<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/t_wilkerson07.jpg" alt="t_wilkerson07" align="right"borders="0"/>
POMONA, Saturday: Tim Wilkerson saved the best for last today at the
Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. In the last qualifying session, Wilkerson made his best run of qualifying and the second quickest pass of the session, landing his Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS Funny Car in the No. 4 qualifying position.
There were two qualifying sessions today and on his first pass, Wilkerson again was plagued with his cylinder-dropping problem. He still made a decent pass, a 4.866 at 285.23. But it was in the heat of the day on his second run that Wilkerson brought the packed house to its feet. Wilkerson posted an impressive 4.796 at 324.83 mph.
"It's a good way to end the year," said a pleased Wilkerson, "by running good. All weekend the car has run pretty good. We've just had a hole issue. On our first pass, it dropped a hole real early, and still ran an 86. It should been a little faster but it bounced No. 8 head off of it at about 4.5 seconds. And I shut it off early because of that. I still have some work ahead of me to get the fuel system right. You can see it's making progress. We really made four nice runs. If we would run on all eight holes, we really would have made nice runs."
By ending in the top half of the field, Wilkerson will have lane choice in his first-round match-up with Tony Bartone tomorrow morning. Sometimes lane choice is crucial, but Wilkerson doesn't think it will be tomorrow.
"I don't think there's much difference in the lanes," explained Wilkerson. "The queer thing about the right lane is that it drags you to the centerline. It has a crown in it about 400 feet and you get out there and it will try to suck you in there. It does it every time. But we made good runs in the right lane, so it doesn't make any difference to us. We're going to pick the lane that has the best starting line, because I've that working a little better this weekend than I have all year. So, if we can make it run just a little better in the middle, I think it will run a 4.75 or 76 in the first-round. But we're just going to out there and make another time run, and see if we can go a little faster than we did today and hopefully beat the guy beside us. If it will it will and if it won't, we'll try again next year."
Wilkerson grabs the No. 4 qualifying slot
POMONA, Saturday: Tim Wilkerson saved the best for last today at the
Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. In the last qualifying session, Wilkerson made his best run of qualifying and the second quickest pass of the session, landing his Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS Funny Car in the No. 4 qualifying position.
There were two qualifying sessions today and on his first pass, Wilkerson again was plagued with his cylinder-dropping problem. He still made a decent pass, a 4.866 at 285.23. But it was in the heat of the day on his second run that Wilkerson brought the packed house to its feet. Wilkerson posted an impressive 4.796 at 324.83 mph.
"It's a good way to end the year," said a pleased Wilkerson, "by running good. All weekend the car has run pretty good. We've just had a hole issue. On our first pass, it dropped a hole real early, and still ran an 86. It should been a little faster but it bounced No. 8 head off of it at about 4.5 seconds. And I shut it off early because of that. I still have some work ahead of me to get the fuel system right. You can see it's making progress. We really made four nice runs. If we would run on all eight holes, we really would have made nice runs."
By ending in the top half of the field, Wilkerson will have lane choice in his first-round match-up with Tony Bartone tomorrow morning. Sometimes lane choice is crucial, but Wilkerson doesn't think it will be tomorrow.
"I don't think there's much difference in the lanes," explained Wilkerson. "The queer thing about the right lane is that it drags you to the centerline. It has a crown in it about 400 feet and you get out there and it will try to suck you in there. It does it every time. But we made good runs in the right lane, so it doesn't make any difference to us. We're going to pick the lane that has the best starting line, because I've that working a little better this weekend than I have all year. So, if we can make it run just a little better in the middle, I think it will run a 4.75 or 76 in the first-round. But we're just going to out there and make another time run, and see if we can go a little faster than we did today and hopefully beat the guy beside us. If it will it will and if it won't, we'll try again next year."
