Daniel Wilkerson was obviously excited to make his NHRA pro debut here in Topeka. He was amped-up
to know he'd be in the program on Sunday by simply making his first pro qualifying lap. He was
encouraged by his first run down the track on Friday, and ready for another attempt on Saturday.
After that lap, he was clearly feeling nothing less than elated about the whole thing, and was
earning accolades and pats on the back from teammates, fans, and even John Force, who came by the
Wilkerson pit to congratulate the kid, and rave to his father.
The reason for all the fun was Wilkerson's terrific 4.215 on a hot and slippery race track, which
was not only good enough to move him up the ladder, but shot him all the way up to 8th. He also
impressed with his poise, when a few small problems prevented his team from sending him out for his
burnout until Mike Neff, who was in the other lane, was nearly back from his. D. Wilk calmly
shortened his burnout, hurried back to the line, and never left the Neff team waiting, before
powering to his 4.21 and a top-half position for race day. He will face Bob Tasca III in round
one.
"That all went pretty well, I think," said the understated young Wilkerson. "Seriously, that was
really cool. And it feels a lot faster when you keep your foot in it to the finish line, too, I
can tell you that. My dad ran just two pairs ahead of us, so he had one of our guys go down to the
top end on a scooter, to hustle him back down to the starting line, but I really didn't think he'd
make it in time. Just as we fired up, there he was sticking his head in there to help adjust the
idle and look everything over, and I thought that was cool. I could tell we were having some
little problems, so I just did my best to shorten everything up so that we didn't leave Neff and
his guys waiting, and then it was just light the bulbs, mash the pedal, and go.
"It ran great, and that was really a rush to make a nice full lap when so many teams were
struggling with the hot track. That tells me that we're not just meat out here for other teams to
feed on. We can make a good lap when it's tough to do it, so if we can repeat something like that
we'll have a chance to win a round or two on Sunday. I knew we were coming here to do this in
stages and do it on a budget, but I never thought we were coming here to just show up and lose.
I've always gone to the starting line to win, ever since I got in a Junior Dragster as a little
kid. Maybe we can have some fun tomorrow."
