MEEKER, Okla. — Ryan Timms defended his Sooner State turf by racing to USAC National Midget victory lane in the fifth edition of Tuesday Night Thunder at Red Dirt Raceway.
Piloting the Keith Kunz Motorsports Toyota-powered iBuyPower No. 97k midget, the 15-year-old from Oklahoma City muscled his way past Thomas Meseraull on the 13th round and the led the rest of the way in the 30-lapper to take the $4,000 winner’s share as he claimed his second career series victory.
“I knew the bottom was definitely going to be a lot better, so I got down there as quick as I could after starting outside,” Timms explained in victory lane. “I just waited on T-Mez to make a mistake and capitalized on it and went from there.”
While Timms gridded the feature field outside the second row, RMS teammates Meseraull and Justin Grant led the way to the green flag with Meseraull gunning into the early lead as Timms maneuvered his way to second on the opening round.
With an atypical low line the preferred way around the Red Dirt Raceway oval, Timms kept the pressure on and when Meseraull slipped off the bottom exiting turn four on the 13th circuit the young racer pounced on the opportunity to race into the lead.
From there, Timms was in control the rest of the way, withstanding a second and final caution with eight laps to go when Bryant Wiedeman spun to a stop in turn three.
While Timms cruised out front, Grant eschewed the preferred low line and relentlessly worked the upper portion of the racetrack before finally making up ground in the closing rounds to rally into the runner-up position after falling as far back as sixth by the time the final caution flew with just eight laps to go.
“It took me half the race to kind of get it cleaned off and shaped in right,” Grant commented. “We weren’t very good on the bottom, I’m never very good on the bottom. I just kept pounding away at it.”
Meseraull filled out the podium in third, explaining that, “I was probably the second-best car on the bottom and we’ll just take that.”
Brenham Crouch crossed the stripe fourth while current series points leader Buddy Kofoid earned Hard Charger honors by racing from 18th to round out the top five.
To see full results, turn to the next page.