Tim Wilkerson battled the elements along with his Funny Car colleagues on Saturday, dealing with
bright sun, legitimate summer heat, and a dicey track, but little could be changed on this day at
Heartland Park. Tire smoke was the most common sight on Saturday, but Wilkerson managed to get his
car to the finish line on the day's first run. To do that, he slowed it down enough to avoid the
dreaded spin, but that de-tuned method created only a 4.343. In the final session, Wilk made it to
about the 330 mark before losing traction.
He will race out of the No. 12 spot, and will face Cruz Pedregon in round one.
"On the first one, the Top Fuel guys were having tons of traction problems ahead of us, so we just
slowed her way down and tried to find a way to the other end," Wilkerson said. "It wasn't pretty,
but it was prettier than tire smoke. We knew there was more out there, because some kid named
Wilkerson showed us how to do it, and that got everyone plenty excited around here. Daniel really
made a great lap, and we used that as a jumping-off point to try to go faster in the second
session. Unfortunately, it was just blistering hot out there, and we had too much in it to make
it.
"Now, we'll just go out there tomorrow, when it'll be pretty much like this, and try to get it to
the finish line under power. On a day like that, you don't really go up there trying to outrun
anyone, you just go up there trying to get to the other end without spinning the tires. If you do
that, you have a chance to win. You have a chance to win smoking the tires, too, but it's way
easier if you don't. Plus, we'll have Daniel out there racing, from a higher spot than we're in,
so we'll be pretty excited about that too. It's going to be an interesting day."
TEAM WILKERSON RACING
NHRA Nitro Funny Car
http://www.timwilkerson.com
