Lonnie Wheatley, OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (October 14, 2023) – It has been a while in the making, but Arizona’s Hayden Reinbold finally reeled in his first career win in National Midget competition by topping Saturday night’s Xtreme Outlaw/POWRi season finale atop the 1/5-mile I-44 Riverside Speedway clay oval.
Reinbold took advantage of his pole starting position and stayed in command throughout the 30-lapper to capture the $5,000 winner’s share in the 19th Annual Charlene Meents Memorial finale.
“This is special, it feels great to finally get this one,” the 19-year-old Reinbold commented after the triumph aboard the AME Electrical No. 19 machine.
It wasn’t without a hitch though, as a loss of brakes put the young Reinbold to the test from the outset.
“I lost my brakes before we even took the green flag,” Reinbold explained. “We just got lucky to never get into heavy lapped traffic and the track never got too tricky.”
While Reinbold posted the landmark win, a trio of drivers secured 2023 season championships including Jade Avedisian, Karter Sarff and Michelle Decker.
Avedisian became the first female racer to capture a National Midget title by taking the Xtreme Outlaw Midget title, Sarff overcame a 100-point deficit to overtake Cannon McIntosh for the POWRi National Midget League championship and Michelle Decker put the finishing touches on her career by topping the POWRi West Midget League championship point charts.
The championship feature got off to a tumultuous start, as Avedisian and new track record holder Chase McDermand made contact exiting turn four to complete the first lap. The resulting contact sent McDermand into the wall and upside down, collecting nearly half the 22-car starting feature field in the process with McDermand among a handful unable to return.
Reinbold took off from the pole position on the ensuing restart and fended off Avedisian in the early going for the point before Zach Daum began pressuring the young lady racer for the second position. The heated battle for second allowed Reinbold to slip away and despite several cautions, never faced any serious challenges for the point.
In his wake as Avedisian and Daum diced for second, the seas parted for 16th-starter Sarff. When McIntosh exited near the midway point, Sarff needed a finish of sixth or better to claim the POWRi National title.
Still a position out of sixth, Sarff soon made his way to fourth and then emerged with the runner-up finish behind Reinbold in a wild scramble for position over a final green-white-checkered run as Avedisian settled for an Xtreme Outlaw title-clinching show position.
Ryan Timms slipped into the fourth position with Daum rounding out the top five. Friday night I-44 winner Gavin Miller was sixth with Taylor Reimer, Kyle Jones, Daison Pursley and Elijah Gile completing the top ten.
After McDermand established the new track record of 10.680-seconds in qualifying, he along with Reinbold, Daum and Ethan Mitchell posted heat race wins before McIntosh and Pursley scored “B” Main wins.
Xtreme Outlaw/POWRi National & West Midget Leagues
I-44 Riverside Speedway (Oklahoma City, Okla.)
October 14, 2023, Results:
Driven 2 Save Lives Feature (30 Laps): 1. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[1]; 2. 21K-Karter Sarff[18]; 3. 71-Jade Avedisian[2]; 4. 67-Ryan Timms[8]; 5. 7U-Zach Daum[3]; 6. 97-Gavin Miller[9]; 7. 25K-Taylor Reimer[5]; 8. 7P-Kyle Jones[11]; 9. 19A-Daison Pursley[16]; 10. 13-Elijah Gile[21]; 11. 43-Gunnar Setser[13]; 12. 14R-Jonathan Beason[7]; 13. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[6]; 14. 97K-Cooper Williams[17]; 15. 32-Trey Marcham[20]; 16. 31K-Kyle Beilman[19]; 17. 08-Cannon McIntosh[15]; 18. 40-Chase McDermand[4]; 19. 19K-Riley Kreisel[10]; 20. 26R-Corbin Rueschenberg[12]; 21. 5U-Peter Smith[14]; 22. 19U-Pierce Urbanosky[22]
Max Papis Innovations Last Chance Showdown 1 (10 Laps): 1. 08-Cannon McIntosh[3]; 2. 97K-Cooper Williams[6]; 3. 27-Casey Friedrichsen[2]; 4. 7W-Henry Chambers[7]; 5. 07-Cade Cowles[11]; 6. 77-Bret Klabunde[9]; 7. 51B-Joe B Miller[5]; 8. 13-Elijah Gile[1]; 9. 19U-Pierce Urbanosky[4]; 10. (DNS) 7D-Michelle Decker; 11. (DNS) 15C-Carter Chevalier; 12. (DNS) 7-Shannon McQueen
Max Papis Innovations Last Chance Showdown 2 (10 Laps): 1. 19A-Daison Pursley[2]; 2. 21K-Karter Sarff[4]; 3. 32-Trey Marcham[1]; 4. 00-Ryder Laplante[5]; 5. 00X-Brant Woods[6]; 6. 1G-Caden McCreary[10]; 7. 31K-Kyle Beilman[3]; 8. 77J-John Klabunde[7]; 9. F5-Devin Simmons[8]; 10. 84S-Shaun Shapel[9]; 11. (DNS) 98-Ryan Padgett
Heart River Spirits Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 40-Chase McDermand[4]; 2. 67-Ryan Timms[2]; 3. 19K-Riley Kreisel[1]; 4. 32-Trey Marcham[5]; 5. 5U-Peter Smith[3]; 6. 51B-Joe B Miller[6]; 7. 7W-Henry Chambers[7]; 8. F5-Devin Simmons[8]; 9. 07-Cade Cowles[10]; 10. 98-Ryan Padgett[9]
Heart River Spirits Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[2]; 2. 71-Jade Avedisian[4]; 3. 43-Gunnar Setser[1]; 4. 26R-Corbin Rueschenberg[3]; 5. 31K-Kyle Beilman[5]; 6. 00-Ryder Laplante[6]; 7. 77J-John Klabunde[7]; 8. 84S-Shaun Shapel[8]; 9. (DNS) 7-Shannon McQueen
JDoyle Enterprises Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 7U-Zach Daum[3]; 2. 14R-Jonathan Beason[2]; 3. 7P-Kyle Jones[1]; 4. 27-Casey Friedrichsen[5]; 5. 19U-Pierce Urbanosky[9]; 6. 08-Cannon McIntosh[4]; 7. 97K-Cooper Williams[6]; 8. 7D-Michelle Decker[8]; 9. 15C-Carter Chevalier[7]
JDoyle Enterprises Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[1]; 2. 97-Gavin Miller[2]; 3. 25K-Taylor Reimer[4]; 4. 19A-Daison Pursley[6]; 5. 13-Elijah Gile[3]; 6. 21K-Karter Sarff[5]; 7. 00X-Brant Woods[7]; 8. 77-Bret Klabunde[9]; 9. (DNS) 1G-Caden McCreary
Hoosier Tire Qualifying 1: 1. 40-Chase McDermand, 00:10.680[9]; 2. 5U-Peter Smith, 00:10.763[7]; 3. 67-Ryan Timms, 00:10.905[5]; 4. 19K-Riley Kreisel, 00:10.979[10]; 5. 32-Trey Marcham, 00:11.082[6]; 6. 51B-Joe B Miller, 00:11.204[4]; 7. 7W-Henry Chambers, 00:11.326[8]; 8. F5-Devin Simmons, 00:11.427[3]; 9. 98-Ryan Padgett, 00:11.536[2]; 10. 07-Cade Cowles, 00:11.804[1]
Hoosier Tire Qualifying 2: 1. 71-Jade Avedisian, 00:10.792[2]; 2. 26R-Corbin Rueschenberg, 00:11.060[3]; 3. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold, 00:11.079[4]; 4. 43-Gunnar Setser, 00:11.090[9]; 5. 31K-Kyle Beilman, 00:11.145[5]; 6. 00-Ryder Laplante, 00:11.333[7]; 7. 77J-John Klabunde, 00:11.524[8]; 8. 84S-Shaun Shapel, 00:11.959[1]; 9. 7-Shannon McQueen, 01:00.000[6]
Hoosier Tire Qualifying 3: 1. 08-Cannon McIntosh, 00:10.730[8]; 2. 7U-Zach Daum, 00:10.749[9]; 3. 14R-Jonathan Beason, 00:10.898[2]; 4. 7P-Kyle Jones, 00:11.026[3]; 5. 27-Casey Friedrichsen, 00:11.155[7]; 6. 97K-Cooper Williams, 00:11.275[6]; 7. 15C-Carter Chevalier, 00:11.291[5]; 8. 7D-Michelle Decker, 00:11.354[1]; 9. 19U-Pierce Urbanosky, 00:11.523[4]
Hoosier Tire Qualifying 4: 1. 25K-Taylor Reimer, 00:10.820[1]; 2. 13-Elijah Gile, 00:10.897[9]; 3. 97-Gavin Miller, 00:10.936[3]; 4. 19M-Ethan Mitchell, 00:11.013[5]; 5. 21K-Karter Sarff, 00:11.156[6]; 6. 19A-Daison Pursley, 00:11.172[4]; 7. 00X-Brant Woods, 00:11.262[8]; 8. 1G-Caden McCreary, 00:11.469[7]; 9. 77-Bret Klabunde, 00:11.710[2]