JACKSON – Ryan Timms is $5,000 richer and now has his eyes focused on a $10,000 bonus.
Timms and Jake Kouba each earned a feature triumph Saturday during The Border Battle at Jackson Motorplex.
By capturing the $5,000-to-win Northern Outlaw Sprint Association feature on Saturday following Friday’s $4,000 win on Friday Timms only needs a victory on Sunday at Huset’s Speedway in Brandon to take home the $10,000 Triple Crown Bonus for sweeping the weekend.
“I really want that bonus for all three,” the 15-year-old from Oklahoma City said. “It was pretty nerve-wracking and the race felt like it took forever leading the whole time. The track crew gave us a great track. It was really on the wall in (turns) one and two.”
Timms led the distance of the 25-lap A Main, which was slowed by a red flag and three other cautions during the first half of the race. The final 13 laps went caution-free and Timms took advantage to win by 5.975 seconds.
“We didn’t really see much of him I didn’t feel like,” said Matt Juhl (Tea, S.D., who made a late-race pass to secure the runner-up result. “I’m happy for the team and hopefully we continue to do this the rest of the week.”
Ayrton Gennetten (Versailles, Mo.) rounded out the podium, with Brooke Tatnell (San Souci, NSW Australia) fourth in the DeWall Racing No. 16 and Austin McCarl (Altoona) hustling from 16th to fifth to earn the Hard Charger Award.
Kaleb Johnson (Sioux Falls) was 17th in the A Main after finishing third in his heat and third in his qualifying group. Skylar Prochaska (Lakefield) was 19th in the A, fourth in his heat and 10th in qualifying.’
Kouba (Minneapolis) outlasted Johnny Parsons III (Owatonna) during an epic Mid-American Renegades Sprint Car Series feature.
The duo raced side by side throughout most of the 12-lap feature with Parsons III leading the first three laps. Kouba took the top spot on Lap 4 before Parsons III regained the lead on Lap 6. Kouba made the race-winning pass on Lap 9 and held on to win by 0.643 seconds.
“That was a lot of fun,” he said. “I love racing with Johnny. Racing side by side with him for that many laps was great. I was hoping he’d disappear out of my view just a little bit sooner.
“I love this place. It’s so much fun coming back here, seeing all these familiar faces.”
Kouba also captured the lone heat race.
The next scheduled event at Jackson Motorplex is Friday, July 15 featuring the Midwest Power Series and Midwest Sprint Touring Series as well as RaceSaver Sprint Car Series.
I-90 Speedway
Brandon Halverson (Jackson) was unable to finish and wound up 13th in the RaceSaver Sprint Car feature Saturday at I-90 Speedway in Brandon, S.D. He had won his heat race earlier in the night.
Nick Barger (Madison, S.D.) won the feature, with Nate Barger (Madison, S.D.) second and Koby Werkmeister (Armour, S.D.) third.
Halverson is 11th in the track standings, 133 points behind Nate Barger.
Knoxville Raceway
The sprint cars are taking a couple of weeks off, so the NASCAR Truck Series was at Knoxville Saturday. It’s the second straight year the series has ran there.
Moonlighting in the truck series, Todd Gilliland took control of the Clean Harbors 150 after the sun set on Knoxville Raceway. Gilliland grabbed the lead from John Hunter Nemechek for the final time on Lap 140 of 150 and pulled away after a restart on Lap 147 to beat Nemechek to the finish line by .945 seconds and win in his first start of the season and for the third time in his career.
It was an off week for his full-time NASCAR Cup Series ride with Front Row Motorsports, with Gilliland delivering the victory for his father and team owner, David Gilliland.
Next at Knoxville is the Mid-Season Championship on Saturday, July 2.