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POMONA, Prerace: When you ask Funny Car veteran, Tim Wilkerson, what his goal is for the 2007 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing season, his answer comes in two parts. The successful business owner, loving husband and father of three is a rare breed in the professional ranks of the drag racing world. Not only does he own and run the team, he makes the all-crucial tuning decisions while handling the driving duties. And it's apparent that all of these responsibilities weigh heavily in his response.
"My goal for this year," explained Wilkerson, "is to qualify for every race and end up in the Top 10. I don't want to have another year like we did last year."
Coming from one of the toughest years in his illustrious career, Wilkerson believes he has all the ingredients he needs to take his beautiful Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet to the limits he has set.
"I'm not disillusioned, even after the season we had last year," said Wilkerson. "I'm optimistic that we can do as well as we've done other years. In 2003, we ran our career best right out of the trailer at the first race and qualified No. 1. We went on to win two events and finish No. 7. I don't see why we can't do as well this year. We have the same crew as last year, expect for one, and he's been with us at the shop since the first of the year. The guys have worked out the bugs and have gelled, and they work well together. I think that will help us a lot.
"Now don't get me wrong. I'm not looking at the world through rose-colored glasses. This year is going to be ugly; it's going to be tough. But I think that if the powers-to-be from NHRA will leave things alone, I don't think our challenge this year will be any different then it was last year. They threw so many new parts at us last year, just the tires and the fuel made it a struggle for us to get things figured out. Some of the teams had better luck at it than we did, but we were coming around toward the end of the season. So, if the higher-ups just leave the parts alone for a year, it should decrease our challenges and increase our chances."
To help prepare for the new season and the upcoming CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Wilkerson attended the last pre-season test session this past weekend held at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
"We made a few changes to the car over the winter," explained Wilkerson. "We were having issues with the slide valves last year, so we changed those and we changed some things in the fuel system and the clutch. Nothing too major, but we wanted to figure these new things out before we got to Pomona. Our plan for the test session was to make several short passes - nothing past half-track. The Vegas track is notorious for tearing up tires and I didn't want to ruin $10,000 worth of tires in testing. But wouldn't you know, we made five short runs and went through four sets of tires. So, my tire plan didn't work out, but my testing plan did. We had some good 60-foot times and on my 4.80 run I pulled my foot at 4.3-seconds, so that should have been a 4.75-second run. So, I'm pretty happy with what we did.
"Now we just have to remember that Vegas is different from Pomona. The car acts like it has too much power when we get there. Last year we did well testing in Vegas got to Pomona and shook the tires on the first three passes. And it's acting like it's going to do the same thing this year, so we just have to learn from what we did last year and continue to make it run."
Wilkerson and his talented team will do their best to make the Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Monte Carlo run well at the opening race of the new year and keep going strong until the season ends in nine exciting months.
Wilkerson is ready for the journey to his 2007 goal
POMONA, Prerace: When you ask Funny Car veteran, Tim Wilkerson, what his goal is for the 2007 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing season, his answer comes in two parts. The successful business owner, loving husband and father of three is a rare breed in the professional ranks of the drag racing world. Not only does he own and run the team, he makes the all-crucial tuning decisions while handling the driving duties. And it's apparent that all of these responsibilities weigh heavily in his response.
"My goal for this year," explained Wilkerson, "is to qualify for every race and end up in the Top 10. I don't want to have another year like we did last year."
Coming from one of the toughest years in his illustrious career, Wilkerson believes he has all the ingredients he needs to take his beautiful Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet to the limits he has set.
"I'm not disillusioned, even after the season we had last year," said Wilkerson. "I'm optimistic that we can do as well as we've done other years. In 2003, we ran our career best right out of the trailer at the first race and qualified No. 1. We went on to win two events and finish No. 7. I don't see why we can't do as well this year. We have the same crew as last year, expect for one, and he's been with us at the shop since the first of the year. The guys have worked out the bugs and have gelled, and they work well together. I think that will help us a lot.
"Now don't get me wrong. I'm not looking at the world through rose-colored glasses. This year is going to be ugly; it's going to be tough. But I think that if the powers-to-be from NHRA will leave things alone, I don't think our challenge this year will be any different then it was last year. They threw so many new parts at us last year, just the tires and the fuel made it a struggle for us to get things figured out. Some of the teams had better luck at it than we did, but we were coming around toward the end of the season. So, if the higher-ups just leave the parts alone for a year, it should decrease our challenges and increase our chances."
To help prepare for the new season and the upcoming CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Wilkerson attended the last pre-season test session this past weekend held at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
"We made a few changes to the car over the winter," explained Wilkerson. "We were having issues with the slide valves last year, so we changed those and we changed some things in the fuel system and the clutch. Nothing too major, but we wanted to figure these new things out before we got to Pomona. Our plan for the test session was to make several short passes - nothing past half-track. The Vegas track is notorious for tearing up tires and I didn't want to ruin $10,000 worth of tires in testing. But wouldn't you know, we made five short runs and went through four sets of tires. So, my tire plan didn't work out, but my testing plan did. We had some good 60-foot times and on my 4.80 run I pulled my foot at 4.3-seconds, so that should have been a 4.75-second run. So, I'm pretty happy with what we did.
"Now we just have to remember that Vegas is different from Pomona. The car acts like it has too much power when we get there. Last year we did well testing in Vegas got to Pomona and shook the tires on the first three passes. And it's acting like it's going to do the same thing this year, so we just have to learn from what we did last year and continue to make it run."
Wilkerson and his talented team will do their best to make the Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Monte Carlo run well at the opening race of the new year and keep going strong until the season ends in nine exciting months.
