FAIRBURY, Neb. — Ryan Timms had found himself teetering on the brink of a USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship feature victory at Jefferson County Speedway for several years and finally got the job done on Saturday night.
After previous finishes of second, second, third and fourth at the fifth-mile track, Timms captured the finale of USAC Mid-America Midget Week.
The third-starting Timms pounced to the lead 15 circuits into the 40-lap main event as he seized an opportunity in lapped traffic to surpass his teammate Jade Avedisian, then was never headed throughout the remaining 26 trips en route to a $10,000 payday.
Timms’ second USAC victory of the year in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/JBL Audio – IWX – Mobil 1/LynK/Speedway Toyota was also the seventh of his career.
Gavin Miller, who won the accompanying micro sprint feature prior to the midget main event, led the field to the green from his pole starting position.
However, it was Avedisian who gained the upper hand initially from the outside of the front row, and subsequently, led the opening lap. However, the first yellow flag flew shortly thereafter on the second lap as Nebraskan Brian Schwabauer (23rd) stopped on the wrong side of the cushion in turns three and four.
On the ensuing restart, Timms used the reset to his advantage as he took to the topside to wheel his way around the outside of Miller for second at the stripe on lap three.
Miller fought back to briefly retake the runner-up spot from Timms as he slid by in turn two on the fifth lap. Timms, however, kept his foot in it and replied by re-overtaking Miller for second in turn two a lap later.
By then, Avedisian carried a full second advantage over Timms, but by the time she reached the tail end of the field, that interval instantly shrunk. On the 14th lap, Avedisian found herself hung up on the high side of turn four behind the car of Don Droud Jr.
Timms took advantage of the situation and dove to the low side of turn one to slot in between Droud and Avedisian.
Avedisian attempted to swipe the lead back for herself moments later in turn three, nestling in between Droud and Timms. With Avedisian sliding up to the top, thus scrubbing off momentum, Timms dipped low and drove past both at the exit of turn four to secure a spot at the front of the field.
A half lap later in turn one, Droud’s car took one quick little bunny hop, and a blink of an eye later, Avedisian connected her front bumper to the rear chrome of Droud, sending Droud spinning into the path of Miller and Friday night’s Jefferson County winner Justin Grant.
Thereafter, Avedisian kept Timms just within here reach. Nonetheless, slowly but surely, Timms steadily increased his lead to more than 1.5 seconds as he placed his car low, middle and high, all with the same rate of success.
“Being able to move around here is really important,” Timms explained. “The line changed quite a bit. There at the beginning, it was top-dominant, and once we got to lapped traffic and my car was good enough, I was able to move around and we moved past Jade. From there on, it was just about racing my own race and getting through lapped traffic as perfectly as possible.”
As it turned out, it was the lessons that Timms learned in his past experiences at the track that aided him in not following the path of others, but rather, forging his own path ahead based on his instincts.
“(Logan) Seavey showed me his nose down there once, and a couple years ago, he did the same thing. I moved down there, and it ended up not being faster to do that, so I moved down there for a lap, then thought better of that, then went back to what I was doing. I changed my line up in three and four to slide myself and it felt really good coming off the corner and getting into the corner, but the time between the center and the exit, it felt like I was sliding and wasting a lot of time. You can get the car so sideways here that you can actually look to your left and see the entrance of the corner to see how close guys are to you. I saw that I wasn’t having to worry too much.”
However, the field was bunched up once more following a spin by 20th running Kenney Johnson over the top of turn four banking with 14 laps remaining.
With 12 laps left, the top-three were all in contention with Timms leading Avedisian by a car length on the high side while Seavey was nearly even on the bottom. However, Seavey clipped an infield tire off turn four which sent him sideways, and as he fought to wrestle back control, he dropped like a rock through the field, winding up 16th.
Meanwhile, Zach Daum worked along the bottom to gain second with four laps remaining after Avedisian tagged the front straightaway wall, which cost Avedisian a few spots down the stretch.
Conversely, Timms had broken away from the competition up front as he cruised to a commanding 2.109-second victory over Daum, Cannon McIntosh and Jacob Denney, while Avedisian wound up fifth.
After tumultuous times leading into the week, Daum unexpectedly wound up bringing his own car out to the Great Plains with basically a crew of one – himself.
“It wears on you,” Daum said. “I didn’t practice Thursday because I just needed a day to recoup. It’s a lot of work. Some of these guys know what it takes, and some don’t, but it’s a lot of hours and a lot of work, especially when it’s as hot as it is here. It’s been fun though. I haven’t done this in a long time. I haven’t been out on the road racing by myself. It used to be my dad and I racing, but it’s basically just me right now. I had some good guys who came and helped me tonight and had some good help at a couple of the other races.”
In 10 career USAC National Midget starts at Jefferson County, McIntosh has never once finished worse than 10th.
“I knew there was a lot of grip on the bottom, so I tried to make that work early but guys could just carry momentum around me,” McIntosh explained. “By the time I got up there, I had fallen back a little bit. Then on that last restart, I could see Daison (Pursley) searching under yellow, and I knew he was going to go to the bottom, so I tried to circle the top there and go around him and lost like three or four spots, then Zach (Daum) went under me, so I just followed him to the front at the end. I just got the bottom going and drove by all the guys who were still trying to make the top work. I wish we could’ve gotten a yellow there to see what we could’ve done. I think him and I had something for Ryan.”
The event also marked the USAC debut of late model racing superstar Ricky Thornton Jr. After the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series event at Wheatland, Missouri’s Lucas Oil Speedway was rained out midday Saturday, Thornton made the five-hour trek to Fairbury to compete in just the micro sprint race.
Soon after, though, Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports made an extra midget from their stable available for Thornton, a 19-time late model winner this year, to drive.
Thornton, whose lone previous midget experience was exclusive to the Chili Bowl, started 20th and finished 17th in the feature, and was running as high as 13th just before the halfway point when he was involved in a tangle with Daniel Whitley.
USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship, Jefferson County Speedway, Fairbury, Neb., July 13, 2024
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Jerry Coons Jr. (#85 Central), 2. Justin Grant (#2 RMS), 3. Zach Daum (#5d RAMCO-Daum), 4. Ryan Timms (#67 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 5. Ricky Lewis (#54 4 Kings), 6. Kale Drake (#97K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 7. Zack Merritt (#43 Oerter), 8. Don Droud Jr. (#22T Burch). NT
ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Daison Pursley (#86 CBI), 2. Thomas Meseraull (#7x Engler), 3. Jake Andreotti (#14 4 Kings), 4. Jacob Denney (#25 Malloy), 5. Jade Avedisian (#71 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 6. Cannon McIntosh (#71K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 7. Lance Bennett (#91 Mason), 8. Kenney Johnson (#46 Johnson), 9. Curtis Spicer (#4s Spicer). 1:56.751
T.J. FORGED / CAR IQ THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Kyle Jones (#27x Joyner), 2. Zach Wigal (#89 CBI), 3. Gavin Miller (#97 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 4. Logan Seavey (#57 Abacus), 5. Mitchell Davis (#56 O’Dell), 6. Daniel Whitley (#60x LeVecque), 7. Trey Zorn (#00 Chandler), 8. Brian Schwabauer (#9B Schwabauer), 9. Ricky Thornton Jr. (#67K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian). 1:59.546
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (10 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Trey Zorn, 2. Ricky Thornton Jr., 3. Don Droud Jr., 4. Brian Schwabauer, 5. Kenney Johnson, 6. Curtis Spicer, 7. Zack Merritt, 8. Lance Bennett. 2:07.268
FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Ryan Timms (3), 2. Zach Daum (13), 3. Cannon McIntosh (5), 4. Jacob Denney (14), 5. Jade Avedisian (2), 6. Daison Pursley (9), 7. Kale Drake (10), 8. Jerry Coons Jr. (7), 9. Kyle Jones (8), 10. Justin Grant (6), 11. Gavin Miller (1), 12. Mitchell Davis (12), 13. Zach Wigal (15), 14. Jake Andreotti (11), 15. Trey Zorn (19), 16. Logan Seavey (4), 17. Ricky Thornton Jr. (20), 18. Don Droud Jr. (21), 19. Brian Schwabauer (22), 20. Curtis Spicer (24), 21. Daniel Whitley (18), 22. Kenney Johnson (23), 23. Thomas Meseraull (16), 24. Ricky Lewis (17).