Tim Wilkerson spent the first session attempting to find what a very hot and slippery Brainerd
track would allow, as did the rest of the Funny Car class, then when the track temperature began to
fall for the late session, his "too soft" tune-up was not quite enough to grab a top-half spot in
the field. He sits 10th after one day of qualifying in central Minnesota.
Nearly every car smoked the tires in Q1, in one fashion or another, and Wilk's 4.524 might not have
looked too impressive but it was actually good enough for the No. 3 spot after that run. In Q2,
when the top runs were dipping down into the mid or low 4.20s, Wilk powered from end-to-end with a
4.352, but that time left him 10th on the board. He missed spending the night in the top half by
only 4 thousandths of a second, as Jerry Toliver was 8th with a 4.348.
"Just too soft and slow, that's all that was," Wilkerson said. "It was so bad out there for the
first one, the track just had miles to go before it was any good, and it was a bit too much for me
to dive into, trying to go out there and run a 4.20 or something like that. We didn't quite run
what we planned, because we went up there aiming for a 4.30 and ran 4.35, but we weren't anywhere
close to set up enough for a 4.21 or a 4.22, and I knew that in the lanes before we ran. It's kind
of a lousy feeling, because by then there isn't much you can do about it.
"Tomorrow will all just depend on the weather. It sure didn't feel like Minnesota out here today.
It was pretty brutal, to be honest with you. We've heard different forecasts, and some of them
call for it to cool off on Sunday, but man I'd sure like that to happen a day earlier than they
think. We'd have a lot better racing out there if we could shave eight or nine degrees off the
temperature. I can't control that, though, so we'll just try to run the best we can under the
conditions we're faced with."
Team Wilkerson Racing
NHRA Nitro Funny Car
http://www.timwilkerson.com
