{"id":5488,"date":"2024-08-03T03:26:09","date_gmt":"2024-08-03T07:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xtremeoutlawseries.com\/?p=5488"},"modified":"2024-08-03T03:26:09","modified_gmt":"2024-08-03T07:26:09","slug":"karter-sarff-dominates-i-55-for-second-straight-ironman-opening-night-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xtremeoutlawseries.com\/recap\/karter-sarff-dominates-i-55-for-second-straight-ironman-opening-night-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Karter Sarff Dominates I-55 for Second-Straight Ironman Opening Night Win"},"content":{"rendered":"
There\u2019s something about Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 that just clicks with Karter Sarff. Two years in-a-row, he\u2019s gone to Victory Lane at the Missouri oval with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota.<\/p>\n
Sarff, the 21-year-old reigning champion of the POWRi National Midget League<\/a> from Mason City, IL, won on opening night of Ironman 55<\/em> weekend last year and did it again Friday night, leading all 25 laps of the main event to bank the $4,000 grand prize and his third Series victory of the year.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just one of those tracks that clicks for me, and our stuff just seems to go around here really well,\u201d Sarff said. \u201cI think it\u2019s just a combination of our car always being really good here, and I always have the confidence coming here that we\u2019re gonna be good.\u201d<\/p>\n Sarff was strong from the drop of the green, taking the lead on the opening lap from the pole and immediately going to work on opening up a gap between himself and the field. At its largest, Sarff led by 2.7 seconds before Timms began to reel him in.<\/p>\n As Sarff dipped into lapped traffic, taking the bottom lane around the 1\/3-mile oval, Timms took advantage of the open top lane, using the \u201cdiamond\u201d line to gain extra speed on corner exit at both ends of the track. Lap-by-lap, Timms cut into Sarff\u2019s gap and with five laps left, only .7 seconds separated them.<\/p>\n \u201cI definitely didn\u2019t want to see a caution,\u201d Sarff said. \u201cI felt like I had a good rhythm going, especially there at the end. I kinda figured out where I needed to be and slowing the car down as the track slowed down. I noticed I got a lot better once I started slowing down.\u201d<\/p>\n Once more, Timms gathered speed from the high side momentum and gave it everything he had in pursuit of Sarff, but in the end was unsuccessful.<\/p>\n \u201cOn that last lap, I followed it all the way around in (Turn) 2 on the top and it was a lot faster doing that than my diamond, at least later on,\u201d Timms said. \u201cEarlier on, the diamond was working and then it kinda just went away.\u201d<\/p>\n Sarff was able to maintain the .7-second gap he had on Timms, despite the long line of lapped traffic he faced throughout the race, most of which was racing directly in his lane on the bottom.<\/p>\n \u201cI was struggling to get around them there for quite a few laps,\u201d Sarff said. \u201cI just started running one lane higher than them and actually figured out that it was better than what I was doing. Part of it helped me out quite a bit.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the race would\u2019ve been a little longer, don\u2019t know if we would\u2019ve held on, but I\u2019m excited to get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n Timms crossed the stripe second, garnering his ninth podium finish of the season in the Keith Kunz\/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports (KKM) No. 67. He said there were a few things that might have helped his case in getting to make a move on Sarff for the lead, but he wasn\u2019t able to get close enough to execute.<\/p>\n \u201cI think heavier lapped traffic, or a yellow, or me changing my line \u2013\u00a0any of those three would have made a difference,\u201d Timms said.<\/p>\n Hayden Reinbold rounded out the podium with his third top-three finish in the last four Series races. Inaugural Series champion Zach Daum climbed climbed from seventh to finish fourth while Ashton Torgerson rounded out the top five.<\/p>\n Gavin Miller won Toyota Heat Race 1, Timms topped TJ Forged Heat 2 and Torgerson won the third and final Heat of the night. Sarff also won his third Whitz Racing Products Quick Time Award of the year for his best lap in Qualifying at 12.768 seconds.<\/p>\n UP NEXT<\/strong><\/p>\n The Xtreme Outlaw and POWRi Midgets are back in action at I-55 Saturday night, Aug. 3, for the richest race of the season \u2013 $7,500-to-win and $500-to-start.<\/p>\n Tickets are on sale at XtremeOutlawSeries.com<\/a>. If you can\u2019t be there, stream every lap live on DIRTVision<\/a>.<\/p>\n ABBREVIATED RESULTS<\/strong><\/p>\n Feature (25 Laps): 1. 21K-Karter Sarff[1]; 2. 67-Ryan Timms[2]; 3. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[3]; 4. 7U-Zach Daum[7]; 5. 67K-Ashton Torgerson[5]; 6. 71K-Cannon McIntosh[12]; 7. 97-Gavin Miller[4]; 8. 7-Shannon McQueen[10]; 9. 56D-Mitchell Davis[6]; 10. 26-Corbin Rueschenberg[18]; 11. 7X-Thomas Meseraull[11]; 12. 71-Jade Avedisian[9]; 13. 55-Trevor Cline[13]; 14. 14S-Tyler Edwards[16]; 15. 5U-Peter Smith[15]; 16. 50-Daniel Adler[14]; 17. 98-Gunnar Setser[21]; 18. 40-Chase McDermand[24]; 19. 51B-Joe B Miller[17]; 20. 72J-Sam Johnson[19]; 21. 77-Joe Wirth[8]; 22. 44-Branigan Roark[22]; 23. 66-Jayden Clay[23]; 24. 33-Jacob McFarlin[20]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There\u2019s something about Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 that just clicks with Karter Sarff. Two years in-a-row, he\u2019s gone to Victory Lane at the Missouri oval with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota. Sarff, the 21-year-old reigning champion of the POWRi National Midget League from Mason City, IL, won on opening night … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":5492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[305,82],"tags":[397,93,211,144,174],"class_list":["post-5488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recap","category-midgets","tag-397","tag-federated-auto-parts-raceway-at-i-55","tag-ironman-55","tag-karter-sarff","tag-ryan-timms","has-post-video","infinite-scroll-item"],"yoast_head":"\n