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Sonoma, Friday: Funny Car veteran, Tim Wilkerson put his Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Monte Carlo in the No. 16 qualifying position as the first day of qualifying at the Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals came to a close.
In the first qualifying session, Wilkerson ran 5.183 at 274.61 mph, which was good for the No. 5 spot. But by the time Wilkerson ran in the second session, he was sitting on the bump and his improved 4.987 was not enough to move him from his spot.
"It smoked the tires on the first pass, so then it dropped a cylinder," said Wilkerson. "Then on tonight's pass it was just too aggressive when it left, and spun the tires and was getting out of the grove. And if I hadn't pedaled it, it never would have made it. It was going sideways when I did what I did, so we got lucky. We went from one end of the spectrum to the other. On the first run, it was pretty decent, just a little weak. Then on the next run, it was just too much. If I can find the middle tomorrow, I think I'll be okay. I'd like to run a mid 80 or low 90 in the heat of the day. So far, I haven't been able to figure out how to do that with these tires. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to figure it out tomorrow. If the thing sticks, it should go down through there."
Wilkerson looks to move out of the No. 16 spot tomorrow
Sonoma, Friday: Funny Car veteran, Tim Wilkerson put his Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Monte Carlo in the No. 16 qualifying position as the first day of qualifying at the Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals came to a close.
In the first qualifying session, Wilkerson ran 5.183 at 274.61 mph, which was good for the No. 5 spot. But by the time Wilkerson ran in the second session, he was sitting on the bump and his improved 4.987 was not enough to move him from his spot.
"It smoked the tires on the first pass, so then it dropped a cylinder," said Wilkerson. "Then on tonight's pass it was just too aggressive when it left, and spun the tires and was getting out of the grove. And if I hadn't pedaled it, it never would have made it. It was going sideways when I did what I did, so we got lucky. We went from one end of the spectrum to the other. On the first run, it was pretty decent, just a little weak. Then on the next run, it was just too much. If I can find the middle tomorrow, I think I'll be okay. I'd like to run a mid 80 or low 90 in the heat of the day. So far, I haven't been able to figure out how to do that with these tires. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to figure it out tomorrow. If the thing sticks, it should go down through there."
