Deby
Nitro Member
[coverattach=1]For the first time in 2009, Tim Wilkerson finally found the edge and stepped over it, by smoking the tires. Plagued by a race car that didn't want to run with authority, Wilkerson had been nowhere near the precipice of lost-traction until this day in Phoenix, when he finally overpowered the track and smoked the tires on the fourth and final qualifying lap. Few drivers have ever been so unfazed by a what is normally seen as a negative.
To get to that point, Wilkerson needed to find the problem, fix it, and get from A to B in a solid fashion just to make sure he'd be in the race field on Sunday, and he was able to accomplish all of those challenges before and during the third qualifying session. After finally tracking down a small gremlin that was doing a lot of performance damage, Wilkerson and the Levi, Ray & Shoup team went out for Q3 and put a solid 4.148 on the board, which moved into the show. On his final pass, Wilkerson smoked the aforementioned tires, but his attitude was upbeat after the run.
"We've been so down on power to this point, it hardly bothers me," Wilkerson said. "We were throwing everything at it on Friday, and the car just didn't want to run, so I'm really happy that we were able to get it down there with the 4.14 on the early run today. When you've got a problem and the car isn't cooperating, it's real easy to be way over-center when you do fix the issue, because you've been throwing more and more at it to try to compensate. That third run was the biggest lap of the year for us, so far, and that completely changed the mood around here. It's funny how one good lap can do that.
"We wanted to push it a little harder on the last run, and we obviously went too far, but like I said it's not that bad of a deal. Now it's making the power it should make, and we know we stepped over the edge a little, so we're back to having a car that reacts to the changes and we can tune from there. We've got a big assignment in round one, but we're in round one and that's the main thing. Once we're in the field, we can take our chances."
Wilkerson will face No. 3 qualifier John Force in round one.
To get to that point, Wilkerson needed to find the problem, fix it, and get from A to B in a solid fashion just to make sure he'd be in the race field on Sunday, and he was able to accomplish all of those challenges before and during the third qualifying session. After finally tracking down a small gremlin that was doing a lot of performance damage, Wilkerson and the Levi, Ray & Shoup team went out for Q3 and put a solid 4.148 on the board, which moved into the show. On his final pass, Wilkerson smoked the aforementioned tires, but his attitude was upbeat after the run.
"We've been so down on power to this point, it hardly bothers me," Wilkerson said. "We were throwing everything at it on Friday, and the car just didn't want to run, so I'm really happy that we were able to get it down there with the 4.14 on the early run today. When you've got a problem and the car isn't cooperating, it's real easy to be way over-center when you do fix the issue, because you've been throwing more and more at it to try to compensate. That third run was the biggest lap of the year for us, so far, and that completely changed the mood around here. It's funny how one good lap can do that.
"We wanted to push it a little harder on the last run, and we obviously went too far, but like I said it's not that bad of a deal. Now it's making the power it should make, and we know we stepped over the edge a little, so we're back to having a car that reacts to the changes and we can tune from there. We've got a big assignment in round one, but we're in round one and that's the main thing. Once we're in the field, we can take our chances."
Wilkerson will face No. 3 qualifier John Force in round one.
