PETERSEN MEDIA: The grueling opening two weeks in August is now a thing of the past with the running of the Knoxville 360 Nationals and the Knoxville Nationals. When it was all said and done, Ryan Timms scored a fifth-place finish during the 360 Nationals finale before a ‘B’ Main showing during his rookie attempt at the Knoxville Nationals.
“It was a super busy stretch for us with both the 360 and 410 Nationals, the Front Row Challenge and a pair of High Limit Races pieced in there as well,” Ryan Timms said. “I was really happy with how things went at Knoxville for the most part. Finishing 5th at the 360 Nationals was my best finish ever at Knoxville, and after a tough 410 Nationals prelim we had a good Hard Knox night that put us in the Saturday ‘B’.”
Following some misfortune at Kokomo Speedway with the High Limit Series to kick the busy stretch off, Timms was set to check in at Knoxville Raceway for a couple of big weeks of racing.
Opening his 360 Nationals up by timing the CITGO/Hampel Oil/Mystic Lubricants backed No. 5T in third quickest in time trials, Timms lined up in the third row of his heat race.
Needing to move forward to continue to add to his 360 Nationals point total, the Oklahoma City, OK native did just that as he powered his way to a third-place finish.
Moving into his preliminary night feature event, Timms rolled off the starting grid from the outside of the third row. In an extremely fast paced feature event, Timms did lose a few spots early in the ‘A’ but did keep his mount inside the Top-10.
Finishing 10th in the feature, Timms ultimately locked himself into the Saturday night 360 Nationals feature as he lined up in the third row for the 30-lap finale.
Running strong inside the Top-10 when the feature came to life, Timms patiently worked his way around the famed ½ mile. Running in seventh during the opening portions of the race, Timms did slip back eighth briefly at the halfway point.
Racing back into seventh, Timms came on during the closing laps of the race. Moving into sixth with two to go, Timms then was able to take the fifth spot on a green-white-checkered restart and record his best finish to date at Knoxville Raceway.
With the Capitani Classic raining out, Timms headed to Oskaloosa, IA for the Front Row Challenge where he was riddled with bad luck all night. At the start of his heat, cars wrecked in front of him and left him with a damaged front end. Unable to restart the heat, Timms headed to the ‘B’ where he had issues hinder him with just one lap to go, as he was forced to pull into the pit area while leading, which brought his night to a close.
Turning his attention back to his first attempt at the Knoxville Nationals, Timms admittedly had a tough go during his prelim as he timed in timed in 24th fastest and ultimately finished 12th in the ‘B’.
Returning to the track on Friday night for ‘Hard Knox’ night, and another opportunity to set himself up for Saturday, Timms took full advantage as he got off to a quick start and timed in third fastest in his qualifying group.
Going from fourth to second in his heat race, Timms moved into the Hard Knox ‘A’ where he lined up fifth and was in a great spot to chase after one of four lock in positions into the Saturday night Knoxville Nationals feature.
Jumping into fourth on the race’s opening lap, tight knit racing then saw Timms briefly fall back to eighth officially of n the fourth lap, but then was able to clear some of his competitors and settle into sixth.
Continuing to run in sixth as laps quickly clicked off, the track changed and many drivers started to try new lines as each spot was critical to Saturday night positioning.
Slipping back to eighth with five to go, Timms maintained, and his eighth-place finish put him 14th in the Saturday night semi.
In a very star studded ‘B’ Main at the Knoxville Nationals, Timms was able to move forward. Racing against some of the best drivers in the country as they all chased after four more positions into the biggest race in the world, Timms was able to work his way toward the Top-10. When the checkered flew on the ‘B’, Timms capped his rookie attempt at the Nationals off with an 11th place finish in the ‘B’.
Fresh off the Knoxville Nationals, Timms and company were right back to work on Tuesday night as they bookended the stint with another High Limits event as the upstart series checked in at Huset’s Speedway.
Timing in second fastest in his qualifying flight, Timms raced to a heat race win and locked into the Dash. A tough draw put the 16-year-old in the fourth row of the eight-lap shootout and his seventh place finish put him in the fourth row of the feature event.
A rough start to the feature saw a couple of accidents slow the action. Unfortunately for Timms, he was collected in the second one and went to the work area with damage.
Making repairs and returning to the field, what started out as a night with so much promise got worse for Timms in a matter of laps as he caught a rut and flipped hard into the fence and brought his night to an end.
“We definitely had some things to be proud of,” Timms said. “The progress we made at Knoxville this year was huge. To run fifth at the 360 Nationals was great, and to do some good things at the 410 Nationals speed wise, goes a long way. It’s been a year with a lot of bad luck, but my team sticks with it, and we will keep giving it our all.”
Ryan Timms would like to thank CITGO, Hampel Oil, Mystic Lubricants, Premier Truck Group, Western Flyer Xpress (WFX), IWX Motor Freight, K1, Durst Inc., Bell Helmets, Griffin Fishing Charters and Lodge, Xpress Truck Sales, Smith Ti, Blackbeard, AFD Graphix, Outlaw Wings, 947-Eyes, Kahne Screen Printing, ShopTeam5T.Com, TJ Forged, WFX Logistics, Select Coatings, Smiley’s Racing Products, WFX Energy Services, and EMI for their support.
BY THE NUMBERS: Races-73, Wins-5, Top 5’s-14, Top 10’s-25
ON TAP: Timms now shifts gears and gets back into midget racing with the Keith Kunz Motorsports team. Timms and KKM will be with USAC on Friday night at Wayne County Speedway and on Saturday at Macon Speedway.
STAY CONNECTED: Stay updated with Ryan Timms by ‘Liking’ him on facebook at www.facebook.com/ryantimmsracing or by following him on Twitter at both @Timms5T and @RyanTimms_5T.
For all of your Ryan Timms Merchandise, please visit www.shopteam5t.com.
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- administrator on Aug 17, 2023
- Article Date: 8/17/2023 by PJ Petersen | Petersen Media