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PHOENIX, AZ (Feb. 25, 2007) - Funny Car veteran, Tim Wilkerson is happy with his beautiful Levi, Ray & Shoup Monte Carlo this year and today at the Checker Schuck's Kragen NHRA Nationals, his progress continued to grow. Wilkerson got his first, first-round win of the new season and left Firebird International Raceway No. 8 in the POWERade points standings.
In the first-round of action, Wilkerson got a usually elusive lucky break when his opponent, Mike Ashley, couldn't make the run, giving Wilk a single. He tried to make the best of the opportunity, running a 5.013 at 260.36 mph. In the second round, Wilkerson had to pedal the car, but his 5.247 was no match for Ron Capps' 4.766. But this was a day when lane choice was important, and here Wilkerson wasn't lucky. He didn't have lane choice on either of his runs, and had to try to master the trickier right lane.
"Ashley had a broken reverser and couldn't back up," explained Wilkerson. "We got a gift on that run, so we took advantage of it. We went down through there and learned a little about what we wanted to do for the second round. Or at least we thought we did, and then we just went out and overpowered the race track. I thought maybe it shook, but when I looked at my computer data, it told me that we just plain overpowered the track. We were just trying a little too hard again.
"So, we'll keep on working on trying to change it so it will go through that 50 to 150 foot area a little easier. When I go through there at one rate it's too slow and then I move it just a little and it's too fast. It's the trouble area for all the cars. You could watch them out there and that was where everyone was in trouble. I don't know what it was about that right lane. It looked okay, it acted okay, but everyone had the same problem at the same spot. That right lane had something strange going on there. The same thing was in Pomona. You thought you had a decent lane, but it was funky."
After a two-week break, the teams are headed to Gainesville, Fla. for the third stop on the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing tour, the ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals. Wilkerson is looking to take advantage of the extra time to slip in some testing before the race.
"Gainesville is going to be a completely different animal," said Wilkerson. "I'm gong to change how I'm running the car a little bit and see if I can make it a little friendlier early. We're going to test our Alcohol Funny Car in Valdosta, Ga. the weekend before Gainesville, and I think we'll test our car too, if the track is any good. So, maybe we'll find out if our changes are the way to go before we get to Gainesville."
Lucky Wilkerson keeps on going strong
PHOENIX, AZ (Feb. 25, 2007) - Funny Car veteran, Tim Wilkerson is happy with his beautiful Levi, Ray & Shoup Monte Carlo this year and today at the Checker Schuck's Kragen NHRA Nationals, his progress continued to grow. Wilkerson got his first, first-round win of the new season and left Firebird International Raceway No. 8 in the POWERade points standings.
In the first-round of action, Wilkerson got a usually elusive lucky break when his opponent, Mike Ashley, couldn't make the run, giving Wilk a single. He tried to make the best of the opportunity, running a 5.013 at 260.36 mph. In the second round, Wilkerson had to pedal the car, but his 5.247 was no match for Ron Capps' 4.766. But this was a day when lane choice was important, and here Wilkerson wasn't lucky. He didn't have lane choice on either of his runs, and had to try to master the trickier right lane.
"Ashley had a broken reverser and couldn't back up," explained Wilkerson. "We got a gift on that run, so we took advantage of it. We went down through there and learned a little about what we wanted to do for the second round. Or at least we thought we did, and then we just went out and overpowered the race track. I thought maybe it shook, but when I looked at my computer data, it told me that we just plain overpowered the track. We were just trying a little too hard again.
"So, we'll keep on working on trying to change it so it will go through that 50 to 150 foot area a little easier. When I go through there at one rate it's too slow and then I move it just a little and it's too fast. It's the trouble area for all the cars. You could watch them out there and that was where everyone was in trouble. I don't know what it was about that right lane. It looked okay, it acted okay, but everyone had the same problem at the same spot. That right lane had something strange going on there. The same thing was in Pomona. You thought you had a decent lane, but it was funky."
After a two-week break, the teams are headed to Gainesville, Fla. for the third stop on the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing tour, the ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals. Wilkerson is looking to take advantage of the extra time to slip in some testing before the race.
"Gainesville is going to be a completely different animal," said Wilkerson. "I'm gong to change how I'm running the car a little bit and see if I can make it a little friendlier early. We're going to test our Alcohol Funny Car in Valdosta, Ga. the weekend before Gainesville, and I think we'll test our car too, if the track is any good. So, maybe we'll find out if our changes are the way to go before we get to Gainesville."
