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HOUSTON, Friday: Funny car veteran, Tim Wilkerson had a good first day of qualifying today at the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals presented by Pennzoil. But he would have been a little happier if the clutch in his Levi, Ray & Shoup Monte Carlo would have gotten along better with the Houston quarter-mile.
On his first qualifying pass, Wilkerson ran 5.281 at a slow 215.62 mph. Then in the evening session, he stepped up to run 4.885 at 313.00, which was good enough to put him in the No. 12 qualifying position.
"The track has just been repaved," explained Wilkerson. "So on the first run, the track was a little weak in the middle, and the car smoked the tires down there, when it tried to go one to one. And on the second run, it just went through the clutch in the middle. So, it ended up going a little slower than we thought. We were looking for an 83 or 84. But it wore the clutch out pretty bad, so the track actually got better than we thought it did. It just didn't keep up with the clutch wear, so it only went 88.
"So, we'll try and figure how to keep the clutch in the car for tomorrow. It ruined it tonight, that's for sure. It's weird acting here. It's shaking the tire early, but I think the track has more power than we think. It will be all right tomorrow, I think. Hopefully, we can keep ourselves in the show, and go from there."
Wilkerson would like to move up from the No. 12 qualifying position
HOUSTON, Friday: Funny car veteran, Tim Wilkerson had a good first day of qualifying today at the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals presented by Pennzoil. But he would have been a little happier if the clutch in his Levi, Ray & Shoup Monte Carlo would have gotten along better with the Houston quarter-mile.
On his first qualifying pass, Wilkerson ran 5.281 at a slow 215.62 mph. Then in the evening session, he stepped up to run 4.885 at 313.00, which was good enough to put him in the No. 12 qualifying position.
"The track has just been repaved," explained Wilkerson. "So on the first run, the track was a little weak in the middle, and the car smoked the tires down there, when it tried to go one to one. And on the second run, it just went through the clutch in the middle. So, it ended up going a little slower than we thought. We were looking for an 83 or 84. But it wore the clutch out pretty bad, so the track actually got better than we thought it did. It just didn't keep up with the clutch wear, so it only went 88.
"So, we'll try and figure how to keep the clutch in the car for tomorrow. It ruined it tonight, that's for sure. It's weird acting here. It's shaking the tire early, but I think the track has more power than we think. It will be all right tomorrow, I think. Hopefully, we can keep ourselves in the show, and go from there."
