Sat, 19 Sep 2009, 10:50 PM Good and Great Position Wilkerson 5th

Courtesy of Bob Wilber

CONCORD, N.C. -- Tim Wilkerson made a nice solid pass during Saturday's first qualifying session, on another day when the weather forecasters fortunately struck out. His 4.154 was not at the top of the list for Q3, but neither was it anywhere near the bottom, so all things considered, it ranked as a "good" pass under tough conditions. A couple of hours later, though, when Q4 rolled around and Wilkerson drove the Levi, Ray & Shoup Shelby Mustang from wire to wire, a 4.100 popped up on the board, accompanied by a stout speed of 306.95 mph, and the reaction from the LRS team was a resounding "Great!" The run moved Wilkerson back up the ladder, after he had fallen as far as 8th by the time he ran, and his 5th-place position will pair him up in a first-round date with Jeff Arend on Sunday.

The 4.100 was the second quickest run of the session, and therefore earned Wilk his first bonus points in the new format. As the second-quickest, he earned two points.

"That was a nice pass, and now that I'm in a good position to see things in hindsight, I can see how we could've done that earlier," Wilkerson said. "But that's called learning, and you don't learn from success as much as you learn when you don't get it just right. The 4.15 had all sorts of spots in the run where we could pick up, so we tweaked on it there and it ran 5-hundredths quicker.

"It's funny how we're all pretty aware of this bonus point thing. It's not a lot of points, but they're out there and someone's going to pick them up, so I think we're all pretty tuned-in to making the best runs we can to see if we can grab some. We got two, and those two points are in the bank. Who knows if we'll need them for something important in the end, but we have them now and they're ours."

Team Wilkerson Racing
NHRA Nitro Funny Car
http://www.timwilkerson.com

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