Ryan Timms Sweeps First Nights Of USAC Firemen's Nationals At Angell Park
Ryan Timms Sweeps First Nights Of USAC Firemen's Nationals At Angell Park
Ryan Timms set quick time, won his heat and won the feature from sixth for a perfect Sunday evening at the USAC Firemen's Nationals at Angell Park Speedway.
It’d been more than a year since a driver last performed a complete sweep from start to finish throughout a USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship event.
Meanwhile, it had been just a tick under a year since the last time a team recorded a complete podium sweep of the top-three finishing positions during a USAC National Midget feature race.
In both cases, the team and car number leading the field across the finish line first was the very same – the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports No. 67.
On Sunday, during the opening night of the 38th running of the Firemen’s Nationals at Sun Prairie, Wisconsin’s Angell Park Speedway, the picture-perfect driver was Ryan Timms.
The Oklahoma City, Okla. native chased down 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 in his Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/JBL Audio – TRD – Mobil 1/Lynk/Speedway Toyota.
For Timms, it was his fifth career USAC National Midget feature triumph, which moved him to 119th on the all-time list alongside Spencer Bayston, Mike Bliss, Lonnie Caruthers, Larry Dickson, Mike Fedorcak, Burt Foland, Mack McClellan, Danny McKnight, Cliff Spalding, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Jerry Weeks.
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 1/3-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 with Kofoid leading the field to victory with then teammates Kaylee Bryson and Brenham Crouch in tow.
USAC Midgets Firemen's Nationals Sunday Highlights
Winning Quote From Ryan Timms
“I was catching Gavin before that last restart, 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.”
USAC Midgets at Angell Park Speedway Results
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)
USAC National Midget Point Standings
Logan Seavey has a big points lead over Justin Grant in the USAC Midget Nationals Points. Ryan Timms is third, Bryant Wiedeman is fourth and Jade Avedisian is fifth.
Full USAC National Midgets Points Standings
Last Race: August 19 - USAC Midgets at Macon