SUN PRAIRIE, Wis. — During Sunday’s opening night of the 38th running of the Firemen’s Nationals at Angell Park Speedway, Ryan Timms was picture perfect.
The Oklahoma City, Okla., native chased down Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports teammate Gavin Miller, then waged a duel that consisted of slider after slider until Timms ultimately emerged ahead for good with eight laps remaining to earn his third series victory of the year.
For Timms, it was his fifth career USAC National Midget feature triumph.
Timms was superb from the start on Sunday night, earning his first career USAC Honest Abe Roofing fast qualifying time before capturing a heat race win from the sixth starting position, then again went sixth to first in the feature. His “sweep” of the event was the first such instance since Buddy Kofoid did the same in June of 2022 at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Ill.
Following Timms across the line at Angell Park’s third-mile dirt oval were KKM teammates Gavin Miller and Jade Avedisian. The most recent occurrence in series history of the top-three finishers all hailing from the same team came in September of 2022 when KKM took the top-three spots at Gas City I-69 Speedway.
Sunday night, it was Miller getting the initial jump on the field from the pole position, building an early full two second lead during the first 12 laps.
However, in that same timeframe, Timms had picked his way through the field from sixth to second in a hurry past a collection of talent including Logan Seavey, Jade Avedisian, Bryant Wiedeman and Justin Grant.
Timms immediately began to chop Miller’s wide margin of a lead from two seconds to a half second by lap 19 when Wiedeman, running seventh at the time, slowed to a stop between turns three and four. Under yellow, ninth running Chase McDermand, the three-time Badger Midget champ who was making his debut with Bundy Built Motorsports, pulled in with mechanical trouble.
The restart meant “go-time” for Timms as he immediately aimed for the bottom of turn one to execute a slide job for the lead on Miller, pulling it off successfully to lead lap 20.
Miller dug in and fought back, slide-jobbing Timms four consecutive times on both ends of the racetrack, coming up inches short of the lead on lap 21 before retaking over the lead briefly by inches at the stripe on lap 22.
As soon as Timms fell to second in the running order, he dropped the hammer, so to speak, and went back to the well, sliding across the nose of Miller in turn one on the 23rd circuit, then successfully fended off a return shot by Miller as he slid himself into turn three, thus preventing a slider from Miller and began to steadily break away from the field with seven laps to go.
“I was catching Gavin before that last restart,” Timms recalled. “I knew that if I could get a good enough restart, I could just bomb him going into one, and that’s what I did but it almost didn’t work out. He kept getting underneath me and I didn’t know whether to slide myself again and I didn’t really know what to do there. After about two or three crossovers, I just started sliding myself. Then I made a couple mistakes there at the end, but I chilled myself out and managed to bring it home.”
At the finish line, Timms was 0.932 seconds ahead of Miller who finished second. Avedisian made a late move to grab third away from Logan Seavey who finished fourth.
USAC NOS Energy Midget National Championship, Angell Park Speedway, Sun Prairie, Wis., Sept. 3, 2023
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Ryan Timms, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.366; 2. Daniel Whitley, 58, Abacus-14.480; 3. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-14.495; 4. Bryant Wiedeman, 81, CBI-14.522; 5. Justin Grant, 2, RMS-14.559; 6. Zach Daum, 7u, Trifecta-14.578; 7. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.601; 8. Jade Avedisian, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.657; 9. Taylor Reimer, 25K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-14.665; 10. Cannon McIntosh, 08, Dave Mac Dalby-14.727; 11. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, RMS-14.757; 12. Chase McDermand, 19m, Bundy Built-14.819; 13. Tyler Baran, 11T, Baran-14.829; 14. Kyle Beilman, 31B, Beilman-14.841; 15. Emerson Axsom, 19A, Petry/Hayward-14.857; 16. Jake Andreotti, 25, Malloy-14.861; 17. Daniel Robinson, 57A, RAB-14.993; 18. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-15.018; 19. Dekota Gay, 81A, Gay-15.292; 20. Bryan Stanfill, 75AU, Griffiths-15.338; 21. Nick Baran, 7E, Engstrom-15.630; 22. Zach Boden, 51, Boden-15.658; 23. Cameron Weishoff, 55, Weishoff-15.950; 24. Daison Pursley, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Ryan Timms, 2. Jake Andreotti, 3. Gavin Miller, 4. Cannon McIntosh, 5. Bryant Wiedeman, 6. Tyler Baran, 7. Zach Boden, 8. Dekota Gay. 2:01.97 (New Track Record)
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Jade Avedisian, 2. Justin Grant, 3. Thomas Meseraull, 4. Daniel Whitley, 5. Kyle Beilman, 6. Daniel Robinson, 7. Bryan Stanfill, 8. Cameron Weishoff. 2:03.66
T.J. FORGED/CAR IQ THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Chase McDermand, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Hayden Reinbold, 4. Taylor Reimer, 5. Daison Pursley, 6. Zach Daum, 7. Emerson Axsom. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Ryan Timms (6), 2. Gavin Miller (1), 3. Jade Avedisian (7), 4. Logan Seavey (4), 5. Daniel Whitley (5), 6. Justin Grant (2), 7. Taylor Reimer (10), 8. Cannon McIntosh (11), 9. Daison Pursley (23), 10. Zach Daum (9), 11. Thomas Meseraull (12), 12. Jake Andreotti (16), 13. Hayden Reinbold (18), 14. Emerson Axsom (15), 15. Bryant Wiedeman (3), 16. Daniel Robinson (17), 17. Dekota Gay (19), 18. Tyler Baran (13), 19. Kyle Beilman (14), 20. Zach Boden (21), 21. Cameron Weishoff (22), 22. Chase McDermand (8), 23. Bryan Stanfill (20).