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POMONA, Sunday: Springfield, Ill. Funny Car favorite, Tim Wilkerson capped off an up and down season in an impressive way today at the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals. In his 200th start of his career, Wilkerson had the car to beat and took his Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS to the semifinal round, making awesome runs on the way.
In the first-round Wilkerson posted the quickest pass of the weekend, a 4.762 taking out Tony Bartone. This time held as quickest until the final-round when Robert Hight took it away. In the second round, Wilkerson faced off against the Team Force car driven by Ashley Force and sent her home with a 4.792 against her 4.812. In the semi's, Wilkerson went against another Team Force car, this time the one driven by Phil Burkhart. Here Wilkerson slowed and only mustered a 4.859 which wasn't enough against Burkhart's 4.796.
"We're pretty happy with the weekend," said Wilkerson. "And today was a good day. We did a little bit of winning. We sure would have like to have won the thing, especially for Dick (Levi). We really can't do anything for Dick but give him a race win. And for the guys, too, they work so hard. So, it would have been a good way to end the season.
"Our 76 was cool, and I slowed it down a bit for the second run and it acted just right. So, I told the guys we'll do an 80 in the semis and go for 73 or 4 in the finals. I had it all planned out. I had the timing mapped and the fuel curve figured and was going to strip the blower. I was one round ahead. But it put a hole out in the middle of the race track. It's a little bumpy in the right lane. It was the better lane, but it just bumped a couple of times and put the hole out. But we have nothing to be ashamed of, it was a great weekend."
For the second time this year, Wilkerson's talented crew won the Full Throttle Pit Crew Challenge. And Wilk was proud of their hard work.
"They did a great job," expressed Wilkerson. "The car's assembled well and the guys are doing a good job, there's no doubt about that. I'm losing at least one of them next year and I hate to see that, so we have to see how it all works out. Hopefully we'll find someone to replace him and everything will be good for us next year."
And as the season closed, Wilkerson learned that he earned another honor. He won the top Motel 6 'Who Got the Light Award'. Each race has a winner and at the end of the year, the driver with the overall narrowest margin of victory for the season earns the top honor. Wilkerson took it with his .0013-second margin of victory over Tony Pedregon at the Torco Racing Fuels NHRA Nationals.
So, for a fan favorite and his great team, the 2007 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing season that had it's ups and downs, ended on their highest point. And that's a great high to carry into next year.
Wilkerson ends 2007 with a flourish
POMONA, Sunday: Springfield, Ill. Funny Car favorite, Tim Wilkerson capped off an up and down season in an impressive way today at the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals. In his 200th start of his career, Wilkerson had the car to beat and took his Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS to the semifinal round, making awesome runs on the way.
In the first-round Wilkerson posted the quickest pass of the weekend, a 4.762 taking out Tony Bartone. This time held as quickest until the final-round when Robert Hight took it away. In the second round, Wilkerson faced off against the Team Force car driven by Ashley Force and sent her home with a 4.792 against her 4.812. In the semi's, Wilkerson went against another Team Force car, this time the one driven by Phil Burkhart. Here Wilkerson slowed and only mustered a 4.859 which wasn't enough against Burkhart's 4.796.
"We're pretty happy with the weekend," said Wilkerson. "And today was a good day. We did a little bit of winning. We sure would have like to have won the thing, especially for Dick (Levi). We really can't do anything for Dick but give him a race win. And for the guys, too, they work so hard. So, it would have been a good way to end the season.
"Our 76 was cool, and I slowed it down a bit for the second run and it acted just right. So, I told the guys we'll do an 80 in the semis and go for 73 or 4 in the finals. I had it all planned out. I had the timing mapped and the fuel curve figured and was going to strip the blower. I was one round ahead. But it put a hole out in the middle of the race track. It's a little bumpy in the right lane. It was the better lane, but it just bumped a couple of times and put the hole out. But we have nothing to be ashamed of, it was a great weekend."
For the second time this year, Wilkerson's talented crew won the Full Throttle Pit Crew Challenge. And Wilk was proud of their hard work.
"They did a great job," expressed Wilkerson. "The car's assembled well and the guys are doing a good job, there's no doubt about that. I'm losing at least one of them next year and I hate to see that, so we have to see how it all works out. Hopefully we'll find someone to replace him and everything will be good for us next year."
And as the season closed, Wilkerson learned that he earned another honor. He won the top Motel 6 'Who Got the Light Award'. Each race has a winner and at the end of the year, the driver with the overall narrowest margin of victory for the season earns the top honor. Wilkerson took it with his .0013-second margin of victory over Tony Pedregon at the Torco Racing Fuels NHRA Nationals.
So, for a fan favorite and his great team, the 2007 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing season that had it's ups and downs, ended on their highest point. And that's a great high to carry into next year.
