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Denver, Saturday: Funny Car pro, Tim Wilkerson went into the second day of qualifying at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway with high hopes for his Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Monte Carlo. But by the end of the day, those hopes were shattered. On both of today's qualifying attempts, Wilkerson smoked the tires, unable to improve upon his previous runs. So, his best of 5.440 from last night landed him in the No. 17 spot. And even though Wilkerson is on the outside looking in, he is surprising positive about his misfortune.
"Unfortunately, we just had more power than we knew what to do with up here," said Wilkerson. "With the track conditions and the tire we're running, we were just on the wrong edge. Our run last night really was our run. It died at 3.9 seconds and went 5.44, so it was going to go 5.10 or so, if it would have stayed lit. I was really confident that we could come out here today and do the same thing, but it was having none of it.
"We're still learning so I'm not upset with it. Of course, I'm upset that we didn't qualify, but all you can do is try to learn from what you did right and wrong. I spent a lot of time getting the thing ready to come here, so it really aggravates me over what happened. I put it together like we had it last year, but obviously last year the track was a lot better and we had that other tire. I hate gripping about the tire, but it's been a thorn in my side every since Gainesville. And I have to figure out a way to fix it, that's all there is to it."
Wilkerson looking to learn from adversity
Denver, Saturday: Funny Car pro, Tim Wilkerson went into the second day of qualifying at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway with high hopes for his Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Monte Carlo. But by the end of the day, those hopes were shattered. On both of today's qualifying attempts, Wilkerson smoked the tires, unable to improve upon his previous runs. So, his best of 5.440 from last night landed him in the No. 17 spot. And even though Wilkerson is on the outside looking in, he is surprising positive about his misfortune.
"Unfortunately, we just had more power than we knew what to do with up here," said Wilkerson. "With the track conditions and the tire we're running, we were just on the wrong edge. Our run last night really was our run. It died at 3.9 seconds and went 5.44, so it was going to go 5.10 or so, if it would have stayed lit. I was really confident that we could come out here today and do the same thing, but it was having none of it.
"We're still learning so I'm not upset with it. Of course, I'm upset that we didn't qualify, but all you can do is try to learn from what you did right and wrong. I spent a lot of time getting the thing ready to come here, so it really aggravates me over what happened. I put it together like we had it last year, but obviously last year the track was a lot better and we had that other tire. I hate gripping about the tire, but it's been a thorn in my side every since Gainesville. And I have to figure out a way to fix it, that's all there is to it."
