{"id":5317,"date":"2024-06-01T05:18:32","date_gmt":"2024-06-01T09:18:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xtremeoutlawseries.com\/?p=5317"},"modified":"2024-06-01T05:25:04","modified_gmt":"2024-06-01T09:25:04","slug":"ashton-torgerson-takes-coles-county-debut-for-third-xtreme-outlaw-win-of-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xtremeoutlawseries.com\/recap\/ashton-torgerson-takes-coles-county-debut-for-third-xtreme-outlaw-win-of-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashton Torgerson Takes Coles County Debut for Third Xtreme Outlaw Win of 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"
When Ashton Torgerson cemented his plans to begin his rookie season on the trail of the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota, he was unsure about how he\u2019d perform and manage the pressure of driving for one of the most accomplished teams in national Midget racing.<\/p>\n
But now, only halfway through the season, the Keith Kunz\/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports (KKM) racer has collected three Xtreme Outlaw Feature wins, which is second-most among all drivers. The latest came Friday night in the Series\u2019 debut at Coles County Speedway, when he took the lead from 2022 Series champion Zach Daum on Lap 10 and led the rest of the way to score the win in the POWRi co-sanctioned Xtreme Outlaw-POWRi Challenge Series main event.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe weren\u2019t sure if we were gonna be the best since it\u2019s my first Midget year,\u201d Torgerson, 17, of Glendale AZ, said. \u201cWe have three wins already this year with Xtreme and one with POWRi. Overall, so far, it\u2019s been amazing already, and we\u2019re only halfway through.\u201d<\/p>\n Earlier in the program, Torgerson put himself in shape to be up front after setting the fastest lap in his Qualifying group and winning his Heat Race from outside Row 2. After the four-car invert, Torgerson took the green flag in the Feature from the fourth starting spot and wasted little time challenging the leaders in the early going.<\/p>\n A red flag situation appeared on Lap 5 for a Kale Drake rollover in Turn 2, which restacked the field for a restart. Daum led the field back to green with Gavin Miller right behind him in the bottom lane around the 1\/8-mile oval, which played right into Torgerson\u2019s hand as he soon found the top side of the track to his liking and began to close-in on the two leaders ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cWe looked at the track before the main and I think everybody thought it was gonna be right around the bottom with how much track work they actually did to the bottom,\u201d Torgerson said. \u201cRolling around, we had four laps I think and then a red came out. I just figured I\u2019m third, I had to try something.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw the top in (Turns) 1 and 2 and it was kinda cleaned off a little bit, and so I figured I\u2019d try it once, see how it goes and learn from there. That\u2019s what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n Torgerson got around Miller for second on Lap 7 and then set his sights on Daum. He kept it smooth on the top side and reeled-in the Trifecta Motorsports No. 7U, and on Lap 10 got a great run to Daum\u2019s outside in Turns 1 and 2 and zoomed past him into the lead down the backstretch.<\/p>\n \u201cReally, I was just hoping Daum wouldn\u2019t come up in (Turns) 1 and 2 to block me the one or two times I showed him I had momentum, and luckily he didn\u2019t,\u201d Torgerson said. \u201cAfter that, I was able to jump up top in 3 and 4 pretty much set sail after that.\u201d<\/p>\n And set sail he did. Torgerson navigated his way through traffic without a single fault, ducking and weaving his way around the slower cars en route to the win. At its largest, his gap to second-place Chase McDermand grew to nearly two seconds in the final laps.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the moves I was making and how fast I was getting around them, I actually think it calmed me down a little bit knowing that I had lapped cars in between us,\u201d Torgerson said. \u201cSplitting cars there \u2013\u00a0I don\u2019t think they were able to do the exact same moves, so it probably took them a little bit longer to get around them.\u201d<\/p>\n McDermand crossed the finish line second to secure his fourth podium finish of the season. He started third and fell back to fourth in the beginning of the race but was able to climb back thanks to his patience on the top side.<\/p>\n After a fierce battle with Daum around the midway point of the race, complete with slide jobs and repeated contact between the two, McDermand was able to take the spot away for good on Lap 13. However, he was unable to get close enough to Torgerson in the end to make a bid for the lead.<\/p>\n \u201cI think, like everybody else, I just needed a caution,\u201d McDermand said. \u201cJust couldn\u2019t get there in the dirty air. I feel like we were better in clean air. I ran him down, but then right when I caught him, we were getting into lapped traffic and there really wasn\u2019t any opportunity to get by him.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, the 23-year-old Illinois racer collected a strong finish and showed progress in the midst of a season that\u2019s been dotted with misfortune and results he said has not been up to his standards.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s good for some confidence to have a good run again after the last few runs we\u2019ve had,\u201d McDermand said. \u201cI feel like we\u2019ve just been buried lately, and it just hasn\u2019t been reflective of what we\u2019re capable of and what we know we\u2019re capable of. To get a P2 finish is good for everybody involved.\u201d<\/p>\n Daum hung on to finish third while KKM teammates Ryan Timms and Cannon McIntosh completed the top-five.<\/p>\n The Whitz Racing Products Quick Time Award went to Zach Daum for his fastest lap in Qualifying of 10.781.<\/p>\n Toyota Racing Heat 1 was won by Chase McDermand. TJ Forged Heat 2 was won by Ryan Timms.<\/p>\n UP NEXT<\/strong><\/p>\n Following the postponement of Saturday\u2019s events at Wayne County Speedway (IL), the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets will now take a summer break and resume competition Friday-Saturday, July 19-20, at Spoon River Speedway in Lewistown, IL.<\/p>\n Tickets for the event are on sale now at\u00a0XtremeOutlawSeries.com<\/a>\u00a0and will also be available at the gate on race day. If you can\u2019t be there to watch in person, stream every lap live on\u00a0DIRTVision<\/a>.<\/p>\n ABBREVIATED RESULTS<\/strong> (view full results<\/a>)<\/p>\n Feature (30 Laps): 1. 67K-Ashton Torgerson[4]; 2. 40-Chase McDermand[3]; 3. 7U-Zach Daum[1]; 4. 67-Ryan Timms[5]; 5. 71K-Cannon McIntosh[12]; 6. 71-Jade Avedisian[8]; 7. 97-Gavin Miller[2]; 8. 21K-Karter Sarff[10]; 9. 16-Kyle Jones[17]; 10. 55-Trevor Cline[6]; 11. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[9]; 12. 56D-Mitchell Davis[18]; 13. 14S-Tyler Edwards[19]; 14. 54-Michael Pickens[11]; 15. 1K-Brayton Lynch[13]; 16. 97K-Kale Drake[16]; 17. 43-Gunnar Setser[20]; 18. 66-Jayden Clay[21]; 19. 98-Elijah Gile[15]; 20. 57-Mark McMahill[22]; 21. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[7]; 22. 86-Shane Cottle[14]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Ashton Torgerson cemented his plans to begin his rookie season on the trail of the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota, he was unsure about how he\u2019d perform and manage the pressure of driving for one of the most accomplished teams in national Midget racing. But now, only halfway through the season, the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":5321,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[305,82],"tags":[384,259,143,344,108],"class_list":["post-5317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recap","category-midgets","tag-384","tag-ashton-torgerson","tag-chase-mcdermand","tag-coles-county-speedway","tag-zach-daum","has-post-video","infinite-scroll-item"],"yoast_head":"\n