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BRAINERD, Sunday: The weather turned cooler for race day at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway. And with the improved weather came good track conditions, which made for an all-around great day at the races. Funny Car pro, Tim Wilkerson took advantage of the improved conditions to show the best side of his beautiful Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS.
In the first-round, as Wilkerson predicted last night, his opponent, Del Worsham gave him a run for his money. It was a nice side-by-side run, with Wilkerson getting the win light with a 4.809 at 326.32 mph against Worsham's 4.875. It was Wilkerson's best run of the weekend, the fastest of the round and the second quickest of the round. But unfortunately, in the second round, Wilkerson had to face the guy that laid down the quickest pass of the earlier session, Robert Hight. This time Wilkerson slowed a little to post a 4.870 at 322.34 mph against Hight's quicker, 4.781.
"It was great that our first pass was second quickest E.T. of the round," said Wilkerson, "and that was what we were trying to run. I thought it might go a little quicker. On the second pass, it just ran through the clutch a little bit when I put timing to it. The track was about 10 degrees warmer than it was on the first pass, so I figured it wouldn't be so good. I thought it would just spin the tire a little bit and keep going but it just went through the clutch. We've got different clutch packs we've been putting in it this weekend, and it ruined one disc. I mean it just wiped it out. So, we've got to figure out how to get through that disc. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do yet. I'll take it home and analyze it. But the car is going down the track again. It went down five out of six times, so that's good."
Wilkerson's Levi, Ray & Shoup Funny Car made two 326 mph runs this weekend, and that's tremendous speed for the improving hot rod. And a new fuel pump is part of the reason.
"It's just running good," explained Wilkerson. "I've got the fuel system right in it. On our second qualifying run when it went 4.93, the fuel pump actually died about half way down the track. It beat the dog out of the left side of the motor. So, we put a different fuel pump on and it took a couple of runs to get it tuned in, but you can see it likes the gas. It runs a lot of speed now. I think we can make it run even faster, but it's on the rev limiter down there. So, I just have to figure out how to get it to go faster before it gets there. It's picking up a lot of speed between the cones, almost 70 mph. If I can get it going 261 or 262 at half-track, it should go 330 mph. We'll probably work on that at the next couple races."
Wilkerson is quick and fast
BRAINERD, Sunday: The weather turned cooler for race day at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway. And with the improved weather came good track conditions, which made for an all-around great day at the races. Funny Car pro, Tim Wilkerson took advantage of the improved conditions to show the best side of his beautiful Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS.
In the first-round, as Wilkerson predicted last night, his opponent, Del Worsham gave him a run for his money. It was a nice side-by-side run, with Wilkerson getting the win light with a 4.809 at 326.32 mph against Worsham's 4.875. It was Wilkerson's best run of the weekend, the fastest of the round and the second quickest of the round. But unfortunately, in the second round, Wilkerson had to face the guy that laid down the quickest pass of the earlier session, Robert Hight. This time Wilkerson slowed a little to post a 4.870 at 322.34 mph against Hight's quicker, 4.781.
"It was great that our first pass was second quickest E.T. of the round," said Wilkerson, "and that was what we were trying to run. I thought it might go a little quicker. On the second pass, it just ran through the clutch a little bit when I put timing to it. The track was about 10 degrees warmer than it was on the first pass, so I figured it wouldn't be so good. I thought it would just spin the tire a little bit and keep going but it just went through the clutch. We've got different clutch packs we've been putting in it this weekend, and it ruined one disc. I mean it just wiped it out. So, we've got to figure out how to get through that disc. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do yet. I'll take it home and analyze it. But the car is going down the track again. It went down five out of six times, so that's good."
Wilkerson's Levi, Ray & Shoup Funny Car made two 326 mph runs this weekend, and that's tremendous speed for the improving hot rod. And a new fuel pump is part of the reason.
"It's just running good," explained Wilkerson. "I've got the fuel system right in it. On our second qualifying run when it went 4.93, the fuel pump actually died about half way down the track. It beat the dog out of the left side of the motor. So, we put a different fuel pump on and it took a couple of runs to get it tuned in, but you can see it likes the gas. It runs a lot of speed now. I think we can make it run even faster, but it's on the rev limiter down there. So, I just have to figure out how to get it to go faster before it gets there. It's picking up a lot of speed between the cones, almost 70 mph. If I can get it going 261 or 262 at half-track, it should go 330 mph. We'll probably work on that at the next couple races."
