FARMER CITY, Ill. — Ryan Timms took a big step in pursuit of his first national midget series championship Friday night, winning the opening round of racing at Farmer City Raceway.
The 17-year-old rising open-wheel talent from Oklahoma City, Okla., owned the night, setting the fastest lap time in his qualifying group, winning his heat from fourth, passing for the lead in the feature on lap 10 and leading the rest of the way for his first win of the season with both the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota and the POWRi National Midget League.
Timms’ win makes him the fifth different winner in the first five races of the 2024 Xtreme Outlaw Series season, joining Thomas Meseraull, Cannon McIntosh, Karter Sarff and Kale Drake.
Timms noted the speed of the Keith Kunz Motorsports (KKM), LynK/Toyota No. 67 and took advantage of it immediately, jumping off to a fast start in the 25-lap main event.
“After the heat race, I had a lot of confidence going into the main,” Timms said.
Kale Drake – Timms’ teammate – jumped to the early lead at the drop of the green and led the opening circuits ahead of Chase McDermand and Ashton Torgerson. Timms quickly found the top lane to his liking and devised his plan to start making passes.
“Once we went into (turns) three and four, I was able to just rail the top and I saw how much of the gap between me and the lead cars closed,” Timms said. “I knew we were gonna be passing for the lead soon.”
After getting by Torgerson for third, Timms threw his first big slide job on McDermand, diving deep into turn three on the bottom and sliding up in front of McDermand to take his line away out of turn four.
“It’s a lot wider in (turns) three and four and it was really hooked-up on the bottom to the middle getting into three, so I could just sail it in wide-open,” Timms said. “I could be five-to-six car-lengths back and I could clear the guy. I knew that was where I was gonna be able to pass guys.”
Three laps later, Timms pulled the slide job again in three and four, this time on his KKM teammate Drake for the lead.
Now in control of the field, Timms pinned the throttle, opening a 1.5-second advantage on the field before a caution period restacked the field with only seven laps remaining.
On the lap-19 restart, Torgerson took the green from third with McDermand in front of him. Torgerson stuck to the top side and zoomed past McDermand off turn four to take second at the line. McDermand tried to take the spot back with a slider of his own the next lap in turn three, but Torgerson crossed him over to retain second place out of turn four.
“I saw [McDermand] running kind of the lower line down there in (turns) three and four, and I felt like I was probably one of the faster cars up there in three and four,” Torgerson said. “I just knew that if I hit my line up there, it’d be pretty hard for him to get around me.”
With 20 laps down and five remaining, one final yellow flag was displayed, putting Torgerson on Timms’ rear bumper for the restart. Despite his teammate Torgerson’s speed behind him, Timms stuck to his preferred groove at the drop of the green and held the lead.
“I just stuck to running the bottom, and I knew if anyone was going to pass me, it was gonna be in (turn) three,” Timms said. “I’d run it in wide-open getting into three and four around the top and I’d be looking to my inside to see if anyone was sliding me so I could turn and get a run down the hill, but that never happened.”
Though he was unable to get close enough to Timms to challenge for the led, Torgerson said he felt like he should have been.
“A little bit longer, I think we might’ve had something for him,” Torgerson said.
Timms crossed under the checkered flag and bagged the $4,000 check and his first career victory with in the Xtreme Outlaw-POWRi Challenge Series with Torgerson, McDermand, Zach Daum and Cannon McIntosh following.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 67-Ryan Timms[4]; 2. 67K-Ashton Torgerson[3]; 3. 40-Chase McDermand[1]; 4. 7U-Zach Daum[5]; 5. 71K-Cannon McIntosh[10]; 6. 97-Gavin Miller[9]; 7. 9-Kevin Thomas Jr[6]; 8. 56-Tyler Edwards[7]; 9. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[16]; 10. 56D-Mitchell Davis[14]; 11. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[17]; 12. 21K-Karter Sarff[11]; 13. 4K-Kayla Roell[21]; 14. 14S-TJ Smith[12]; 15. 1K-Brayton Lynch[15]; 16. 5U-Peter Smith[18]; 17. 66-Jayden Clay[24]; 18. 13-Elijah Gile[19]; 19. 55-Trevor Cline[23]; 20. 57-Mark McMahill[22]; 21. 73W-Luke Wackerlin[25]; 22. 43-Gunnar Setser[8]; 23. 97K-Kale Drake[2]; 24. 98-Luke Drotschie[13]; 25. 71-Jade Avedisian[20]