Even after a short day Wilkerson is the leader
<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/t_wilkerson.jpg" alt="t_wilkerson" align="left"borders="0"/>
SEATTLE, Sunday: It was a beautiful day for racing at Pacific Raceways for the Schuck’s Auto Supply Nationals and Funny Car favorite, Tim Wilkerson planned to do a full day’s worth of racing but his beautiful Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS had different plans.
Points leader, Wilkerson faced off against the No. 2 points man, Robert Hight in the first-round of eliminations. Wilkerson posted a respectable 4.204 at 298.14 mph. But he didn’t have enough to hold off Hight’s 4.135, which just happened to be the quickest run of the entire day. It’s been a long time since Wilkerson lost in an opening round. The last time it happened was Phoenix, which was the second race of the season.
“We made a nice run,” explained Wilkerson, “we just didn’t have enough against Robert. I knew he was going to go fast, those guys are that good. I told my guys that he’ll probably run the quickest of the session against us and then smoke the tires the next round and that’s exactly what he did.
“But we’re really not disappointed. I guess you’d say we’re just a little perplexed. We made five nice runs this weekend and never smoked the tires but this car isn’t as fast as our old one. And we don’t know if it’s the new car or the new tire. We just don’t have the wheel speed we used to and it’s a little slow early. We’re not sure why, but I think we need to figure it out. I think as I drive down the coast headed to Sonoma I’ll have to do some noodling over it and see if I can make some sense of it all.”
As Wilkerson leaves the beautiful Pacific Northwest and heads to Sonoma, Calif. for next week’s Fram Autolite Nationals, he still has the distinction of being the POWERade Championship Funny Car point leader and the only Funny Car that has secured a spot in the Countdown to the Championship, so he’ll have a lot to think about as he makes the trek down one of the most scenic highways in our great country.
<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/t_wilkerson.jpg" alt="t_wilkerson" align="left"borders="0"/>
SEATTLE, Sunday: It was a beautiful day for racing at Pacific Raceways for the Schuck’s Auto Supply Nationals and Funny Car favorite, Tim Wilkerson planned to do a full day’s worth of racing but his beautiful Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS had different plans.
Points leader, Wilkerson faced off against the No. 2 points man, Robert Hight in the first-round of eliminations. Wilkerson posted a respectable 4.204 at 298.14 mph. But he didn’t have enough to hold off Hight’s 4.135, which just happened to be the quickest run of the entire day. It’s been a long time since Wilkerson lost in an opening round. The last time it happened was Phoenix, which was the second race of the season.
“We made a nice run,” explained Wilkerson, “we just didn’t have enough against Robert. I knew he was going to go fast, those guys are that good. I told my guys that he’ll probably run the quickest of the session against us and then smoke the tires the next round and that’s exactly what he did.
“But we’re really not disappointed. I guess you’d say we’re just a little perplexed. We made five nice runs this weekend and never smoked the tires but this car isn’t as fast as our old one. And we don’t know if it’s the new car or the new tire. We just don’t have the wheel speed we used to and it’s a little slow early. We’re not sure why, but I think we need to figure it out. I think as I drive down the coast headed to Sonoma I’ll have to do some noodling over it and see if I can make some sense of it all.”
As Wilkerson leaves the beautiful Pacific Northwest and heads to Sonoma, Calif. for next week’s Fram Autolite Nationals, he still has the distinction of being the POWERade Championship Funny Car point leader and the only Funny Car that has secured a spot in the Countdown to the Championship, so he’ll have a lot to think about as he makes the trek down one of the most scenic highways in our great country.
