The signs were there. Mid-pack runs turned to podium finishes, and it seemed it was only a matter of time before Ashton Torgerson broke through to Victory Lane.
On the night following a runner-up finish at Farmer City Raceway, the 17-year-old national Midget series rookie from Glendale, AZ, proved he had the skill to be one spot better, taking the green from the pole and leading all but one lap en route to his first career Feature win with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota.
The win gained other accolades as well, as Torgerson continued the parity streak in becoming the sixth different winner in the first six races of the season. It also counted as his second win of the year with the co-sanctioning POWRi National Midget League and, with the help of Keith Kunz Motorsports (KKM) teammates Cannon McIntosh and Ryan Timms, gave the Indiana-based team a sweep of the podium.
After taking the checkered, Torgerson gave praise to the KKM team, which he joined as a driver in March. Torgerson first made his debut with the Xtreme Outlaw Series in May 2023 with Tanner Thorson Racing, and notched his first podium in the car, but expressed that his time at KKM thus far has been of utmost importance.
“This year, with Keith, I just feel super comfortable and keep getting better each time,” Torgerson said. “I can’t thank Keith and the whole crew enough for getting me this comfortable.”
From the pole on the starting grid, Torgerson jumped out to the early lead and quickly encountered pressure from fifth-starting Chase McDermand. The two traded passes for the lead before Torgerson gained enough momentum on the top side to zoom past McDermand for good on Lap 5.
As the race neared halfway, Timms had already entered the podium from 11th on the starting grid, and on Lap 11 made the pass on McDermand to take second. He began to cut into Torgerson’s lead and had it down to a half-second before the race’s only yellow flag was displayed on Lap 18.
Torgerson knew his car was fast, but also knew of the competition he had directly behind him.
“Under the yellow, I was listening to the [driver radio] and they said, ’67 of Timms,’ and I was like, ‘Well, I know he’s gotta be fast,’” Torgerson said. “I knew he’d be quick, and I knew I had to hit my marks, or he’d be there to capitalize on it.”
On the restart, Timms lunged at an opportunity to make the pass, trying a slide job in Turns 3 and 4, but was unable to get enough speed to slide in Torgerson’s path. As Torgerson began to pull away in the closing laps, Timms encountered pressure from behind from teammate McIntosh.
“I changed my line in (Turns) 3 and 4; I was entering in on it and turning down and it gave me a lot of speed going into 1,” Timms said. “I was slowly catching [Torgerson], but it allowed Cannon to catch me.
“We got side-by-side and there was kind of a single-file line on the bottom of lapped cars, and it was kind of narrow to try and race each other, and he got by me.”
McIntosh used the slower cars ahead of him to his advantage, completing the pass on Lap 28 by going around Timms on the outside through Turns 3 and 4 while Timms stayed low behind the lapped cars.
“I think we were both catching the leader and Ryan made a couple mistakes and I was able to get by him,” McIntosh said. “Ultimately, just ran out of time to have a chance to run Ashton down.”
McIntosh pinned the throttle in pursuit of Torgerson out front, but his time expired. The Oklahoma racer crossed the stripe in second over Timms, expanding his points lead over Timms by 10 up to a total of 27 points.
UP NEXT
The Xtreme Outlaw Midgets will get nearly a month off before returning to action in a two-race swing through Kansas – Friday, May 10 at Humboldt Speedway and Saturday, May 11 at 81 Speedway.
ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view full results)
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 67K-Ashton Torgerson[1]; 2. 71K-Cannon McIntosh[3]; 3. 67-Ryan Timms[11]; 4. 56D-Mitchell Davis[13]; 5. 40-Chase McDermand[5]; 6. 97-Gavin Miller[8]; 7. 56-Tyler Edwards[9]; 8. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[2]; 9. 97K-Kale Drake[4]; 10. 43-Gunnar Setser[22]; 11. 7U-Zach Daum[6]; 12. 21K-Karter Sarff[12]; 13. 13-Elijah Gile[18]; 14. 55-Trevor Cline[7]; 15. 1K-Brayton Lynch[15]; 16. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[14]; 17. 14S-TJ Smith[17]; 18. 66-Jayden Clay[25]; 19. 5U-Peter Smith[20]; 20. 98-Luke Drotschie[16]; 21. 71-Jade Avedisian[10]; 22. 57-Mark McMahill[23]; 23. 10C-Dalton Camfield[24]; 24. 16C-David Camfield Jr[19]; 25. 73W-Luke Wackerlin[26]; 26. 17C-Devin Camfield[21]
