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JOLIET, Saturday: Tim Wilkerson saved his best for last today at the Torco Racing Fuels Route 66 NHRA Nationals. As he rolled up to the starting line for the last qualifying session, he was not in the program. But that didn't last long, because Wilkerson got the beautiful Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS into the show with a 4.833 at 323.81 mph, which was the quickest and fastest Funny Car pass of the day.
In the first round of qualifying most of the Funny Cars didn't make it down the track, Wilk included. At around 800 feet, he lost traction and ran 5.672 at 174.50 mph. So, the heat was on the Springfield, Ill. favorite to make the most of his last chance. The nice, clean blast put Wilkerson in the No. 15 position.
" We feel very fortunate to be in the show," expressed Wilkerson. "There's some big names that didn't make it this week, so we really appreciate being one of the lucky ones. We had a malfunction last night. We broke a lifter and that caused us to drop a cylinder. And when you mess up on the Friday night deal you're really lucky to get into the show.
"Early in the day today, the track was really bad, so, I used the run to test something, and it did just what I thought it would. I was able to work off of that and it went down the track on the last run.
"It's pretty great to be the quickest and fastest of the day. I'm glad for the guys, and I hope Dick (Levi) and all our friends at LRS are happy. We had a lot of customers here today, and I hope it was thrilling for them."
Wilkerson will meet up with the point's leader, Ron Capps in the first-round of action tomorrow morning.
"We're just going to race the race track again tomorrow and try to keep learning," said Wilkerson. "Hopefully we'll have something for them. We'll just try to not screw up and make somebody beat us."
Wilkerson makes quickest run of the day and gets in the show
JOLIET, Saturday: Tim Wilkerson saved his best for last today at the Torco Racing Fuels Route 66 NHRA Nationals. As he rolled up to the starting line for the last qualifying session, he was not in the program. But that didn't last long, because Wilkerson got the beautiful Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS into the show with a 4.833 at 323.81 mph, which was the quickest and fastest Funny Car pass of the day.
In the first round of qualifying most of the Funny Cars didn't make it down the track, Wilk included. At around 800 feet, he lost traction and ran 5.672 at 174.50 mph. So, the heat was on the Springfield, Ill. favorite to make the most of his last chance. The nice, clean blast put Wilkerson in the No. 15 position.
" We feel very fortunate to be in the show," expressed Wilkerson. "There's some big names that didn't make it this week, so we really appreciate being one of the lucky ones. We had a malfunction last night. We broke a lifter and that caused us to drop a cylinder. And when you mess up on the Friday night deal you're really lucky to get into the show.
"Early in the day today, the track was really bad, so, I used the run to test something, and it did just what I thought it would. I was able to work off of that and it went down the track on the last run.
"It's pretty great to be the quickest and fastest of the day. I'm glad for the guys, and I hope Dick (Levi) and all our friends at LRS are happy. We had a lot of customers here today, and I hope it was thrilling for them."
Wilkerson will meet up with the point's leader, Ron Capps in the first-round of action tomorrow morning.
"We're just going to race the race track again tomorrow and try to keep learning," said Wilkerson. "Hopefully we'll have something for them. We'll just try to not screw up and make somebody beat us."
