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Cole Timm Returns to Southern National with Optimism

Defending Championship Auto Racing Series (CARS) Super Late Model champion Cole Timm is returning to the site of a breakthrough win with a lot of confidence and strong expectations.

Timm, 17, from Mooresville, North Carolina scored the victory in the inaugural CARS Super Late Model Tour race last March at Southern National Motorsports Park – the track that is again hosting the season opening race on Sunday afternoon.  Timm has confidence about this weekend’s race since the Lucama, North Carolina track has been good to him throughout his career in both CARS and the Pro All Stars Series.

“My expectations, I feel like might be higher than other people’s expectations,” Timm said.  “Last year, we had two poles, ad first and a second.  My expectations are to qualify on the pole or within the top three and win the race.  Whether that happens or not, we don’t know yet.  My expectations might be higher because we have always run really well there.”

Last year, Timm scored the pole in both Southern National races and won the race in March.  In the second Southern National race in 2015, held in May, Timm finished second to Kyle Busch Motorsports driver Christopher Bell – who now races in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.  The victory in the inaugural race at Southern National was the springboard that launched Timm’s championship season.

“You know, last year was and it wasn’t a very good year for us,” Timm explained.  “It wasn’t terrible.  It started off really strong but slowly regressed throughout the year.  We won some poles but, in mid-June, we were running mid top-10, if not in the back of the top-10.  That’s not where I wanted to be.  I would’ve rather had 10 top-five finishess than 10 top-10s.  It was a decent year, much better than before.  It was enough to win the championship.”

Timm’s season concluded with him finishing in the top-10 in every single CARS Super Late Model race.  He scored four poles and seven top-five finishes on the season.  However, his victory at Southern National in March, the second of his Super Late Model career, was his lone victory.

Despite the championship triumph, Timm regrets not being able to battle Christopher Bell and Bubba Pollard, who he beat at Southern National, all season long to claim the title.

“I would’ve rather beaten Christopher Bell, Bubba Pollard and those guys and them raced all season but there was strong competition from race one to race 10,” Timm remarked.  “Competition fell off as the year went on.  It would’ve been nice to say I raced those guys for 10 races and beat them when it counted.  The championship still meant a lot to us.  It was a decent year.  I really would’ve liked to race those guys all year long.”

There will be two major differences when the CARS Tour heads back to Southern National Motorsports Park, which itself has undergone a facelift during the offseason, for the third time.

A strong chance of rain in Eastern North Carolina forced the CARS Tour to postpone the race to Sunday afternoon, making the race the first daytime race in series history.  The move from night to day will change the handling of the racetrack, but Timm doesn’t feel it will change how teams approach the race.

“We’ve got to get to the racetrack and see how everything goes from the start,” Timm stated.  “I’ve raced day races at Southern National with PASS on a Sunday in the middle of the summer, so it was really hot.  I don’t think it will change much in anyone’s mind.  Everyone’s got the same mindset of what they want to do and how they want to accomplish their goals so we’ll have to see how it all plays out.”

Sunday’s race will also be the first time the CARS Tour has raced on Hoosier tires at Southern National Motorsports Park.  Both races last year at Southern National were run on the harder, more durable American Racer tires prior to the series switching to Hoosier after a debacle at Orange County Speedway last August.

“You definitely have to save as much as you can but don’t want to save to where you fall too far back in the field because you can’t race back,” Timm commented.  “I liked the American Racer tires better because you could race more than you had to save.  The Hoosiers, you have to save more than you race so I was a fan of American Racer.  Hoosier is a good tire still and will bring good racing to the track.”

Timm expects the racing in both the CARS Late Model Stock Tour race and CARS Super Late Model Tour race to be similar to last November’s Thanksgiving All-Star Classic, which consisted of a 125 lap Super Late Model race and 200 lap Late Model Stock Car race.  Much like this weekend’s CARS Tour race, those two races were contested on a mild Sunday afternoon.

“I would expect the same thing, yes.  The temperature will be about the same.  Tires is going to be the key factor, just saving enough to have enough at the end to go when you need to go.  It will be an eventful, good race.”

Another change for Timm is that he will, this season, be racing for his own team instead of with Mike Smith as a teammate to Chandler Smith, who now races for the LFR Chassis powerhouse team.  Racing for Smith had advantages for Timm, who races on more of a budget than most in Super Late Model racing, but he feels he can duplicate the success he has last year with his team.

“This year we’ll have our trailer instead of using his.  That’s really about it.  Mike helped us our throughout the year with a lot of things. It’s nothing we won’t be able to do on our own.  It was nice to have his help but we think we can do just as well on our own.”

Timm will be competing in the 150 lap Super Late Model race, which will be the first of the two CARS Tour races contested on Sunday afternoon at Southern National Motorsports Park.  For those who are unable to attend the race, RACEFEEDX.com will have live, streaming pay-per-view coverage of the event.

Marquis comes from St. Charles, Maryland and has a widespread background in journalism, having covered politics in Washington and Maryland as well as nearly every form of auto racing, including NASCAR, IndyCar, AMA Motocross and IHRA Drag Racing. Now living near Emerald Isle, North Carolina, Marquis covers Late Model Stock Cars and Super Late Models in the Carolinas and Virginia.

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