<img src="http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b72/Deby706/T_Wilkerson.jpg"align="right"borders="0"/>
Denver, Friday: After two rounds of qualifying on the opening day at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway, Tim Wilkerson, pilot of the Levi, Ray & Shoup Funny Car sits in the No. 15 qualifying position.
On his first qualifying attempt, Wilkerson smoked the tires, but in a rare turn of events for the talented Funny Car driver, he pedaled the car and it hooked back up. Wilkerson posted a 6.133 at 207.56 mph.
"Fred (Mandoline) got on the radio and told me that the track was really bad," explained Wilkerson, "so I was just going to grab a handful of brake when I got out there a little way. But it didn't make it a little way before it smoked the tires. And I wanted to be a little further back in the pack for the second run, so I got back in it and drove it down through there."
On his evening pass, Wilkerson was on a decent run when it looked as though something went away on the car as he clocked a 5.440 at 210.54 mph.
"It was going along pretty good," said Wilkerson, "when it looped the tires just a little bit and dropped a cylinder. When it did that and I was on seven cylinders. Then it popped the burst panel off it because it was just ugly down there.
"We'll try again tomorrow and see if we can get it to run down through there. But it's typical Denver; when it's in the nineties, it's ugly out there. But we still should be able to go 5.0 something even during the day, I believe in my heart."
With two more qualifying sessions slated for tomorrow, you can be sure that Wilkerson and his talented team will do their best to get a 5.0 run out of the Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Monte Carlo on the challenging Denver mountainside
Wilkerson believes in a better tomorrow
Denver, Friday: After two rounds of qualifying on the opening day at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway, Tim Wilkerson, pilot of the Levi, Ray & Shoup Funny Car sits in the No. 15 qualifying position.
On his first qualifying attempt, Wilkerson smoked the tires, but in a rare turn of events for the talented Funny Car driver, he pedaled the car and it hooked back up. Wilkerson posted a 6.133 at 207.56 mph.
"Fred (Mandoline) got on the radio and told me that the track was really bad," explained Wilkerson, "so I was just going to grab a handful of brake when I got out there a little way. But it didn't make it a little way before it smoked the tires. And I wanted to be a little further back in the pack for the second run, so I got back in it and drove it down through there."
On his evening pass, Wilkerson was on a decent run when it looked as though something went away on the car as he clocked a 5.440 at 210.54 mph.
"It was going along pretty good," said Wilkerson, "when it looped the tires just a little bit and dropped a cylinder. When it did that and I was on seven cylinders. Then it popped the burst panel off it because it was just ugly down there.
"We'll try again tomorrow and see if we can get it to run down through there. But it's typical Denver; when it's in the nineties, it's ugly out there. But we still should be able to go 5.0 something even during the day, I believe in my heart."
With two more qualifying sessions slated for tomorrow, you can be sure that Wilkerson and his talented team will do their best to get a 5.0 run out of the Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Monte Carlo on the challenging Denver mountainside
