful that my family was able to move me out to North Carolina full-time,” Avedisian said. “My family has probably sacrificed more than I have. I’m not with them all the time, and I’m sure that’s hard on my parents.”
Most 17-year-old kids don’t get to live a life anything like Avedisian’s. She admits it’s been a thrill ride that’s only getting started but knows the sacrifices she and her family have had to make for her to be in her position. What were once math tests, homework and after school athletics are now midweek track walks, morning meetings with fitness trainers and late nights at dirt ovals in the Midwest.
And she wouldn’t trade it for anything.
“My life is definitely very different than your average 17 or 18-year-old kid,” Avedisian said. “But I can’t really complain; this is obviously what I want to do.”
A Strong Team
From Feature events to season-long points championships, staying consistently competitive in Midget racing takes a team of dedicated professionals behind every driver, armed with the right equipment and knowledge of both car and track.
For the past 25 years, few teams have been able to match the preparedness and professionalism shown at Midget racing’s most dominant team – Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports (KKM). Led in part by veteran crew chief Beau Binder — now in his 20th year with KKM — the Texas native and former Sprint Car/Micro Sprint racer has applied his knowledge of fabrication, team management, car setup and driving experience to become one of the team’s most valuable players next to co-owner Keith Kunz.
With upwards of five cars racing at any event on the team’s calendar, Binder has helped to develop and manage the team’s weekly maintenance routine. With multiple different car chiefs, tire specialists and other crew members in the shop and at the track, KKM has improved their process over the years as their driver roster grows.
“That’s one of the big things, just trying to make everything manageable,” Binder said. “We’ve got so many cars, so many guys, so many hands, everything that we’ve got a torque spec for. That’s the biggest thing — getting our checklist reset for the week and then going through and making sure that motor milage, valve spring mileage, driveline mileage, all the things we need to check on a regular basis gets done on all these cars.”
Like any extensive process, the maintenance checklist — which Binder keeps on a large Google Sheet, accessible to all members of the team — starts with a single step after a race weekend.
“Once the first car’s done being washed, one of us will go over, get the water blown off, get it all WD-ed and bring it back inside — that’s when we start our post-wash maintenance that all gets done the first day,” Binder said. “We oil the cylinders, blow out the torsion tubes, grease our bird cage bearings, our spindles, things like that.”
While most Midget teams service only one or two cars after a race weekend, KKM works on five-to-eight cars during the regular season and has prepared as many as 15 to bring to the marquee Chili Bowl Nationals event in January. These cars, while well-built with top-of-the-line parts and materials, can sometimes get damaged and also require repair or more in-depth inspection.
“Lately, we’ve been running closer to seven or eight cars, and with that, the driveline mileage and motor mileage is all kind of — we try not to get to where everything is needing changed at the same time,” Binder said. “So, every week, we’re gonna have at least one that needs a motor swapped or driveline gone through.”
While reliable equipment is crucial to success on the national circuit, Binder indicated that coachable drivers and the rapport they develop with the crew is the element that wins not only the races, but the season-long championships as well.
“All of our crew guys and crew chiefs — they’re all reliable,” Binder said. “I feel like it’s really the bond they build with the crew chief that gives them that confidence.
“You see Cannon and Ryan right now — their confidence gets so high that a lot of times, it’s not even necessarily about the setup, it’s about them being confident that the car is capable, and they go make it happen.”
With 17 national Midget series championships in the trophy room, KKM has seen more than its fair share of driving talent come through the walls of its Columbus, IN-based headquarters over the years — all of whom have become better drivers because of the team around them.
“You look at Keith and Cannon and the relationship they’ve built, and we had Kaz Townsend work with Brenham Crouch when they won the POWRi championship, Brandon Selph work with Gavin Miller and they ended up second in the Xtreme points,” Binder said. “I’ve always felt like I’ve had a good relationship with Taylor (Reimer) and Ryan (Timms), and I had Kaylee Bryson and Bryant Wiedeman when we won the POWRi championship.
“I just feel like this group — we know what the goal is, we know what the job is. But at the same time, everybody’s still human. We’re able to build these good relationships with these kids where they always end up with that confidence no matter who they’re with.”
The New Era
Since the turn of the decade, a new generation of Midget racers have taken center stage on the national circuit. The Oklahoma Micro Sprint scene has produced several of today’s Midget frontrunners, including Cannon McIntosh, Daison Pursley, Ryan Timms, and recent graduates Taylor Reimer and Kaylee Bryson.
The Xtreme Outlaw Series has been a proving ground for several of these names, and in 2024 features another championship points battle as the season nears its conclusion. McIntosh and Timms account for nine of the 20 Feature event wins this season, and with only four races left, the two are separated by 133 points.
The two KKM teammates have been in the spotlight of national Midget racing for the past several seasons, learning from both the veteran crew members and drivers in the efforts to hone their own skills. What comes out of their hard work will be on full display as the Xtreme Outlaw Series wraps-up its 2024 campaign with the final four races in Illinois — Southern Illinois Raceway (Sept. 13); Highland Speedway (Sept. 14); Jacksonville Speedway (Oct. 4-5).
Tickets for the Xtreme Outlaw Series event at Southern Illinois Raceway are on sale in advance at the link below. If you can’t be at the track to watch in person, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
