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JOLIET, Sunday: It was tough for Tim Wilkerson to be a giant killer with a seven-cylinder race car. Wilkerson wanted to stop Ron Capps today at the Torco Racing Fuels Route 66 NHRA Nationals, but his Levi, Ray & Shoup Impala SS dropped a cylinder in route and Wilk's 4.999 wasn't enough against Capps' 4.862.
Since Wilkerson didn't have lane choice, he was put in the bumpy right lane, and that's what caused his demise. His beautiful hot rod was on a good run, but hit a bump at about 400 feet, which caused the car to haze the tire, which in turn caused the engine to drop a cylinder.
"It was on a real nice run," explained Wilkerson. "But it spun the tire a little bit on a bump out there and when it did, it put a hole out. Then the blower belt broke on it because it put two holes out by the time it got spinning a little more. We were afraid of that happening in that right lane. But it was on a nice run again. The car's leaving the starting line every time and we're pretty content with that.
"We're going to stay tomorrow and test our new blowers and then we'll put them on a dyno and check them again. So, we'll see how all that works out."
Wilkerson hits a bump in the road to a win
JOLIET, Sunday: It was tough for Tim Wilkerson to be a giant killer with a seven-cylinder race car. Wilkerson wanted to stop Ron Capps today at the Torco Racing Fuels Route 66 NHRA Nationals, but his Levi, Ray & Shoup Impala SS dropped a cylinder in route and Wilk's 4.999 wasn't enough against Capps' 4.862.
Since Wilkerson didn't have lane choice, he was put in the bumpy right lane, and that's what caused his demise. His beautiful hot rod was on a good run, but hit a bump at about 400 feet, which caused the car to haze the tire, which in turn caused the engine to drop a cylinder.
"It was on a real nice run," explained Wilkerson. "But it spun the tire a little bit on a bump out there and when it did, it put a hole out. Then the blower belt broke on it because it put two holes out by the time it got spinning a little more. We were afraid of that happening in that right lane. But it was on a nice run again. The car's leaving the starting line every time and we're pretty content with that.
"We're going to stay tomorrow and test our new blowers and then we'll put them on a dyno and check them again. So, we'll see how all that works out."
