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SOMONA, Calif.(July 29) -- The grueling Western Swing came to an early close for Springfield, Ill. Funny Car favorite, Tim Wilkerson. He did not qualify the Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Monte Carlo at the Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway.
In today's first session, Wilkerson started in the No. 16 spot, but John Force bumped him out, and Wilk didn't improve as he smoked the tires. In the second session, Wilkerson needed to run better than a 4.968 and even though he made a nice pass, but it was just too slow at 4.995 seconds at 304.32 mph.
"The car was just too aggressive all weekend," said a dejected Wilkerson, "and the change we made in our clutch is the reason. We thought that might happen but needed to try it and find out. It's been a tough season and we keep trying different things to get it straightened out, but we're running out of things to try. We've got a brand new car at the shop and I'm thinking about pulling it out for Brainerd. It possibly could be the chassis; sometimes they just don't work right. We've got some time back at shop to look things over and make that decision."
Wilkerson Heads Home Early
SOMONA, Calif.(July 29) -- The grueling Western Swing came to an early close for Springfield, Ill. Funny Car favorite, Tim Wilkerson. He did not qualify the Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Monte Carlo at the Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway.
In today's first session, Wilkerson started in the No. 16 spot, but John Force bumped him out, and Wilk didn't improve as he smoked the tires. In the second session, Wilkerson needed to run better than a 4.968 and even though he made a nice pass, but it was just too slow at 4.995 seconds at 304.32 mph.
"The car was just too aggressive all weekend," said a dejected Wilkerson, "and the change we made in our clutch is the reason. We thought that might happen but needed to try it and find out. It's been a tough season and we keep trying different things to get it straightened out, but we're running out of things to try. We've got a brand new car at the shop and I'm thinking about pulling it out for Brainerd. It possibly could be the chassis; sometimes they just don't work right. We've got some time back at shop to look things over and make that decision."
