Ryan Timms victorious at Atomic Speedway after teammate Kale Drake blows tire late

CHILLICOTHE – Winning national Midget series races takes a special blend of speed, skill and good fortune. Ryan Timms had all three on his side Friday night at Atomic Speedway.

Timms, 17, of Oklahoma City, OK, scored his second Feature win of the year with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota, driving from third on the starting grid past his Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports (KKM) teammates Jade Avedisian and later Kale Drake after a right-rear flat tire struck him on a restart in the final laps.

Timms fended off all challengers on the final restart to bank his third career Series victory and the $4,000 prize, joining Cannon McIntosh, Ashton Torgerson and Karter Sarff as the only drivers so far this year to win more than once.

“Overall, it was just an awesome night,” Timms said. “I’m just happy to finally be back in Victory Lane; it feels like it’s been a while.”

While Avedisian – who won the Series’ first-ever main event at Atomic in 2023 – led the opening 11 laps from the pole, Drake and Timms followed close behind, waiting for an opportunity to make a move for the lead on the reigning Series champion.

That opportunity knocked on Lap 12, when Avedisian came up on lapped traffic in front of her and dove from the top to the bottom lane heading into Turn 3 in an attempt to get around the slower cars. When one of the cars stuck to the bottom lane, Avedisian was forced to check-up, opening the door for Drake up high.

“The lappers, about two laps before, I was closing the gap and seeing where they were running,” Avedisian said. “They were running the top, so when I went down the backstretch and got close enough to slide them, they peeled down to the bottom.

“Honestly, it was kind of just a bad decision on my part; I could’ve turned at the last minute and thrown a half-slider and still had more momentum than what I did. That’s how Kale got around me.”

Drake kept his right-rear on the cushion and zipped past Avedisian out of Turn 4 to lead Lap 12.

A red flag halted the action one lap later and prompted a restart with Drake out front and Avedisian and Timms right behind him. Avedisian nearly hit the frontstretch wall coming back to the green, allowing Timms to close the gap behind her and eventually make the pass for second down the backstretch.

“[Avedisian] got kinda jacked-up down the frontstretch and it gave me a big run into (Turn) 1,” Timms said. “I knew she was going to protect, and she did. I still managed to have a big run coming off the corner and was able to get her going into the next corner.”

Now with the second spot, Timms began his hunt for leader Drake, who had gapped himself from the other leaders. However, another caution flag was displayed with 19 laps complete, restacking the field and forcing Drake to survive another restart.

But this time, he did not survive. Drake’s right-rear was reportedly going soft under the caution period, which came to the forefront when he hit the throttle on the restart and jumped the Turn 4 cushion, slowing dramatically down the frontstretch and bringing out another yellow.

Timms said he spotted the flat under caution and knew it was going to create an issue for his teammate.

“I pulled up next to him, we were one-to-green, and I didn’t notice it ‘til then, and I was pointing at my right-rear trying to tell him his right-rear was going down,” Timms said. “I think he was just zoned-in, because I don’t even think he looked over.”

When Drake took his car to the infield to change the tire, Timms was handed the lead for what would be the final restart of the race and held off Avedisian and all other challengers for the win.

Avedisian crossed the line second, notching her best finish of the season. Despite her first Midget podium finish of the year, the 17-year-old Californian was disappointed with the result after starting on the pole.

“I feel like if I didn’t make that one mistake on that one restart Kale was leading, we might have been able to hold-off Ryan,” Avedisian said. “It’s hard to say because he was a lot better than me.”

Cannon McIntosh, a fellow KKM teammate to Timms and Avedisian, crossed the stripe in third, garnering his 11th-straight top-five finish and eighth podium finish of the season. The 21-year-old Oklahoman had his points gap cut by nine points, but still leads by 122 over Timms.

National Midget series rookie Tyler Edwards recorded his best career finish with the Series in fourth place, while 19-year-old Arizona racer Hayden Reinbold rounded-out the top five.

The Whitz Racing Products Quick Time Award went to Kale Drake, who also set a new track record in Qualifying with his lap of 13.760.

Toyota Racing Heat 1 was won by Tyler Edwards. TJ Forged Heat 2 was won by Cannon McIntosh.

ABBREVIATED RESULTS

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 67-Ryan Timms[3]; 2. 71-Jade Avedisian[1]; 3. 71K-Cannon McIntosh[4]; 4. 14S-Tyler Edwards[5]; 5. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[8]; 6. 40-Chase McDermand[9]; 7. 5D-Jacob Dykstra[10]; 8. 67K-Ashton Torgerson[7]; 9. 1K-Brayton Lynch[11]; 10. 55-Trevor Cline[12]; 11. 98K-Elijah Gile[15]; 12. 97-Kale Drake[2]; 13. 66-Jayden Clay[16]; 14. 76-Michael Smith[17]; 15. 7U-Zach Daum[6]; 16. 98-Luke Drotschie[13]; 17. 26-Corbin Rueschenberg[14]

The Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series is brought to fans by important sponsors and partners, including: DIRTVision (Official Live Broadcast Partner), Toyota (Title sponsor of the Midgets Series), Racing Electronics (Official Radio Supplier) and SIS Insurance (Official Insurance Provider). Other partners include: TJ Forged and Whitz Racing Products.

This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Timms victorious at Atomic Speedway after teammate Kale Drake blows tire late