Defending CARS Tour Super Late Model champion Cole Timm entered the month of June not knowing if he had enough funding to finish the season with his family-owned race team. But a recent call from David Gilliland asking Timm to join his No. 97 team ended those concerns and sent him to Victory Lane on Saturday night in the Do The Dew 200 at Tri County Speedway.
The opportunity became available last month when Gilliland parted ways with Nicole Behar after a tough start to the 2016 season. Timm found himself fourth in the championship standings after the first three races and immediately improved those chances by earning his second career CARS victory.
Timm took the lead from a dominant Brandon Setzer with 25 laps to go and never looked back.
“These guys prepare great race cars and this is a great opportunity,” Timm said in Victory Lane. “I was actually saving for most of the race, thinking we would get a late restart but it never came so we started pushing late and just had a great car.”
By completing 100 laps in 26 minutes, the race will go down as the shortest in the history of the second-year CARS Tour. The race ran 100 consecutive green-flag laps without incident.
It may also go down as a career lifesaver for Timm as he didn’t have a working car after crashing last month at Hickory.
“I mean, I probably wasn’t going to make it to the next race if the DGR guys hadn’t called,” Timm said. “This changes things. I loved driving for mom and dad and this is for them, but this really gives us a great chance to win another championship now.”
Former NASCAR competitor Tanner Berryhill started the race from the pole but immediately fell off the pace and was unable to finish the race.
Raphael Lessard and Quin Houff started the race with the top two spots in the championship standings but finished seventh and eighth, allowing Timm and Setzer to gain in the standings.
The complete results can be found below.
1. Cole Timm
2. Brandon Setzer
3. Matt Craig
4. Steve Wallace
5. Tate Fogleman
6. Tyler Ankrum
7. Raphael Lessard
8. Quin Houff
9. Garrett Jones
10. AJ Frank
11. Garrett Archer
12. Lucas Jones
13. Stephen Leicht
14. Jake Crum
15. Jeff Batten
16. Gus Dean
17. Trevor Noles
18. Clay Jones
19. Tanner Berryhill
20. Tyler Church
