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PHOENIX, Friday: Funny Car veteran, Tim Wilkerson will go into the second day of qualifying at Firebird International Raceway in good shape, landing his Levi, Ray & Shoup Monte Carlo in the No. 10 qualifying position today at the Checker Schuck's Kragen NHRA Nationals.
On the day's first pass, Wilkerson ran 5.359 at 236.51 mph, which was good enough to put him in the top-half of the field, in the No. 7 spot.
"The car was going along good and then it shook," said Wilkerson. "And when it did, I pedaled it and lost the blower belt."
For the second run, the late afternoon drop in temperature brought with it a huge improvement in the track. Many of the teams took advantage of the improvement and stepped-up. Wilkerson was one of the improving cars, laying down a 4.810 at 314.09. But a dropped cylinder kept, Wilk from making the 4.76 run that was in the car.
"It dropped a cylinder at about 4 seconds into the run," Wilkerson explained. "It was running pretty good early, so it was going to run a 4.76 or so. But that's part of it. The track was a lot better than we gave it credit for, so we just didn't have near enough of anything in it, really. We just made the wrong move; we didn't tune it up enough.
"It's showing some signs of life again. At least it's responding to what we're trying to do. So, we'll just work on it for tomorrow and see if we can make it go a little faster again."
Wilkerson lands in No. 10 spot
PHOENIX, Friday: Funny Car veteran, Tim Wilkerson will go into the second day of qualifying at Firebird International Raceway in good shape, landing his Levi, Ray & Shoup Monte Carlo in the No. 10 qualifying position today at the Checker Schuck's Kragen NHRA Nationals.
On the day's first pass, Wilkerson ran 5.359 at 236.51 mph, which was good enough to put him in the top-half of the field, in the No. 7 spot.
"The car was going along good and then it shook," said Wilkerson. "And when it did, I pedaled it and lost the blower belt."
For the second run, the late afternoon drop in temperature brought with it a huge improvement in the track. Many of the teams took advantage of the improvement and stepped-up. Wilkerson was one of the improving cars, laying down a 4.810 at 314.09. But a dropped cylinder kept, Wilk from making the 4.76 run that was in the car.
"It dropped a cylinder at about 4 seconds into the run," Wilkerson explained. "It was running pretty good early, so it was going to run a 4.76 or so. But that's part of it. The track was a lot better than we gave it credit for, so we just didn't have near enough of anything in it, really. We just made the wrong move; we didn't tune it up enough.
"It's showing some signs of life again. At least it's responding to what we're trying to do. So, we'll just work on it for tomorrow and see if we can make it go a little faster again."
