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POMONA, Calif. - Tim Wilkerson saved the best for last today in the final day of qualifying at the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. In the final session, Wilkerson ran his career-best E.T., a blazing 4.723, landing his Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Monte Carlo in the No. 5 qualifying position. This made Wilkerson the highest ranked single car team, in the quickest Funny Car field in NHRA history.
Wilkerson had wanted to get into the 4.70's today and he certainly succeeded. On his first pass of the day, he ran a strong 4.797 at 322.65 mph., which moved him into the No. 11 spot. But as he sat in the staging lanes waiting to make his last run, all that changed. With a huge amount of moving around and not qualified cars getting into the show, Wilkerson rolled up to the starting line, having fallen all the way down into the No. 17 spot. Wilkerson didn't let the pressure get to him as he tackled the job at hand. And as the scoreboard lit up to show his 4.723 at 326.95 mph, the yells of jubilation from the crew were deafening.
"It was a good day," said the affable Wilkerson. "I left a lot on the table on the first run. I just took too much lead out of it because the track was just a little bit hairy. I was a little chicken, because I just wanted to get from one end to the other so we could learn something. For the second run, we just stripped the blower, took it back up there, and put a little clutch on it and a little lead in it. And I guess you can say it went pretty fast. It still has some in it, I think.
'"I'm real proud of my guys. I've got two new guys this year, and that car is flawless. It's not leaking, it's fast, I can tune it and it responds. And that says that everyone is doing the right thing, and that's as important as anything is. It's hard to tune a car when you got the head guy doing one thing and the clutch guy doing another and the blower guy something else. And that's the kind of thing you get when they're not thinking as a team. Hopefully this is an example of how it's going to be for the rest of the year."
Wilkerson had one of the toughest years of his career last year, and despite the gossip, his long-time friend and sponsor, Dick Levi of Levi, Ray & Shoup stuck with him through it all.
"I'm really happy for having Dick sponsoring us," said Wilkerson. "We know it was a hard year last year, and we want to tell him thanks for sticking with us. It was really hard for us over the winter, because there was a lot of crap on the Internet and I had people tell me that I won't have a sponsor this year. But they just don't know Dick Levi."
Wilkerson will have lane choice over Mike Ashley in the first-round of action tomorrow.
"I don't know if we'll try to go any faster tomorrow," said Wilkerson. "But if the conditions are good and there's some cloud cover, we'll stand on it. We're trying not to screw up this year. We want the other guys to have to beat us, so I don't want to go out there and smoke the tires. So, we may be a little conservative, but I'm not known to do that, so we'll see."
Wilkerson Runs Career-Best and Takes the No. 5 Spot
POMONA, Calif. - Tim Wilkerson saved the best for last today in the final day of qualifying at the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. In the final session, Wilkerson ran his career-best E.T., a blazing 4.723, landing his Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Monte Carlo in the No. 5 qualifying position. This made Wilkerson the highest ranked single car team, in the quickest Funny Car field in NHRA history.
Wilkerson had wanted to get into the 4.70's today and he certainly succeeded. On his first pass of the day, he ran a strong 4.797 at 322.65 mph., which moved him into the No. 11 spot. But as he sat in the staging lanes waiting to make his last run, all that changed. With a huge amount of moving around and not qualified cars getting into the show, Wilkerson rolled up to the starting line, having fallen all the way down into the No. 17 spot. Wilkerson didn't let the pressure get to him as he tackled the job at hand. And as the scoreboard lit up to show his 4.723 at 326.95 mph, the yells of jubilation from the crew were deafening.
"It was a good day," said the affable Wilkerson. "I left a lot on the table on the first run. I just took too much lead out of it because the track was just a little bit hairy. I was a little chicken, because I just wanted to get from one end to the other so we could learn something. For the second run, we just stripped the blower, took it back up there, and put a little clutch on it and a little lead in it. And I guess you can say it went pretty fast. It still has some in it, I think.
'"I'm real proud of my guys. I've got two new guys this year, and that car is flawless. It's not leaking, it's fast, I can tune it and it responds. And that says that everyone is doing the right thing, and that's as important as anything is. It's hard to tune a car when you got the head guy doing one thing and the clutch guy doing another and the blower guy something else. And that's the kind of thing you get when they're not thinking as a team. Hopefully this is an example of how it's going to be for the rest of the year."
Wilkerson had one of the toughest years of his career last year, and despite the gossip, his long-time friend and sponsor, Dick Levi of Levi, Ray & Shoup stuck with him through it all.
"I'm really happy for having Dick sponsoring us," said Wilkerson. "We know it was a hard year last year, and we want to tell him thanks for sticking with us. It was really hard for us over the winter, because there was a lot of crap on the Internet and I had people tell me that I won't have a sponsor this year. But they just don't know Dick Levi."
Wilkerson will have lane choice over Mike Ashley in the first-round of action tomorrow.
"I don't know if we'll try to go any faster tomorrow," said Wilkerson. "But if the conditions are good and there's some cloud cover, we'll stand on it. We're trying not to screw up this year. We want the other guys to have to beat us, so I don't want to go out there and smoke the tires. So, we may be a little conservative, but I'm not known to do that, so we'll see."
