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READING, Friday: Tim Wilkerson was able to make his Levi, Ray & Shoup Impala Funny Car perform just as he planned today in the first day of qualifying at the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals. And after two good runs, Wilkerson feels his consistent hot rod is back.
In the first qualifying session in the heat of the day, Wilkerson ran a respectable 5.058, which was good for the tenth spot. Then on his second run, as the sun went away, Wilkerson broke into the fours. He made a clean, straight, nice looking run, posting an impressive 4.819 E.T. at 323.43 mph. At the time, it put Wilkerson in the No. 1 spot, but he didn't stay there. As the session came to a close, Wilkerson looks to Saturday's qualifying from the No. 3 position.
"Our first pass was about what I thought it would be," said Wilkerson, "maybe a little slower. I just didn't have it jazzed up quite enough. But it was real close to doing what it needed to do. So, we just tuned it up a little bit, for the night run and it acted just like I thought it would act. It got through the clutch a little bit early, and I'm having a little trouble with that. We'll play with it on our next couple runs and hopefully get it straightened out for Sunday. We should stay in the show, even if the weather gets better tomorrow. We've got more to give, I think. We might do a little testing tomorrow. There's a couple things we want to try. We've got some new levers for our clutch, so we might try those babies out tomorrow.
"I'm pretty happy with it. It keeps going down the track, down the track, down the track. Just like we used to do before we got on the Western Swing and got ourselves mixed up some how. We're happy to be here, really."
Wilkerson happy with No. 3 qualifying position
READING, Friday: Tim Wilkerson was able to make his Levi, Ray & Shoup Impala Funny Car perform just as he planned today in the first day of qualifying at the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals. And after two good runs, Wilkerson feels his consistent hot rod is back.
In the first qualifying session in the heat of the day, Wilkerson ran a respectable 5.058, which was good for the tenth spot. Then on his second run, as the sun went away, Wilkerson broke into the fours. He made a clean, straight, nice looking run, posting an impressive 4.819 E.T. at 323.43 mph. At the time, it put Wilkerson in the No. 1 spot, but he didn't stay there. As the session came to a close, Wilkerson looks to Saturday's qualifying from the No. 3 position.
"Our first pass was about what I thought it would be," said Wilkerson, "maybe a little slower. I just didn't have it jazzed up quite enough. But it was real close to doing what it needed to do. So, we just tuned it up a little bit, for the night run and it acted just like I thought it would act. It got through the clutch a little bit early, and I'm having a little trouble with that. We'll play with it on our next couple runs and hopefully get it straightened out for Sunday. We should stay in the show, even if the weather gets better tomorrow. We've got more to give, I think. We might do a little testing tomorrow. There's a couple things we want to try. We've got some new levers for our clutch, so we might try those babies out tomorrow.
"I'm pretty happy with it. It keeps going down the track, down the track, down the track. Just like we used to do before we got on the Western Swing and got ourselves mixed up some how. We're happy to be here, really."
