PEVELY, Mo. — There’s something about Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 that just clicks with Karter Sarff.
Two years in a row, he’s 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 Midget League, won on opening night of Ironman 55 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.
“It’s just one of those tracks that clicks for me, and our stuff just seems to go around here really well,” Sarff said. “I think it’s just a combination of our car always being really good here, and I always have the confidence coming here that we’re gonna be good.”
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.
As Sarff dipped into lapped traffic, taking the bottom lane around the third-mile oval, Timms took advantage of the open top lane, using the “diamond” line to gain extra speed on corner exit at both ends of the track. Lap-by-lap, Timms cut into Sarff’s gap and with five laps left, only .7 seconds separated them.
“I definitely didn’t want to see a caution,” Sarff said. “I 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.”
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.
“On that last lap, I followed it all the way around in (turn) two on the top and it was a lot faster doing that than my diamond, at least later on,” Timms said. “Earlier on, the diamond was working and then it kinda just went away.”
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.
“I was struggling to get around them there for quite a few laps,” Sarff said. “I 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.
“If the race would’ve been a little longer, don’t know if we would’ve held on, but I’m excited to get it done.”
Timms crossed the stripe second, garnering his ninth podium finish of the season in the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports (KKM) No. 67.
“I think heavier lapped traffic, or a yellow, or me changing my line – any of those three would have made a difference,” Timms said.
Hayden Reinbold rounded out the podium with his third top-three finish in the last four series races.
Zach Daum climbed climbed from seventh to finish fourth while Ashton Torgerson rounded out the top five.
The finish
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]