Taylor Reimer all-in on pavement ambitions, starting with World Series

After experience a modest degree of success in Dirt Midgets, despite a four year hiatus from them nevertheless, Taylor Reimer is all-in on a pavement career that begins in earnest this week in the World Series of Asphalt at New Smyrna Speedway.

The 25-year-old from Tulsa, Oklahoma is a decorated athlete under every metric in that she was the winningest female at her home track, Port City, in Micro Sprints. She stopped racing for four years as she became a championship winning cheerleader at the University of Oklahoma. Then, she came back to racing where she became the first woman to win a national Midget race in 2022 at Millbridge Speedway and frequently challenged for podiums everywhere she raced.

The abbreviated biography aside, now Reimer has jumped entirely into pavement racing, enjoying her initial foray into the discipline so much that it’s the full extent of her racing ambitions this year. This came after winning in Limited Late Models at Hickory and Tri-County.

In addition to the Pro Late Models, she is also returning to ARCA this year where she will run five races. Reimer compared this next week to what she would do in USAC Midget when she ran Indiana Midget Week, which is racing practically every night for 10 days.

That is valuable to her learning curve.

“It’s basically like Midget Week,” she said. “That was a great opportunity to learn throughout the week and just get experience. I need that with this car because I’ve never driven a Pro Late Model before and we’ve got six nights in this week.

“That’s going to be really beneficial to just see what the car can do and figuring it out.”

Reimer has discovered that the Pro Late Model isn’t entirely different from the Limited car she raced in the Carolinas because it’s mostly just lower powered momentum racing.

“I’m really enjoying it,” Reimer said. “I think we were a little tight in our mock run but that’s also just me not having a lot of experience in knowing how to adjust for it. They think they can make some adjustments based on what I told them and see if we can still make some more time.”

Mostly for Reimer, she just hopes to make the full week without getting caught up in a wreck, which frequently happens in this division this week. These are brutally rough races and she’s aware of that distinction.

“Yeah, the main thing is just keeping my nose clean all week and survive Speedweeks,” Reimer said. “I don’t think it’s time for me to be reckless and force three-wide or anything like that.

Reimer says she has nothing scheduled on dirt right now because she is focused on making it to NASCAR;

“That’s the goal,” she said. “It’s just about getting laps in to get comfortable before we move on to bigger tracks. This week with Lee Faulk Racing is just about repetitions.

“I just want to be on the lead lap at the finish every single night,” Reimer said. “I know we are capable of running in the top-5. We showed that kind of speed. Everyone wants to win but we have realistic goals too.”