NOBLESVILLE, IN, May 2, 2012 --- When late model driver Josh Timmerman takes to the famous high banks of Winchester (IN) Speedway this weekend, it will be with a new sponsor. Timmerman is pleased to announce a sponsorship agreement with Speed Talk, a nationally syndicated radio show. Featuring news, commentary, and interviews, co-hosts Cliff Tanner and Pete LaFaucia have interviewed a variety of guests from NASCAR® stars Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Kyle Busch to Hall of Fame drivers, Ned Jarrett and Bobby Allison. With the motto of, “If it has a motor and goes fast, we will talk about it,” Speed Talk covers motorsports of all types—open wheel, stock cars, drag racing, motorcycles, and more.
"We're very excited to have Speed Talk join us as a sponsor for the 2012 season,” said Timmerman, “and it’s an honor to be part of the Speed Talk ‘Family of Drivers’. Our unique relationship will generate more listeners and advertisers for Speed Talk while offering exposure for our race team and expanding our efforts to raise awareness of holoprosencephaly, a cause our team supports.”
Contending for Rookie of the Year honors in the Top Speed Fabrication Champion Racing Association (CRA) Late Model Sportsman Series, the 2012 season will have Timmerman competing on the popular Indiana short tracks at Anderson, Plymouth and Winchester, along with Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis. In addition to Speed Talk, Timmerman is also sponsored by Families for HoPE, Schumaker Performance, Ellis Race Cars, Freedom Racing Engines, and 2 Friends Photography.
To learn more, visit JoshTimmerman.com and RadioSpeedTalk.com
NOBLESVILLE, IN, April 14, 2012 --- Up-and-coming late model driver Josh Timmerman knows a thing or two about making investments. That is why the 2010 Baer Field Speedway Late Model Rookie of the Year traded in his racing suit for a business suit during the 2011 racing season.
As a trusted financial advisor with a growing business, Timmerman relocated from Noblesville, IN to St. Louis last year to enroll in a 10-month growth program enhancing his ability to better serve his current and prospective clients. “While it was tough to give up racing for a season,” Timmerman acknowledged, “the short-term sacrifice to focus on my long-term professional career has been one of the best investments I’ve made. It is my professional career that secures my ability to race in the coming years.”
Now back in his Noblesville office full-time, Timmerman and his dedicated crew are excited to return to a full season of racing. Timmerman will join the Top Speed Fabrication Champion Racing Association (CRA) Late Model Sportsman Series this season to compete for wins and a championship. “We entered the CRA Late Model Sportsman Series in 2009, but two unfortunate crashes put us out for the majority of the season. We bounced back in 2010 with a successful season at Baer Field Speedway in Fort Wayne where we earned Rookie of the Year honors,” said Timmerman. “CRA is by far one of the best sanctioning bodies of racing in the country, and we’re proud to have them in our own backyard where we can compete against top-notch teams.”
With the investment of new parts and a brand new look for 2012, Timmerman is ready to wear the fire suit full time once again and translate his achievements in the financial business to triumph on the race track. The #09 opens the season this Sunday, April 15th in the Third Annual Cabin Fever 150 at Plymouth Speedway. “We’ve always been focused on getting better each and every time we go out on the race track. We’re confident that we’re going to be competitive every week, and soon hope to be the team to beat,” said the determined driver.
Timmerman is sponsored by Families for HoPE, Inc., Schumaker Performance, Ellis Race Cars, Freedom Racing Engines, 2 Friends Photography and Speed Talk.
To learn more, visit JoshTimmerman.com or follow on Twitter @joshtimmerman.
FORTVILLE, IN, November 15, 2010 – Rookie Late Model driver Josh Timmerman of Fortville, Indiana, has been named 2010 Rookie of the Year by Baer Field Speedway in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This is the second honor of the season for Timmerman who was named the Speedway’s “Sportsman of the Week” on May 19, 2010. Following a limited 2009 season, Timmerman found success in 2010 at Baer Field Speedway where he ended the season as one of the top 10 drivers in the series. For the season, Timmerman had 5 top-five qualifications and 3 top-five finishes while finishing in the top 10 of every race he started. “We had a fantastic season. Our goal was to finish every race and keep our nose clean, and we did exactly that,” Timmerman said. “I have to thank my crew for all their hard work and dedication this season. We had a few mechanical problems, but that’s all part of working the bugs out of a new car. Next year, we plan to stay the course and run Baer Field and hopefully a few local [Championship Racing Association] events.” In addition to driving for Families for HoPE, Inc. to raise awareness of Holoprosencephaly, Timmerman is also sponsored by 2 Friends Photography, Knep’s Competition Graphics, Ellis Racecars, Chris Straley State Farm Insurance Agency, Schumaker Performance, Inc., Tinder Lock & Access Solutions, MopHeads Cleaning Services, Inc., and BNG Administrative Services. Timmerman was also named 2005 Rookie of the Year in Kokomo Speedway’s Street Stock division and was the recipient of the 2007 Rocky Tharp Memorial Sportsmanship Award.
Greenfield Daily Reporter, June 24, 2010
Last year, Josh Timmerman and his team spent three months rebuilding a racecar that was destroyed during an early-season race at Anderson Speedway. They spent every weekend, as well as most weeknights, in the garage, sometimes working until 2 or 3 a.m.
When Timmerman returned to Anderson in August, he made the feature race, but he got hit from behind on an early restart. That triggered a chain reaction that smashed the right side of his car and ended his season.
It was a car-crushing, character-testing summer, but looking back on it, Timmerman thinks he’s a better man because of last year’s misfortune, and now he’s running his team with a new approach and a sharper focus.
“My life has changed so much; it’s not always about racing anymore,” said Timmerman, who lives in Fortville. “I want to win, but I want to be recognized for my off-track ability, too.”
A 22-year-old Hawkeye-turned-Hoosier, Timmerman started in the pits, working for ARCA driver Tim Turner. Turner gave Timmerman his first racecar, a 1979 Chevy Nova that Timmerman built to race in the street stock division at Kokomo Speedway. He won the Rookie of the Year award at Kokomo in 2005, then moved on to racing in the SuperTruck Series at Anderson. He won his first race on Sept. 6, 2008, and finished fifth in points that year.
A year later, Timmerman bought an Impala, and his team spent all winter getting it ready to race in a Champion Racing Association Sportsman race at Anderson.
“It was (like) a brand new car when we went on the racetrack,” Timmerman said.
Timmerman was running seventh in the April 18 feature when the ugly side of racing ended his night and put the No. 09 car in the garage for most of the summer when his car was pushed into the wall, and the impact demolished the right side of the car.
Fifty-eight laps in, Timmerman’s first late model season was totaled, “We had all our eggs in this basket,” Timmerman said, “and then it was gone.”
With a badly damaged basket and very few eggs to put in it, Timmerman nevertheless set a goal for his team: Get the car rebuilt in time to run in the Aug. 8 CRA Sportsman race at Anderson. Money was one of the biggest obstacles — Timmerman and his family financed most of the operation themselves — but with some help from Ellis Race Cars in Fortville, they got it done and posted an eighth-place finish in a tune-up race at Baer Field Speedway in Fort Wayne.
Then it was back to Anderson for a 75-lap feature race, but Timmerman’s night lasted only 15 trips around the quarter-mile oval.
“We could barely look at (the car) after that,” Timmerman said. “It’s just like driving off the lot with a brand new car and then driving it off a bridge.”
Fortunately, and in part because of a conversation he had with his mom when he was 16, Timmerman walked away from both wrecks without any significant injuries.
“I had to convince her,” he said, “that I’d make safety a priority.”
The Impala sat in the garage, untouched, until October as the team contemplated its future. Ultimately, they decided to grab their tools and go back to work.
“We definitely had our doubts, but this is what we want to do,” Timmerman said. “And if we crash again — and it’s more like ‘when’, because it’s going to happen — we’ll just keep digging. We’re never going to give up.”
They didn’t start the second rebuild without first making some changes. They took their time, putting an end to the late nights that had become routine after the first wreck. They also committed to buying only the highest quality parts.
“If we can’t have the best part to bolt on,” Timmerman said, “we’re not bolting it on.”
While the setbacks in 2009 cost Timmerman time, money and laps, they helped him focus on his goal of bringing attention to a disorder called HPE.
Put simply, holoprosencephaly is a disorder in which a baby’s brain doesn’t split into left and right hemispheres during the embryonic stage. In most cases, babies with HPE die before they’re born. The ones who don’t are born with severe defects and rarely live longer than 6 months.
In 2006 , Timmerman’s mom, a pediatric nurse, introduced her son to Sammy Harley, a 3-year-old with HPE. Inspired by Sammy’s story, Timmerman formed a partnership with Families for HoPE, and the hood of his car now sports the organization’s logo.
“My life has changed,” said Timmerman, who balances racing with a fulltime job and classes at IUPUI. “To be a positive image in the community is extremely important. It’s more important than my on-track ability.”
With Timmerman’s dad wrenching on the car as the chief mechanic, the team finished the rebuild ahead of schedule.
“The mood was better,” Timmerman said. “The team was well rested.”
Now driving fulltime at Baer Field, Timmerman opened the season with a third-place finish. On May 29, he took sixth in a 30-lap feature, and even though he missed last Saturday’s race, he’s seventh in points going into Saturday night’s double-points race. He’s also developing a reputation as one of the track’s most fan-friendly drivers.
“If you hang out at the racetrack a little bit, you’ll know who the good guys are,” Timmerman said. “The stuff I do with kids and Families for HoPE, I do it because it’s truly a privilege to put a car like this on the racetrack.”
Ben Boldt is a columnist for The Daily Reporter and a former sports editor. E-mail him at bcboldt@gmail.com.
Timmerman Named Baer Field "Sportsman of the Week"