Photo courtesy of TIMMS RACING Ryan Timms has taken the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series by storm this season as he is pictured competing at the Knoxville Nationals.

Tuscarora 50 is latest chapter of success story

PORT ROYAL — Not long ago, 19-year-old Ryan Timms admits sprint car racing seemed to be in his rear-view mirror.

The Oklahoma City, Okla., native exploded onto the circuit in 2021 with double-digit sprint car wins, some of those checkered flags happening while he was a mere 14 years old.

Stardom seemed imminent as Timms began to make the transition to racing nationally with a 410 under the hood. He finished as the runner-up in only his second World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series appearance just days after his 16th birthday.

But struggles threw the teenager a bumpy ride. Over the next year, the results he was expecting behind the wheel didn’t pan out. Pressure from social media crept into the back of Timm’s mind, and the doubt grew.

Timms wondered if racing was the right path for him. But before his career went completely off track, his father, Randy, sat him down for a heart-to-heart conversation.

“There was a point where I was so beat down and never running good that I didn’t even have the motivation to race hardly anymore and was kind of reconsidering my career path a little bit,” the young Timms recalled. “I had pretty much just my dad, who sat down and talked with me and gave me some options, but he was really adamant about me not giving up on the sprint car deal. He’s always believed in me and always told me that. He’s watched every race I’ve run and knows I’m capable of being one of the best. So, to have him believe in me was really a big help.”

That talk led to Timms venturing outside his comfort zone, leaving his family team for Guy Forbrook, Heffner Racing, Roth Motorsports and Liebig Motorsports for stints in the latter half of 2024. Some strong outings built confidence, and Timms partnered with Shane Liebig’s crew on the 2025 schedule with a focus on Knoxville Raceway and Huset’s Speedway.

Fast forward to present day, and those uncertainties regarding his future in the sport are long gone.

Timms and the Liebig team are on an unforgettable August run. They won both their prelim from eighth and the finale of the sport’s biggest race, the Knoxville Nationals, making Timms the event’s second youngest winner. He also became the only driver to have their first World of Outlaws victory be the Knoxville Nationals.

This past weekend, “Flyin’ Ryan,” as he’s promoted on his website, dominated the 58th Annual Tuscarora 50 held at the Port Royal Speedway in Port Royal.

The troubles that made him question himself have given him a fresh perspective, especially with the recent run of success.

“There’s a lot of things that went into winning the Nationals, but if (my dad) wouldn’t have sat down and talked with me about all that, then there’s no telling what would’ve happened and if I even would’ve won the Nationals,” Timms said. “It’s been a heck of a journey. Even when I was sucking there for a long time, there were a lot of guys that would tell me, ‘Hey, Donny Schatz he’s one of the best, and he struggled for a long time.’ It’s just part of it. You’ve got to get your teeth kicked in for a while, and I got my teeth kicked for a long time. To finally have a win like that made it all feel worth it and made all the struggles pay off and made me really appreciate the wins.”

It’s been a maturation process for Timms, who moved from the Sooner State to Rapid City, S.D., to be closer to his new team.

No race can match the prestige that Timms has already reached by topping the Knoxville Nationals, but a World of Outlaws score at Huset’s would be plenty meaningful. The shop may be located on the west side in the shadow of Mt. Rushmore, but Huset’s is still within the borders of Liebig Motorsports’ home state of South Dakota. It’s a track that Shane Liebig holds close to heart, and Timms wants to keep delivering special wins.

“It would be really cool,” Timms said of a potential Huset’s World of Outlaws victory. “Huset’s, Jackson, and Knoxville are Shane’s go-to places and the most important tracks to him, so to win an Outlaw show at Huset’s or Jackson would be really cool and mean a lot. Huset’s is one of the places that we spend so much time trying to get better and trying to be the fastest car there for when the Outlaws show up. It would mean a lot to do that for Shane and for myself also. I feel like I’ve come pretty close there a couple times with the Outlaws at Huset’s. I’ve always had a lot of speed there, just never been able to get it done.”

Timms also isn’t letting the run of success go to his head. He won’t allow it as the lows of not knowing if racing, something he’d worked his entire life for, was going to work out might still linger at times.

There’s also no denying he’s climbed to the top of the Sprint Car world in Knoxville Nationals victory lane and feeling like the future is limitless.

“I really didn’t think that I was going to be able to find any rides because I hadn’t done anything to prove I should be in someone else’s car,” Timms said. “But he (his father) was able to find me two that ended up leading me to Shane. The stars kind of aligned on the whole deal. It was a pretty crazy coincidence the way it all worked out, but I’m really happy that it did.”

And happy he came to Juniata County oval on Saturday. Timms’ lead eclipsed more than seven seconds by the time he took the checkered flag, cementing his name in Tuscarora 50 lore.