When the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota visits Millbridge Speedway in November to close out the season, three North Carolina natives will be set to defend their home turf.
Mooresville, NC’s Trevor Cline and Ethan Mitchell, along with Huntersville, NC’s Hayden Wise, will each chase victory in the Justin Arion Hauling Xtreme Outlaw World Championship presented by Glenn Styres Racing with an Xtreme season of experience under each of their belts.
Wise, the 14-year-old Series rookie, spent the majority of her 2025 campaign focused on learning the new surroundings and understanding the Ninety-Four Racing machine that she piloted with former USAC champion Jay Drake on the wrenches.
“It’s been great so far getting comfortable with the car this year,” Wise said. “I really can’t thank Jay (Drake) enough. He’s been setting up the car really good for me, and all the support from my dad and pop each night. It’s been a big thing for that, and I’m just happy with where I’ve come from so far, and learning about the car has made it be really fun.”
Cline, who ran his rookie season with the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets in 2024, filled his racing schedule with visits to new tracks in split time between the Bellwood Auto Body No. 55 Midget and Hyper Racing Micro Sprints.
“They’ve said we ran pretty well. I don’t think it’s been as good as I want it to be,” Cline said. “Obviously, you want to win them all, but it’s never gonna happen. But, it’s good. I’ve been able to travel more, so I haven’t been home as much. I’ve ran quite a bit of races, but I’ve been trying a bunch of things when we do travel out. It’s been consistent finishes, so it’s been a pretty good year.”
Mitchell has evolved into a seasoned Midget veteran who knows the ups and downs that a year of national competition can bring. Through 10 Series starts this year, Mitchell owns a top five at Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway, along with three additional top 10s. The 23-year-old also won in a Micro Sprint with Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports (KKM) at Millbridge in August.
“You know, 2025 hasn’t been too spectacular,” Mitchell said. “It’s one of them tougher seasons that you go through as a race car driver, but we’re going to end it on a good note. I’m glad we’ve been able to visit a lot of tracks, but it’s not been easy for sure. There’s been nights where things start well, then it’s almost a wrong place, wrong time type of thing.
“But, it’s still been good to get a lot of laps, and going to Millbridge next is always a strong suit for me, seeing that’s where I started my career with Outlaw Karts, Micros, and Midgets here and there. We got the win in a Micro for KKM, and that was a lot of fun. Overall, it’s tough, but we keep trucking. We ain’t gonna give up, and we’re going to keep fighting to see if we can make some headway and throw our hat in the ring for a win.”
If Cline is not racing elsewhere during the weekdays, he can be found at Millbridge racing between Winged and Non-Winged Micro Sprints. In that time, the 18-year-old has watched the 1/7-mile dirt track evolve into a hotbed for young racers to develop and compete against the best in their division each week.
“The more and more you travel, when you get home, it gets easier and easier,” Cline said. “It’s definitely helped. Even in years past, the more we’ve traveled, it just feels like another show, and it seems easier to me. Down (at Millbridge), the competition’s getting really hard. There used to be five or six good cars; now, there’s 15-20 good cars that it turns into the (Tulsa) Shootout a little bit.
“You got to have a lot of luck. Different racetracks have different dirt, especially out in the Midwest. You’re able to go home and almost not take a bunch of the information, but your driving style becomes easier and the way you drive. Going to Millbridge, since it’s not as sandy as the others, it’s pretty tough whenever a lot of guys show up.”
Though Wise has raced at Millbridge the least amount of times since stepping up from the Quarter Midget ranks, she’s spent time in a range of open-wheel dirt cars, including Midgets, 410 Sprint Cars, and Micro Sprints. After scoring her first Series podium at Clyde Martin, she went back the next week and became the first female to win a 600 Micro Feature at the track.
“Running the Sprint Car, and Midget, and Micros, I’m happy that I’m learning the different chassis and how to drive them,” Wise said. “Overall, I feel like it helps me in so many different ways because I know how to be and what to do in certain situations.
“I do a lot of studying before I come to some of these tracks. Just so that I know what to expect, which helps, and then going over my notes with my family and Jay helps a lot when we’re there. Like, running the Midget at Clyde (Martin Memorial Speedway) definitely helped me go ahead in the Micro and win because I knew what the track was going to be like. Those PA tracks have been really good to me.”
Mitchell knows “The Bridge” as well as the back of his hand with the amount of laps he’s logged. When the Midgets race a familiar track in a much cooler setting than in previous years, “Lil Bundy” said that World Championship competitors will be more reliant on pace than on being technical around the track.
“I think, being in November versus May, it’s gonna be quite a different track than what we’re used to seeing,” Mitchell said. “May, obviously, is a lot hotter than November, and I’ve ran enough to where I know how it changes through the year. It seems like towards the end of the year, it brings moisture throughout the surface, holds grip longer through the night, and produces faster-paced racing. Track records are always set or broken at the end of the year, no matter what class you’re in.
“It just seems that the track carries more speed at the end of the year than it does early on. So, I think knowing those little things about Millbridge, I think there’s going to be some advantages in knowing that type of stuff, plus all the laps I have are quite hefty, so it all should help me out as well.”
Cline began October with an added milestone to his career when he bested Series points leader Jacob Denney in the final laps at Jacksonville Speedway to earn an emotional first career Xtreme Outlaw Feature win. The win gave Cline added confidence entering the Xtreme World Championship as he seeks his first career Midget win around his home track.
“My Midget program, we’re getting there,” Cline said. “We’re not at the level we want to be yet, but we are a lot better from where we started. Millbridge is special, everybody I know is from there, and I’ve got more laps than anyone there almost, so I’m kind of the hometown kid. I’ve only ran a Midget there twice, and a million in the Micro, so hopefully we can take what we learned from (Jacksonville) and run well there.”
Wise said her confidence level has risen throughout the course of her rookie year, and there is no better place for her to win her first national Midget triumph amongst the hometown crowd.
“I mean, it’d be crazy, I’d be so excited,” Wise said. “I’ve spent time thinking about how much confidence I’ve gained over the last couple of races with Xtreme, how I’ve been getting comfortable in the car. I’ve had more confidence going into these races because I’ve been racing with the best guys, getting comfortable with racing against them, learning how they race, and I really think it’d be cool if that could come at Millbridge.”
Mitchell knows what it is like to be close to victory at home, as his only podium score with the Series came in the inaugural Series event’s finale in 2022.
Though he’s only finished in the top-10 once in every Xtreme Outlaw Feature at the track since then, his 8.5 average Feature start through the last three years suggests the No. 19M to be near the head of the field to start the November finale.
“As greedy as we are, we want to win now,” Mitchell said. “Just getting that feeling to win in general would be super good for me, and really boost my confidence level to where it would change the game for me. They always say, ‘The first one is the hardest to get. Then, after that, it becomes a lot easier.’ I think that would hold true to me for sure because we’ve been close.”
You can see Cline, Wise, and Mitchell battle at Millbridge Speedway to cap off the 2025 Xtreme Outlaw Midget season in the Justin Arion Hauling Xtreme Outlaw World Championship presented by Glenn Styres Racing on Monday-Tuesday, Nov. 3-4. Tickets will be available at the gate. Hot Laps are scheduled to start at 6 p.m. both nights.
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.
