Timmons Earning His Racing Stripes At Beech Ridge
FALMOUTH, Maine – Bobby Timmons is showing that he’s a quick study.
Timmons, 19, had never driven anything more than go-karts and Legend cars before this month, but the up-and-coming talent on the New England stock-car circuit is quickly adapting to life in a Super Late Model. Timmons has just three career starts at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway, but he’s already opening eyes.
“We decided this was the time to do it. It’s been a lot of fun,” said Timmons, of Windham. “It’s going good. We’ve gotten two sixth-places in a row, so I definitely can’t complain about that.”
In just his second time out in the Mulkern Racing No. 48 SouthernMaineMotors.com Chevrolet, Timmons rolled from 19th in a very competitive 25-car weekly field to finish sixth in a 40-lap NASCAR Whelen All-American Series event at Beech Ridge. Last weekend at the track, he did the same thing again – moving from 15th to sixth at the checkered flag.
“He’s a very talented young driver,” said Vickie Mulkern, who owns Mulkern Racing with her husband, Scott Mulkern. “It’s really been a lot of fun for us seeing him in these cars and seeing how well he’s taken to them. He and his father deserve a lot of credit for what he’s doing (at Beech Ridge), and we’re just happy we could help him out.”
Timmons’ father, Bob Timmons Jr., is the crew chief on the car – the oldest Super Late Model chassis in the Mulkern Racing shop. Mulkern Racing’s Tony Ricci has also spent a considerable amount of time on setups during race week.
After spending the last few seasons as a full-time fixture on the NELCAR Legends tour in the northeast – where he was a multi-time feature winner – Timmons was looking for something different this summer. Scott Mulkern had offered Timmons one of his cars on several occasions before Timmons finally accepted.
“For the most part, they’re all race cars,” Timmons said. “But the biggest thing that got me was the comparative size of the race car. The Legends are obviously a lot smaller. The first night out (at Beech Ridge), I thought I was running in the groove and all my crew was asking, ‘Where were you? What were you doing out there?’ So it’s been a learning curve, but Scott’s been good help and Vickie’s been awesome.
“We’ve gotten some good crew guys to help us out. My dad’s been a huge help.”
Another big help has been running at Beech Ridge, a track where the Legends compete weekly on Thursday nights during the summer and where Timmons has plenty of experience himself.
“It does help. The driving styles are pretty similar,” Timmons said of the cars. “If I were to go somewhere else, it would probably take a little more learning to get used to it.”
Timmons will join the rest of the Super Late Model class this Saturday night at Beech Ridge for the final NASCAR-sanctioned event of the season.
He’s hoping to continue his recent run of good luck while keeping an eye on next year.
“We’ll probalby just run here and then we’ll call it a season,” Timmons said. “I’m not sure if I’m quite up to where I need to be to run the (PASS 300 in September), but we’ll probably come back here next year and run the full season. We’ll see what we can get, maybe even try to contend for a championship. The way we’ve been running, maybe we can do that.”
So far, Timmons has been a perfect fit at Mulkern Racing, where the cars are kept and maintained by Timmons, his father and several members of Mulkern Racing.
“My dad always ran big-block Supermodifieds and Modifieds, which couldn’t be any further from these cars. They’ve been great help to us,” Timmons said. “Me and my dad did most of the work, but anytime we’ve needed anything, they’ve been there. Without them, we’d be lost.”
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