Wilkerson Battles to Make Strong Run at Topeka Nationals (1 Viewer)

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OPEKA, KS (August 15, 2021) --- Tim Wilkerson and the Levi, Ray & Shoup Summit Racing Ford Mustang Funny Car team escaped the Menard’s NHRA Nationals presented by Pet Armor and will focus on the final two regular season races and the Countdown to the Championship. Wilkerson suffered one of the most bizarre incidents of his storied career during the second round of qualifying when his Funny Car lost cylinders and moved across the center line, eventually making contact with his qualifying partner Cruz Pedregon as the race cars slowed down at the top end. Both drivers avoided physical injury but each race car suffered significant damage.

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Wilkerson’s team immediately pulled out the back-up car and set about refreshing it for the final qualifying session and eventually race day. The team along with assistance from Del Worsham, John Force Racing and a handful of other teams prepared their back-up car and began evaluating the damaged Funny Car.
“I can’t thank Del and the guys at John Force Racing for their help,” said Wilkerson. “We have to figure some things out and we are going to send this chassis back to Murf McKinney and see what we can do so we can avoid these kinds of incidents.”
The third qualifying session gave the team information and the confidence to head into race day and a match-up against Pedregon. Both teams had worked well into the night to prepare back-up race cars and compete in the first round. Wilkerson was down to his last carbon fiber body.
Pedregon and Wilkerson were the next to last pair of Funny Cars in the first round and their side by side race was one of the closest of the session. Unfortunately, even with the shakedown run on Saturday Wilkerson’s back-up car still had some issues. Both Funny Car launched together and he was pulling away but three seconds into the run his Funny Car lost power. He coasted across the finish line as Pedregon drove past him for the win 4.014 to 4.044 seconds.
“We will get the back-up car ready for Brainerd and Indy,” said Wilkerson. “I love the NHRA community. In Sonoma Ron Capps’ guys and Doug Stringer’s Parts Plus guys helped us out between rounds and this weekend Del and Force’s guys are offering help. We help guys out whenever we can too. We will get this sorted out and I have to thank Richard and the guys on this team for all their hard work too.”

Qualifying Results
Q1: 3.969 sec, 301,67 mph; Qual. 8
Q2: No Time; Qual. 9
Q3: 6.715 sec, 97.45 mph; Qual. 10
Bonus Points: 0

Race Results
First RoundDriver Qual R/T ET MPH
Tim Wilkerson 10 .091 4.044 286.68
Cruz Pedregon 7 .089 4.014 316.01 (W)

Camping World Funny Car Top Ten
1. John Force 816
2. Ron Capps 787
3. J.R. Todd 778
4. Bob Tasca III 766
5. Robert Hight 748
5. Matt Hagan 748
7. Alexis DeJoria 691
8. Cruz Pedregon 610
9. Tim Wilkerson 584
10. Blake Alexander 417