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DALLAS, Friday: Tim Wilkerson took his beautiful Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS Funny Car to the top of the field in the night qualifying session at the O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex. His run was a thing of beauty. With the header flames reaching over the roof toward the starlit sky, Wilkerson sailed straight down the lane, taking the No. 1 spot with a 4.787 at 318.17 mph.
The Texas heat didn't seem to affect Wilkerson today and he tuned and drove his hot rod on two good runs. In the first qualifying session, Wilkerson ran 5.028, which was good for the No. 7 spot. He knew he would be able to step up in the next session. For the night run, the slippery race track cooled and improved, and Wilkerson certainly did step up. His run brought the fans to their feet, their cheers deafening, as his team jumped for joy on the starting line.
" We're trying our best," said a jubilant Wilkerson. "We really have nothing to lose. We're not in the Countdown, so we're trying to learn to run our car better. We don't have any pressure over points, but we do need to qualify. The qualifying money is important and the crew needs the satisfaction. I feel good for them more than for myself. I have the best job in the world. I get to drive the car and make the decisions on how to run the car, and they do the dirty work.
"This weekend started out pretty good for us, so far. I really would like to get a win. That really would give the team a boost. I have several young guys that have never worked on a team, and a win would give them such a boost. It's way too hard work to get beat first-round all the time. And we would all like to give our sponsor, Levi, Ray & Shoup a win."
Wilkerson takes it to the top
DALLAS, Friday: Tim Wilkerson took his beautiful Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS Funny Car to the top of the field in the night qualifying session at the O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex. His run was a thing of beauty. With the header flames reaching over the roof toward the starlit sky, Wilkerson sailed straight down the lane, taking the No. 1 spot with a 4.787 at 318.17 mph.
The Texas heat didn't seem to affect Wilkerson today and he tuned and drove his hot rod on two good runs. In the first qualifying session, Wilkerson ran 5.028, which was good for the No. 7 spot. He knew he would be able to step up in the next session. For the night run, the slippery race track cooled and improved, and Wilkerson certainly did step up. His run brought the fans to their feet, their cheers deafening, as his team jumped for joy on the starting line.
" We're trying our best," said a jubilant Wilkerson. "We really have nothing to lose. We're not in the Countdown, so we're trying to learn to run our car better. We don't have any pressure over points, but we do need to qualify. The qualifying money is important and the crew needs the satisfaction. I feel good for them more than for myself. I have the best job in the world. I get to drive the car and make the decisions on how to run the car, and they do the dirty work.
"This weekend started out pretty good for us, so far. I really would like to get a win. That really would give the team a boost. I have several young guys that have never worked on a team, and a win would give them such a boost. It's way too hard work to get beat first-round all the time. And we would all like to give our sponsor, Levi, Ray & Shoup a win."
