LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. — In many respects, it’s been a rollercoaster of a season for Ryan Timms during the early part of the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship calendar.
In fact, it’s been just about as much of a rollercoaster as was a single lap around Lawrenceburg (Ind.) Speedway’s lightning fast three-eighths-mile dirt oval during Saturday night’s penultimate round of USAC Indiana Midget Week.
After winning May’s series season opener at the Belleville (Kan.) Short Track, the Oklahoma City, Okla. racer endured a streak of six straight finishes outside the top-10, a cold snap that lasted well past the halfway mark of IMW.
After Timms’ Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports teammate Buddy Kofoid won twice, and also finished second and fourth during the first four rounds of IMW, Kofoid exited the stage prior to the weekend due to sprint car racing obligations.
At Bloomington, the executive decision was made to plug Timms in the cockpit of the car Kofoid had driven to success. Following a sixth-place finish at Bloomington, Timms was finally back on an upswing which culminated with his victory at Lawrenceburg.
In what amounted to his first visit of any kind to Lawrenceburg, Timms was superb, leading 28 of the 30-lap distance aboard his JBL Audio – TRD – Mobil 1/Bullet By Spike/Speedway Toyota, a night which also involved having to keep at bay the high point man for Indiana Midget Week to date, Logan Seavey, throughout the rigorous latter stages.
“I’ve always thought this place was the coolest place ever, so to win here is awesome,” Timms explained. “That was definitely one of the most fun times I’ve had in a midget. I’m really glad we could get this deal in victory lane.”
Timms’ Lawrenceburg score was the fourth of his USAC National Midget career and made him the third consecutive KKM driver to win an IMW main event this week following Kofoid on Thursday at Lincoln Park Speedway and Gavin Miller on Friday at Bloomington.
Rolling off fourth on the grid, Timms was a challenger right from the very start. By turn two of the opening lap, he had already found himself as the meat in a sandwich featuring pole sitter Jake Andreotti and outside front row starter Taylor Reimer.
Andreotti, also turning his first laps at Lawrenceburg on this night, led at the stripe during the completion of lap one. Nonetheless, Timms quickly altered that fact with an undercut of Andreotti in turn two at the exit on lap two to assume the position.
Akin to how most everything unfolds at Lawrenceburg, things can happen in a hurry, and Andreotti wasted no time in reclaiming his throne on lap three with an outside turn two pass of Timms to put himself back up front. Thereafter, Timms used roughly the next 14 seconds to regroup and recharge for his next moment, which involved driving deep into turn three under Andreotti to position himself back into the top spot.
Relentless tenacity was the name of the game as Timms finally disposed of Andreotti to lead the fourth lap, but soon had to contend with Logan Seavey, a past USAC Indiana Midget Week feature winner at Lawrenceburg in 2021, who entered the night as perhaps the hottest driver on the tour, having finished each of his past three feature starts inside the top-three.
When Seavey cleared Andreotti for second on lap nine, he quickly zeroed in on Timms and found himself right on his tailfeathers. On laps 14, 15 and 17, Seavey made attempt after attempt to surpass Timms, but each time, Timms had an ample and precise response by running it down off the high banks to jet back out in front of Timms.
Traffic loomed on the 18th lap for the frontrunners, but that obstacle was soon avoided when ninth-running Chelby Hinton slapped the wall between turns three and four, flattening his right rear tire. Thus, the field was bunched up and restationed going back to green just shy of having two-thirds of the race in the books.
Soon thereafter, early race leader and third-running Andreotti tagged the turn two wall on the 23rd lap, flattening his right rear rubber and relegating him to an 18th-place finish.
The fastest way around Lawrenceburg is right up against the outside wall, and Timms and Seavey spared no quarter when it came to using all the space available to them as they traversed around the southeastern Indiana battleground with Seavey continuously stalking Timms’ tracks the entire time.
On the restart with seven laps remaining, Timms demonstrated that fact by ricocheting off the turn four wall with his right rear tire. Without missing a beat, Timms gained more than a couple car lengths on Seavey, a most important factor down the stretch when you consider that Seavey was just out of range and was never able to properly make a play at Timms for the race lead and the win.
“I knew he was going to be fast from the moment we went green,” Timms said of Seavey. “I just had to be consistent and make as few mistakes as possible and I knew we could get it done. I definitely made a lot of mistakes and about made one that cost us the race in (turns) three and four.”
However, the razor’s edge cut in a pattern that favored Timms who thwarted Seavey’s repeated challenges and was able to distance himself from Seavey a bit more in the end to the tune of a 1.165-second margin at the finish line, winning over Seavey, Jade Avedisian, Bryant Wiedeman and Justin Grant.
Logan Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) solidified his position at the top of the USAC Indiana Midget Week standings with his runner-up result in his Abacus Racing/Indy Custom Stone – CG CPAs – Dozer’z Nut’z & Bolt’z/Spike/Stanton SR-11x.
Jade Avedisian’s best run of Indiana Midget Week came via a third-place result at Lawrenceburg in her Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Mobil 1 – TRD – JBL Audio/Bullet By Spike/Speedway Toyota.
The Boxscore
USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, Lawrenceburg Speedway, Lawrenceburg, Indiana, June 10, 2023
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 2, RMS-14.762; 2. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-14.782; 3. Jade Avedisian, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.899; 4. Ryan Timms, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.966; 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 23, Mounce/Stout-14.971; 6. Bryant Wiedeman, 81, CBI-15.062; 7. Taylor Reimer, 25K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-15.094; 8. Jake Andreotti, 25m, Malloy-15.115; 9. Jacob Denney, 25, Malloy-15.150; 10. Cannon McIntosh, 08, Dave Mac Dalby-15.157; 11. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, RMS-15.175; 12. Daison Pursley, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-15.189; 13. Chelby Hinton, 4, Klatt-15.217; 14. Chance Crum, 26, Rudeen-15.240; 15. Emerson Axsom, 19A, Petry/Hayward-15.240; 16. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-15.260; 17. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-15.263; 18. Daniel Whitley, 58, Abacus-15.357; 19. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-15.362; 20. Chase Johnson, 31B, Beilman-15.420; 21. Chase McDermand, 40, Mounce/Stout-15.449; 22. Jesse Love, 84, CBI-15.723; 23. Steve Buckwalter, 25B, Buckwalter-15.731; 24. Kyle Beilman, 31, Beilman-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Chelby Hinton, 2. Gavin Miller, 3. Cannon McIntosh, 4. Taylor Reimer, 5. Ryan Timms, 6. Justin Grant, 7. Jesse Love, 8. Hayden Reinbold. 2:01.70
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND: HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. Jake Andreotti, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Chance Crum, 5. Ethan Mitchell, 6. Chase Johnson, 7. Steve Buckwalter, 8. Thomas Meseraull. 2:04.69
T.J. FORGED / CAR IQ THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Jade Avedisian, 2. Jacob Denney, 3. Emerson Axsom, 4. Daison Pursley, 5. Chase McDermand, 6. Bryant Wiedeman, 7. Kyle Beilman, 8. Daniel Whitley. 2:05.08
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Ryan Timms (4), 2. Logan Seavey (6), 3. Jade Avedisian (5), 4. Bryant Wiedeman (9), 5. Justin Grant (8), 6. Daison Pursley (12), 7. Cannon McIntosh (11), 8. Jacob Denney (10), 9. Taylor Reimer (2), 10. Kevin Thomas Jr. (3), 11. Emerson Axsom (14), 12. Jesse Love (21), 13. Chase Johnson (19), 14. Gavin Miller (15), 15. Chase McDermand (20), 16. Hayden Reinbold (18), 17. Chance Crum (13), 18. Jake Andreotti (1), 19. Ethan Mitchell (16), 20. Kyle Beilman (23), 21. Daniel Whitley (17), 22. Chelby Hinton (7), 23. Steve Buckwalter (22), 24. Thomas Meseraull (24).