The creator of the legendary comic strip “Peanuts,” Charles Schulz once remarked “In all this world there is no greater burden than great potential.”
While it is unlikely that 16-year-old Ryan Timms has pondered the dilemmas faced by Schulz’s beloved character Charlie Brown it is entirely possible that he appreciates the sentiment this fictional character expressed.
Timms has offered the open-wheel racing world a glimpse at how high his ceiling may be. Yet, to expect breathtaking performances each night is to demand a level of excellence that few his senior could ever match. Despite all the attention that greeted his first appearances with the World of Outlaws, Timms has handled this fanfare with an impressive level of maturity.
His father, Randy Timms, built a successful trucking business, Western Flyer Xpress, but he also had a racing habit. Starting in street stocks at State Fair Speedway in Oklahoma City, he progressed to modifieds and late models. Timms traveled with groups like the United States Modified Touring Series and knew how to find victory lane.
While he wasn’t quite prepared to give up the wheel just yet, he carved out some time to introduce his young son to the sport. He purchased a Jr. Sprint that had rolled into the winner’s circle at the prestigious Tulsa Shootout and handed it over to his 7-year-old.
“We got him going,” Randy Timms said, “but he just didn’t take to it. I just wasn’t going to do it if he wasn’t going to get up to speed which might have been a little unfair to him.”
Perhaps it seems harsh, but Ryan Timms largely agrees. “I just wasn’t having fun,” he recalled. “I was always at the back and getting lapped.”
Randy Timms shoved the car into a corner of the shop where it was largely forgotten. Eventually, he sold the car for exactly what he paid for it. Then something predictable happened.
“That very week,” Randy Timms explained, “Ryan asked me if we were ever going to race again. He didn’t even know I had sold the car.”
The Timms family bought another car, but an additional development also played a role in Ryan Timms’ racing development.
It turned out he needed glasses. No one can say for certain how important this was, but the bottom line is things began to click. In 2018, he nailed down a win at the Tulsa Shootout and it was a clear turning point.
“That’s when I got serious and began to think that maybe I can do something with this,” Ryan Timms said.
All parents desperately want to believe their children are above average in something, and deception can be rife. In this case Randy Timms was a racer, and he was in a far better position to assess his son’s skill level than parents with little experience.
“It was pretty surprising to me,” he said. “You just saw him do little things and he was just so instinctual.”
The other factor that made a dramatic difference was bringing Billy Lawhead into the fold. No one could have been better positioned to shepherd the career of a young driver. The Tulsa native had raced for years, but in time he devoted the bulk of his efforts to helping the budding career of Christopher Bell.
While with Bell, Lawhead had moved to Oklahoma City mand with this new change in direction he returned to Tulsa and accepted a job with Sawyer Chassis.
Then an odd thing happened. Mike Morrison had worked for Western Flyer Express for years and was a Timms family friend. He knew Billy Lawhead and offered the suggestion that this might be the guy to help Ryan. Rarely does a perfect solution to a problem land squarely in your lap, but luckily this time it did. Lawhead agreed to lend a hand.
For the first 18 months of the arrangement Lawhead remained in Tulsa. It was easy enough to manage given Timms’ level of activity at that time. However, as things got more serious, Lawhead moved to Oklahoma City. Despite his youth, Timms understood that this was a real commitment.