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LAS VEGAS, Saturday: Luck never paid a visit to Springfield, Ill. Funny Car favorite, Tim Wilkerson this weekend at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Wilkerson was not able to qualify his Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS for the Seventh annual ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals.
Today's qualifying sessions were filled with problems and parts breakage for Wilkerson and his hard working team. He was on a good run in the first session, but only mustered a 4.903 as he ended the run on fire. The last attempt ended at the hit, as he blew a fuel line when he hit the throttle and had to be towed off the track.
"It was a problem plagued day," explained a disappointed Wilkerson. "On the first run we were the quickest car to 330 feet, and it was trucking right down through there and either the fuel pump went away or the shut off vibrated shut. And it leaned the motor out real bad and it just blew up. It burnt both heads off of it and it ruined the block. So, we hurried back to the pit 100 mph because we only get a short time between rounds, swapped motors and everything looked fine. We get up to the line for the last pass, I hit the gas and it blows a fuel line in half. We don't know if that happened during the fire because it really wasn't in the area, but it could have happened.
"It was just one thing after another today. The only way you can describe it is a problem-plagued day. I'm upset that we didn't qualify because we had a good car really. I feel sure that we would have made it down the track our last run, but that's could have, would have, should have and it's too late for any of that."
Problems plague Wilkerson
LAS VEGAS, Saturday: Luck never paid a visit to Springfield, Ill. Funny Car favorite, Tim Wilkerson this weekend at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Wilkerson was not able to qualify his Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS for the Seventh annual ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals.
Today's qualifying sessions were filled with problems and parts breakage for Wilkerson and his hard working team. He was on a good run in the first session, but only mustered a 4.903 as he ended the run on fire. The last attempt ended at the hit, as he blew a fuel line when he hit the throttle and had to be towed off the track.
"It was a problem plagued day," explained a disappointed Wilkerson. "On the first run we were the quickest car to 330 feet, and it was trucking right down through there and either the fuel pump went away or the shut off vibrated shut. And it leaned the motor out real bad and it just blew up. It burnt both heads off of it and it ruined the block. So, we hurried back to the pit 100 mph because we only get a short time between rounds, swapped motors and everything looked fine. We get up to the line for the last pass, I hit the gas and it blows a fuel line in half. We don't know if that happened during the fire because it really wasn't in the area, but it could have happened.
"It was just one thing after another today. The only way you can describe it is a problem-plagued day. I'm upset that we didn't qualify because we had a good car really. I feel sure that we would have made it down the track our last run, but that's could have, would have, should have and it's too late for any of that."
