Asking fans to consider the most versatile racer in America and Kyle Larson would be among the first names uttered.
There is little question Larson do it all, but few can match the diversity of Douglassville, Pa., driver Timmy Buckwalter. When he ponders his 2024 plans, he said, “Well, I am going to race a SpeedSTR and a micro on Wednesday’s, a modified at Grandview on Saturday night and I plan to do 15 non-winged and 15 winged sprint car races, too.”
The one thing Buckwalter left off his list was midget racing. Buckwalter, who among many honors was the 2012 ARDC midget champion, is delighted to return to the Chili Bowl with Matt Seymour racing.
“It is always fun to get back into a midget,” he said. “They are one of my favorite cars to drive. I like the power to weight ratio and how they act on the track. I have the most fun doing this so anytime I get the chance to race a midget I jump in and do it.”
Life is easier when you have a talented team behind you and that alone gives him the confidence that he can make noise indoors at Tulsa.
“This is a great group,” he said. “Matt and Bobby Seymour put the best of the best together. They put their heart and soul into this. It is just a big group effort here because they are asphalt guys and they come here once a year to play in the dirt. I am happy to be a small part of it and go on the journey with them.”
Even with their recent success at the Chili Bowl the mere presence of this team at Tulsa still causes some to do a double take. The history is there.
Building on the shoulders of the Hall of Fame patriarch the late “Boston” Louie Seymour, this squad has a list of accomplishments that fills several pages of copy. Consider this. Just last May team driver (and Chili Bowl crew member) youthful Jake Trainor took the prestigious Little 500 at Anderson Speedway in just his second sprint car race. That came on the heels of waxing a star-studded field at Indianapolis Raceway Park in a midget.
However, as Buckwalter suggests, for the most part, dirt is a foreign substance to this group. Or is it? There is no denying that the bulk of this team’s success has come on the pavement. On the midget side of the ledger, they are regular competitors with the Northeastern Midget Ass’n, a club that races exclusively on the hardtop.
This is where having a veteran like Buckwalter on board is important. Buckwalter owns TSL shocks, and he oversees that aspect of the program for this long week. Bob Seymour appreciates what he brings to the table.
“We hired Tim as a driver five years ago and he really does it all for our team,” Bob Seymour said. “He is a shock guru, and he helps Matt on the set up. He is also in charge of entertainment and keeps us laughing. He just a hell of a driver on all of the short tracks in the east and he has a ride with us as long as he wants it.”
Given that they have the right people and resources at their disposal it is no surprise the team has figured things out on dirt.
“When I started with Matt five or six years ago our expectations weren’t that high because we were new to the Chili Bowl, and they were new to the dirt,” Buckwalter acknowledged. “But now I have made it into the race the last two years and after last night Hank (Davis) has also made it two years in a row. Now the expectations are higher. I don’t want to say we are on a cloud, but what they know, and what they have has been proven. Now they expect to see results.”
If there are drivers who are considered sleepers at the Chili Bowl this entire team may fall into that category as well.
Buckwalter has enough laps under his belt at the Chili Bowl to have a read on the best way to approach this unique race.
“You just try to keep your composure on your night,” he said. “Anything can go wrong at any time super-fast in this building. When you roll down that ramp all cards are off for everybody. You have to be alert, you have to know how to hold speed, and put yourself in the right position. If you end up on the tow truck your whole week is done. It is about trying to put yourself in the right spot at the right time and not trying to do too much.”
It is a big event so Buckwalter knows it is easy to get too keyed up.
“Sometimes you are a little nervous,” he noted. “But when you are with a good group of guys like this you know the car is there. You just have to keep your head right because nerves are nerves. You can’t fight them, and you can’t stop them either, so you just have to put them in the back of your mind. In the end, you just have to go out and do the best you can.”