Lonnie Wheatley, MEEKER, Okla. (July 12, 2022) – Ryan Timms defended his Sooner State turf by racing to USAC National Midget victory lane in the fifth edition of “Tuesday Night Thunder” atop the ¼-mile Red Dirt Raceway clay oval.
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.
Zach Daum raced from 14th to sixth with 17th-starter Jerry Coons, Jr., 19th-starter Anton Hernandez, Mitchel Moles and Jacob Denney completing the top ten.
Taylor Reimer kicked off the evening by earning her third quick time of the year with a lap of 13.522 seconds in qualifying with Hayden Reinbold, Cade Lewis and Ethan Mitchell topping heat race action before Wiedeman won the “B” Main.
USAC Midgets
Red Dirt Raceway – Meeker, Okla.
Tuesday, July 12, 2022
USAC Midgets:
FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Taylor Reimer, 25K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.522; 2. Brenham Crouch, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.555; 3. Ryan Timms, 97K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.571; 4. Logan Seavey, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-13.588; 5. Kaylee Bryson, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.593; 6. Justin Grant, 2J, RMS-13.624; 7. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, RMS-13.627; 8. Mitchel Moles, 89, CBI-13.639; 9. Bryant Wiedeman, 01, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.642; 10. Jonathan Beason, 8J, Hard Eight-13.645; 11. Zach Daum, 9m, Bundy Built-13.672; 12. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-13.684; 13. Jacob Denney, 61, Mounce/Stout-13.704; 14. Cannon McIntosh, 08, Dave Mac-13.706; 15. Jerry Coons Jr., 85, Central-13.711; 16. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-13.755; 17. Cade Lewis, 71m, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.774; 18. Kyle Jones, 7u, Trifecta-13.789; 19. Buddy Kofoid, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.793; 20. Chase McDermand, 40, Mounce/Stout-13.822; 21. Anton Hernandez, 00, Chandler-13.830; 22. Mason Daugherty, 17, Shophouse-14.038; 23. Trey Gropp, 08x, Dave Mac-14.114; 24. Matt Sherrell, 7R, Ramco-14.459; 25. Corey Joyner, 52J, Joyner-14.466; 26. Trey Marcham, 7m, Ramco-14.734; 27. Shaun Shapel, 84s, Shapel-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Hayden Reinbold, 2. Jacob Denney, 3. Thomas Meseraull, 4. Jonathan Beason, 5. Taylor Reimer, 6. Buddy Kofoid, 7. Logan Seavey, 8. Mason Daugherty, 9. Corey Joyner. 1:53.91
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Cade Lewis, 2. Cannon McIntosh, 3. Zach Daum, 4. Brenham Crouch, 5. Kaylee Bryson, 6. Chase McDermand, 7. Mitchel Moles, 8. Trey Gropp, 9. Trey Marcham. 1:54.19
PIT STOP USA/ROD END SUPPLY THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Ethan Mitchell, 2. Jerry Coons Jr., 3. Justin Grant, 4. Ryan Timms, 5. Matt Sherrell, 6. Bryant Wiedeman, 7. Anton Hernandez, 8. Shaun Shapel. 1:55.68
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI-FEATURE: (10 laps, top-7 transfer to the feature) 1. Bryant Wiedeman, 2. Buddy Kofoid, 3. Chase McDermand, 4. Anton Hernandez, 5. Mitchel Moles, 6. Logan Seavey, 7. Trey Gropp, 8. Trey Marcham, 9. Corey Joyner, 10. Mason Daugherty. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Ryan Timms (4), 2. Justin Grant (2), 3. Thomas Meseraull (1), 4. Brenham Crouch (5), 5. Buddy Kofoid (18), 6. Zach Daum (14), 7. Jerry Coons Jr. (17), 8. Anton Hernandez (19), 9. Mitchel Moles (11), 10. Jacob Denney (15), 11. Taylor Reimer (6), 12. Chase McDermand (21), 13. Cannon McIntosh (16), 14. Logan Seavey (10), 15. Trey Gropp (22), 16. Bryant Wiedeman (12), 17. Kaylee Bryson (3), 18. Matt Sherrell (20), 19. Hayden Reinbold (8), 20. Cade Lewis (9), 21. Jonathan Beason (13), 22. Ethan Mitchell (7). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-12 Thomas Meseraull, Laps 13-30 Ryan Timms.