Tim Wilkerson joined the majority of the Funny Car class in Saturday's first session, when his
Levi, Ray & Shoup Shelby Mustang lost traction on a hot track, and he then joined 100 percent of
the gathered mass by watching steady rain take over the late afternoon. At around 5:00 p.m., the
rest of qualifying was cancelled and Wilkerson will move into eliminations from the No. 7 spot. He
will face points leader Ron Capps in round one on Sunday. Capps qualified 10th here in
Englishtown.
"We got a little caught up in a deal of being one run off for a couple of days here," Wilkerson
said. "We were too strong on the first Friday run, then probably too soft on the second one, and
by the time we rolled up there for the early run today, I knew we had too much for that track.
Right before the run I told (car chief) Jeff (Jacobs), on the radio, that we could change the
timing curve and probably make it down the track, and he was looking at me, waiting for me to tell
him which curve to switch it to. But, I just told him 'Let it go, let's see what it does.' His
eyes got kind of big, because we usually don't do that sort of thing, but I wanted to see just what
was out there, so that we'd have a better idea of what it would take on Sunday.
"If you soften it way up and just limp it down there, you might feel a little better about the
outcome but you don't learn much in terms of racing. We wanted to see where the edge was, and if
it's like that tomorrow I think we'll have a better idea what to do. It wasn't pretty, but it
served its purpose if you know what I mean. Now, we'll just get everything ready for Sunday and
try to have the right tune-up in it for the right lap. If we do that, we'll have a chance to win
some rounds."
TEAM WILKERSON RACING
NHRA Nitro Funny Car
http://www.timwilkerson.com
