There is simply no stopping Ryan Timms and Liebig Motorsports right now.
The Oklahoma racer banked his fourth flag-to-flag victory in his last five Sprint Car races with the South Dakota-based team Saturday night at Big Sky Speedway, leading all 30 laps of the eighth annual Harvey Ostermiller Memorial and capturing the $15,000 grand prize for his ninth career victory with the American Sprint Car Series.
“We just got it figured out this weekend,” Timms said. “It was a really good weekend. This car — it was just on rails every night, every time we hit the track. It was just so fast. It made my job a lot easier. It was really run to come and race with ASCS and get two wins.”
Two weeks ago, the 18-year-old conquered the Knoxville Nationals. Eight days later, he was in Victory Lane at Huset’s Speedway. Friday at Big Sky — another 25-straight Feature laps led before a second-straight night of domination on Saturday, making for an unforgettable month of August for the pairing that formed less than one year ago.
“It’s really just unbelievable,” Timms said. “It’s really relieving to have a car that I can be this confident in and do what I’ve been doing in.
“This is not to sound arrogant or anything — I’m a good racecar driver, but you need a good racecar, too, to compliment me, and vice versa. It’s just a really good combination with me and Shane.”
Team owner Shane Liebig, who hired the former Micro Sprint and Midget racer last October, echoes Timms’ sentiments.
“I’m lucky; Ryan is just an animal,” Liebig said. “It’s just fun having Ryan because he’s relentless and never gives up and never quits until the checkered flag, and it’s refreshing. It’s just awesome.”
It’s not every year the newly crowned Knoxville Nationals-winning team shows up to a 360 Sprint Car race two weeks later. But for team owner Shane Liebig, the Ostermiller Memorial was a non-negotiable race he had to compete in.
“For me personally, it means as much to me as the Knoxville Nationals,” Liebig said. “Harvey was a very important figure in my life. I know people thought, “Why are we here?” Well, it’s because Harvey was like a second dad to me.”
Liebig — a native of Rapid City, SD — was a former Sprint Car racer who drove for Harvey Ostermiller in the early 2000s. Though Liebig went on to fulfill his present-day operation as his own team owner, he never forgot the contributions Ostermiller made to both his life and the residents of Montana, including helping to build Big Sky Speedway before its opening in 2003.
Timms’ young prowess behind the wheel and Liebig’s knowledge and resources have now combined to become one of the most competitive Sprint Car teams in the country. All of which was on full display Saturday night as Timms took the green flag in the Feature from the pole after a win in the Honest Abe Roofing Dash.
For 30 laps, Timms paced the field around the high-banked, 3/8-mile oval and was never once challenged for the lead. When the race’s final caution flag flew with four laps remaining, Timms had amassed a gap of over seven seconds and had lapped the field up to eighth place. By the checkered flag, he had put a gap on second place of 2.9 seconds.
Seth Bergman finished second, taking the runner-up spot after a back-and-forth battle with Jason Martin in the final laps. The two threw slidejobs and crossovers on each other for multiple corners consecutively, and Bergman was able to seal the pass down the backstretch coming to the checkered flag to claim his third podium finish with the Series in 2025.
“Honestly, a really good result,” Bergman said. “There’s good seconds and bad seconds, and I told these guys it was a good second. These guys have got their stuff together, and we haven’t raced a lot, and I’ve been on the couch a lot this season. So, to get our package together and come here and be that strong after we’ve struggled is really good.”
Martin crossed the stripe in third to bag his seventh podium finish of the season.
“I think our tire just fell off there at the end,” Martin said. “I didn’t need to see that yellow; I felt like we were decent until that yellow came out and then the tire was just chunking out. It’s just one of them deals.”
Two-time Series champion Blake Hahn placed fourth for the second-straight night, while Colorado native Jake Bubak completed the top-five.
UP NEXT
The American Sprint Car Series is back in action next Friday–Saturday, Aug. 29–30, at Electric City Speedway in Great Falls, MT, for the annual Montana Roundup event.
Tickets for both nights are on sale now at the link below and will also be on sale at the track on race day.
If you can’t be there to watch in person, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view full results)
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 10T-Ryan Timms[1]; 2. 23-Seth Bergman[4]; 3. 36-Jason Martin[2]; 4. 52-Blake Hahn[3]; 5. 27B-Jake Bubak[9]; 6. 2J-Zach Blurton[10]; 7. 71-Brady Baker[13]; 8. 45X-Kyler Johnson[5]; 9. 2JR-Kelly Miller[24]; 10. 2B-Garrett Benson[15]; 11. 95-Matt Covington[8]; 12. 72-Phil Dietz[12]; 13. 4L-Lane Taylor[14]; 14. 88R-Ryder Laplante[22]; 15. 16G-Austyn Gossel[18]; 16. 23N-Garen Linder[6]; 17. 10-Landon Britt[17]; 18. 88C-Brogan Carder[11]; 19. 17W-Ryder McCutcheon[20]; 20. 12H-Elijah Gile[21]; 21. 11-Rodney Huband[16]; 22. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[7]; 23. 88-Terry Easum[23]; 24. 37-Trever Kirkland[19]
