Charlene Meents Memorial

When the pressure turned up, the heroes emerged Saturday night at I-44 Riverside Speedway. It was a nail-biting conclusion to the inaugural season for the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota, where the first-ever repeat winner was found and the first-ever champion was crowned by the end of the night. Jade Avedisian all 35 laps of the 18th annual Charlene Meents Memorial to become the first-ever two-time winner of the Series and the first-ever two-time female Feature winner of a national Midget tour, while Zach Daum piloted one of Avedisian’s backup cars from the CB Industries stable to a ninth-place finish, earning him enough points to clinch the inaugural Series championship. “The first one was awesome, but I think this one’s just a little more special that I could do it twice,” Avedisian said after the Feature, reflecting on the significance of her trailblazing accomplishment. Starting from the pole after setting quick time in Group 4 Qualifying and a third-place Heat finish, Avedisian jumped out to the lead at the drop of the green and began setting a torrid pace. She stretched her lead as large as two seconds on more than one occasion and was able to hold the lead through even the toughest restarts. But after the final restart just before the halfway point, Avedisian found herself riding on another two-second gap with lots of traffic...