At just 15 years, 3 months and 12 days old, Ryan Timms made history Thursday on night one of the Elk Grove Ford Hangtown 100 at California’s Placerville Speedway by becoming the youngest feature winner in the history of the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship. (Devin Mayo Photo) (Video Highlights from FloRacing.com)
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Placerville, California (November 18, 2021)………At just 15 years, 3 months and 12 days old, Ryan Timms made history Thursday on night one of the Elk Grove Ford Hangtown 100 at California’s Placerville Speedway by becoming the youngest feature winner in the history of the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship.
The Oklahoma City, Okla. native rewrote the record books just a mere five months after Corey Day’s triumph during Indiana Midget Week at Circle City Raceway, which he accomplished at 15 years, 6 months and 12 days old.
Although the victorious occasion marked Timms’ first career series win, his performance also produced a déjà vu moment that harkened back to the opening night of the most recent Hangtown 100 in 2019.
It was then and there two years ago that a Chad Boat-owned car started on the outside of the front row, took the lead at the drop of the green flag, and led all 30 laps en route to a first career USAC National Midget feature victory, that driver being Gio Scelzi.
One day shy of exactly two years later, a Chad Boat-owned car started on the outside of the front row, took the lead at the drop of the green flag, and led all 30 laps en route to a first career USAC National Midget feature victory, this time that driver being Ryan Timms.
In just his 12th career USAC National Midget feature start, Timms earned not only his first career win, but also his first career top-five finish after a previous best result of 6th in August’s BC39 at The Dirt Track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Full of potential, talent and poise, Timms’ has earned 16 total sprint car and midget victories this season, including his first with USAC that arrived sooner than he would’ve even thought.
“It’s just really unexpected,” Timms admitted. “I got a really good start and I figured if I could just keep my momentum up on the top, they wouldn’t have anything for me.”
Timms ran roughshod through the field, never wavering from the high line in a non-stop feature that went green to checkered in a mere six minutes and 7.97 seconds in his CB Industries/Western Flyer Express – DriveWFX.com – PristineAuction.com/Spike/Speedway Toyota.
By lap seven, Timms had constructed a full-straightaway lead and was already on the cusp of sailing through the tail end of the field. Shortly thereafter, fifth starting Cannon McIntosh slid his way into the third position in turn three past Justin Grant, then a half a lap later, made the same maneuver on the opposite end of the racetrack to streak by Zeb Wise for second.
With the combination of Timms’ fight through traffic and McIntosh now being in the clear and possessing a full head of steam, the naked eye could undoubtedly tell that Timms’ advantage was sheared in half from a full-straightaway to just a half.
Timms made his escape through the jungle of machinery, clearing Colby Copeland in turn four on lap 24 to put him a lap down, then promptly stretching his lead to a full straightaway without a bit of traffic in his view and only six laps remaining. McIntosh quickly disposed of Copeland as well and quickly carved into Timms’ lead in half once again, from a half-straightaway to a quarter-straightaway and closing.
With McIntosh now standing just a single car length back of Timms’ coming to the white flag, the sands were filling the bottom of the hourglass. Timms stayed tried and true to the high line while McIntosh, who shadowed him up on the cushion, was forced to hatch a plan for an alternate path in order to get by.
In the final set of corners in turns three and four, Timms worked to the outside of 19th running Chase Randall, who occupied the bottom. McIntosh dove toward the infield berm but ran out of room in which to toss a possible slide job with Randall occupying the groove. Meanwhile, up top, Timms maintained the momentum and, subsequently, delivered victory number one.
McIntosh took second, three car lengths and 0.347 seconds behind Timms at the finish line, with Justin Grant third, Shane Golobic fourth and Emerson Axsom fifth.
Two nights after starting off his California Midget swing with a 15th place result at Bakersfield, Timms felt the swing of momentum, and the swing of emotion, take a path in his direction on this night, as one Oklahoman beat another Oklahoman for the $5,000 top prize.
“There was a bunch of lapped traffic and I figured he’d be right there, but I never saw his nose,” Timms recalled of his battle to the finish with McIntosh. “It’s been a pretty humbling trip. We’ll have a great run then run dang near last the next night. So, to get this one is just awesome.”
Of late, Cannon McIntosh (Bixby, Okla.) has been among the quickest and most consistent in the series in his Dave Mac Motorsports/DriveWFX.com – D.A. McIntosh – Smith Titanium/Spike/Speedway Toyota. Although his streak of three consecutive Fatheadz Fast Qualifying times came to an end Thursday, he did record his second runner-up finish in his last three outings as he gets ever closer to his first series win of the season, but just ran out of time.
“I was really driving it hard,” McIntosh said. “I honestly thought we had more laps left, then I saw the white and we just ran out of time there. It would’ve been nice to get a yellow and see what we could’ve done with the field bunched up without traffic but, sometimes, that’s how it goes. I felt like we had a shot to win tonight. We have two more nights and I’m really excited because I feel like we have a really good racecar.”
For the second consecutive race, Justin Grant (Ione, Calif.) rounded out the podium with a third-place finish in his RMS Racing/NOS Energy Drink – EnviroFab – Response Management Services/Spike/Speedway Toyota. Located about 30 miles or so from his hometown of Ione, Calif., for Grant, Placerville served as a homecoming of sorts, conjuring up memories of his early days of competition with the Bay Cities Racing Association, where he was the 2007 series champ.
“We want to get to victory lane every night, but if we can’t win, coming out with a good solid run is a bonus, especially on a three-day event like this,” Grant said. “We want to win Saturday and we’re doing everything we can to put ourselves in a good position to do that. We’re going to have to be a little better to beat those guys, though. They were ripping around there pretty good.”
Four new track records were set on Thursday night at Placerville with Tanner Thorson recording the 23rd Fatheadz Fast Qualifying time of his career in USAC National Midget competition, moving him past Stan Fox for sole possession of 17th on the all-time list. Thorson’s time of 11.397 broke the former one-lap track record of 11.979 seconds, set by Dillon Welch in 2019.
Thomas Meseraull’s time of 1:57.13 in Simpson Race Products broke his own track record by more than 11 seconds during Simpson Racing heat one, completely demolishing his former mark of 2:08.68, set in 2019.
Thorson posted a second new track record of the evening for himself in the second of two Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi-Features. His time of 2:25.95 set the new standard for the 12-lap distance at the 1/4-mile dirt oval.
Timms’ winning time of 6:07.97 signaled the fifth green-to-checker USAC National Midget feature this season and, by far, the fastest. Preceding non-stop races this season occurred on Aug. 3 at Pennsylvania’s Grandview Speedway; Sept. 11 at South Dakota’s Huset’s Speedway; and Sept. 24 and Sept. 25 at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway.
With his seventh-place feature finish, Chris Windom reclaimed the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship point lead by a 13-point margin over Buddy Kofoid, who scored a 14th place result. Five races now remain this season.
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USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: November 18, 2021 – Placerville Speedway – Placerville, California – 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval – Elk Grove Ford Hangtown 100
FLIGHT ONE FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Maria Cofer, 57, Abacus-11.463, 2. Cannon McIntosh, 08, Dave Mac-11.464, 3. Shane Golobic, 17w, Wood-11.533, 4. Jade Avedisian, 86, CBI-11.571, 5. Carson Macedo, 21, Tarlton-11.600, 6. Ryan Robinson, 71R, Morris-11.620, 7. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, RMS-11.624, 8. Chance Crum, 26R, Rudeen-11.640.
FLIGHT TWO FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Chris Windom, 89, CBI-11.605, 2. Bryant Wiedeman, 01, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.672, 3. Brenham Crouch, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.818, 4. Dylan Ito, 73, Ford-11.870, 5. Austin Barnhill, 17B, Dave Mac-11.951, 6. Carson Souza, 00, Mounce/Stout-12.311, 7. Randi Pankratz, 8, Pankratz-12.721, 8. Robert Carson, 99, Segur-NT.
FLIGHT THREE FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Chase Randall, 19A, Reinbold/Underwood-11.436, 2. Justin Grant, 2J, RMS-11.456, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5, Petry-11.546, 4. Michael Faccinto, 14s, Graunstadt-11.647, 5. Jake Andreotti, 00A, Davis-11.785, 6. Chase Johnson, 7NZ, BSL-11.854, 7. Caden Sarale, 32, Sarale-12.143, 8. Tony Gomes, 73x, Ford-NT (Time of 11.831 disallowed due to bypassing the scales).
FLIGHT FOUR FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Tanner Thorson, 19T, Reinbold/Underwood-11.397 (New Track Record), 2. Emerson Axsom, 15, Petry-11.570, 3. Ryan Timms, 85T, CBI-11.612, 4. Blake Bower, 9, Boscacci-11.627, 5. Buddy Kofoid, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.710, 6. Kaylee Bryson, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.733, 7. Ben Worth, 5K, Alexander-11.778, 8. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-11.813.
FLIGHT FIVE FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Kyle Larson, 1K, Larson-11.546, 2. Zeb Wise, 37w, Wood-11.561, 3. Logan Seavey, 25, Malloy-11.594, 4. Ryan Bernal, 87w, Wood-11.644, 5. Ben Wiesz, 21w, Wiesz-12.501, 6. Jake Morgan, 45, Luke OB-12.702, 7. Beau Lemire, 14, Lemire-NT.
FLIGHT SIX FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Taylor Reimer, 25K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.590, 2. Cory Eliason, 26, Rudeen-11.685, 3. Colby Copeland, 25m, Malloy-11.709, 4. Mitchel Moles, 07w, Wood-11.722, 5. Jason McDougal, 5T, Alexander-11.738, 6. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-11.765, 7. Chase Johnson, 7NZ, BLS-11.785, 8. Tanner Carrick, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-11.959.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, winner plus top-2 in points transfer to the feature) 1. Thomas Meseraull (T), 2. Shane Golobic (T), 3. Carson Macedo, 4. Cannon McIntosh (T), 5. Chance Crum, 6. Maria Cofer, 7. Jade Avedisian, 8. Ryan Robinson. 1:57.13 (New Track Record)
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, winner plus top-2 in points transfer to the feature) 1. Brenham Crouch (T), 2. Carson Sousa, 3. Chris Windom (T), 4. Bryant Wiedeman (T), 5. Dylan Ito, 6. Austin Barnhill, 7. Randi Pankratz. 2:01.21
INDY METAL FINISHING THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, winner plus top-2 in points transfer to the feature) 1. Colby Johnson (T), 2. Michael Faccinto, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Justin Grant (T), 5. Chase Randall (T), 6. Jake Andreotti, 7. Tony Gomes, 8. Caden Sarale. NT
INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, winner plus top-2 in points transfer to the feature) 1. Kaylee Bryson (T), 2. Buddy Kofoid, 3. Ryan Timms (T), 4. Emerson Axsom (T), 5. Blake Bower, 6. Tanner Thorson, 7. Ben Worth, 8. Hayden Reinbold. 1:58.21
FIFTH HEAT: (10 laps, winner plus top-2 in points transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey (T), 2. Ryan Bernal, 3. Kyle Larson (T), 4. Zeb Wise (T), 5. Ben Wiesz, 6. Jake Morgan, 7. Beau Lemire. NT
SIXTH HEAT: (10 laps, winner plus top-2 in points transfer to the feature) 1. Tanner Carrick (T), 2. Ethan Mitchell, 3. Chase Johnson, 4. Colby Copeland (T), 5. Jason McDougal, 6. Mitchel Moles, 7. Taylor Reimer (T), 8. Cory Eliason. NT
FIRST ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-3 transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Michael Faccinto, 3. Carson Macedo, 4. Maria Cofer, 5. Mitchel Moles, 6. Chase Johnson, 7. Carson Sousa, 8. Ben Worth, 9. Dylan Ito, 10. Austin Barnhill, 11. Chance Crum, 12. Beau Lemire, 13. Jade Avedisian.
SECOND ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-3 transfer to the feature) 1. Tanner Thorson, 2. Buddy Kofoid, 3. Ryan Bernal, 4. Ethan Mitchell, 5. Blake Bower, 6. Cory Eliason, 7. Jason McDougal, 8. Ryan Robinson, 9. Hayden Reinbold, 10. Jake Andreotti, 11. Caden Sarale, 12. Ben Wiesz, 13. Jake Morgan, 14. Randi Pankratz. 2:25.95 (New Track Record)
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Ryan Timms (2), 2. Cannon McIntosh (5), 3. Justin Grant (6), 4. Shane Golobic (8), 5. Emerson Axsom (3), 6. Kyle Larson (12), 7. Chris Windom (10), 8. Zeb Wise (4), 9. Thomas Meseraull (17), 10. Logan Seavey (11), 11. Brenham Crouch (9), 12. Kaylee Bryson (14), 13. Tanner Carrick (18), 14. Buddy Kofoid (22), 15. Bryant Wiedeman (1), 16. Tanner Thorson (20), 17. Taylor Reimer (16), 18. Kevin Thomas Jr. (19), 19. Chase Randall (7), 20. Colby Copeland (13), 21. Michael Faccinto (21), 22. Colby Johnson (15), 23. Carson Macedo (23), 24. Hayden Reinbold (25-P), 25. Cory Eliason (26-P), 26. Ryan Bernal (24). 6:07.97 (New Track Record)
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Ryan Timms.
(P) represents a provisional starter
(T) represents a heat race transfer
**Beau Lemire flipped during qualifying.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-2250, 2-Buddy Kofoid-2237, 3-Justin Grant-2060, 4-Emerson Axsom-2049, 5-Tanner Thorson-2041, 6-Logan Seavey-1907, 7-Daison Pursley-1892, 8-Thomas Meseraull-1834, 9-Kevin Thomas Jr.-1780, 10-Cannon McIntosh-1671.
OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-204, 2-Justin Grant-191, 3-Tanner Thorson-188, 4-Brady Bacon-170, 5-Thomas Meseraull-167, 6-Logan Seavey-149, 7-Kevin Thomas Jr.-148, 8-Robert Ballou-131, 9-Buddy Kofoid-109, 10-Shane Cottle-106.
NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: November 19-20, 2021 – Placerville Speedway – Placerville, California – 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval – Elk Grove Ford Hangtown 100
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
GSP Driving Performance of the Night: Carson Macedo
Fatheadz Fast Qualifier: Tanner Thorson
Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Thomas Meseraull
Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner: Brenham Crouch
Indy Metal Finishing Third Heat Winner: Colby Johnson
Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Winner: Kaylee Bryson
First Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Kevin Thomas Jr.
First Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Tanner Thorson
KSE Racing Products Hard Charger: Thomas Meseraull (17th to 9th)
Saldana Racing Products First Non-Transfer: Maria Cofer & Ethan Mitchell
Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher: Tanner Carrick