CONCORD, N.C. — Trifecta Motorsports came within one spot of their first national midget championship two seasons ago.
The Oklahoma team knows they can do one spot better, and they’re coming back to chase it in 2025.
The Tulsa-based operation will continue as a two-car team for their fourth consecutive season chasing points with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota. Inaugural Series champion Zach Daum will pilot the team’s flagship Stanton-powered Spike Chassis No. 7U alongside a brand-new teammate — Missouri Micro Sprint and Winged Sprint Car racer, Kameron Key.
While 2024 fell short of the follow-up they had hoped for after a milestone 2023 campaign, team co-owner Steve Carbone said this past season — which came with multiple mechanical failures early in the season — is behind them. He and co-owner Staton Flurry are ready to put their most competitive effort to-date on track in pursuit of a national midget championship.
“Even with the trials and tribulations we had last year, we had some very uncharacteristic mechanical failures, and we think we’ve remedied all that now,” Carbone said. “We love it, that’s why we do it.
“The real reason — we came so close to accomplishing the goal in 2023. We’re just as hungry. We have tip-top expectations, for sure.”
Despite the struggles, Daum reached victory lane twice in Xtreme competition in 2024 and finished fifth in the championship points standings. In that time, he uncovered his path back to the top of the national midget ranks.
“You can’t drop a night and expect to still be competitive with this deal,” Daum said. “Especially with the short schedule, and without any rainouts that are potential. When you’re only running less than 30 races, you can’t afford to have an issue. We just had too many issues.
“If we can clean that up for next year, I think we’ll be back where we should be.”
As he did for the first time in 2024, Daum will have a teammate to work with on the track. Key will take over in the seat of a Stanton-powered Spike Chassis No. 9U for his rookie national midget season after years racing Micro Sprints and Winged Sprint Cars across the Midwest.
“I’m super excited, and to be able to run for a real points championship,” Key said. “I’ve never had an opportunity to be able to do anything like that, other than weekly, local shows.
“To actually have a real championship with full-time people, and to see new racetracks, be out on the road, I’m looking forward to it.”
While Key will be a rookie in 2025, he’s already made several starts in a midget for TKH Motorsports and become acquainted with Daum, having piloted a Trifecta car during the Xtreme Outlaw Series season finale at Jacksonville Speedway.
He’ll also stay busy between series races, running a winged sprint car part-time for Kansas-based Beaver Racing.
“He’s been around a while, and for the limited amount of midget stuff he’s actually done, he’s very talented,” Daum said of Key. “I think next year, he’ll be even better because he gets to race a lot next year, and typically he doesn’t get to race much. He has really good results on very minimal races.
“He’s starting in February. He’s gonna be racing a lot on top of running the midget. When you jump from a Winged Sprint Car, a midget is very slow, so I think your driving (abilities) increase exponentially when you go from a Winged Sprint Car back to a midget.”
“We showed good speed, and I think they’re really well-built race cars,” Key said of the two starts he made with Trifecta in October. “Bobby Milliser (crew chief), Steve Carbone, Staton Flurry and everybody, it’s a really organized team. I think we should be fast out of the gate. I don’t really know what to set my expectations at, but the sky’s the limit, for sure.”
From what was once only a small, single-car operation forged by Carbone and Flurry in 2018 to compete once a year at the Chili Bowl Nationals has blossomed into a multi-car stable, now armed with top equipment and a pair of veteran open wheel drivers as they chase a national championship.
It’s a reality not even the team leaders could have imagined less than a decade ago.
“This was absolutely not the plan; this was never even discussed, but we’re just enjoying it that much and we’re having that much fun,” Carbone said. “We’ve just got all the right people around us right now, that’s the big thing. Bobby is such an integral part, and we all just see exactly eye-to-eye on everything.
Some of the stuff you don’t see — we’ve got some partners and sponsors that have stepped up, and they’ve become a big part of the machine. We’ve just got more help than we’ve ever had, and we’re just gonna go chase it.”