After the enormous drama and stress of the previous weekend in Memphis, Tim Wilkerson is looking
forward to getting back to the basics, and back to the business at hand, this weekend in Richmond.
When you're overseeing the operation of two nitro Funny Cars, instead of one, the work load is
huge. When your son is in the second car, the stress level increases. When that car, carrying
your boy, crashes hard into the wall, a lot of issues which had previously seemed important,
instantly seem irrelevant.
Fortunately, Daniel Wilkerson walked away from one of the sport's more spectacular crashes in
recent memory, and now his father will flip the switch back to the job at hand, focusing on one car
only for this weekend's NHRA Virginia Nationals, the final race in a quartet of back-to-back events
that have drained and exhausted even the largest and best-funded teams on the tour. Now, there are
but three races left in the 2009 season, and championships are at stake.
"We're not eliminated mathematically yet, so we're still in it," said Wilkerson, owner/driver of
the Levi, Ray & Shoup Shelby Mustang. "We're in a tough spot if you want to talk about teams that
are really in contention, but until they put that little asterisk next to your name, that one that
means you're officially out of it, we'll go about our business and try to run the table."
Wilkerson remains in 8th place, after picking up one round in Memphis, and is 127 points behind
Ashley Force Hood, who holds the top spot. That's slightly more than six rounds of racing, with
only 12 rounds left to run this year.
"These new bonus points for running low e.t. of each session aren't helping us much, I'm afraid,"
Wilkerson said. "We're capable of running right with everyone, but we've only been in the top
three of a session one time so far. What hurts is that the same teams tend to be running at the
front every session, including Ashley and Robert Hight, who are right up there at the top. They
can pick up six or eight points a race, or more, just with those bonus points, so it's hard to make
up ground.
"All we can do, though, is get after it like there's no tomorrow. We'll take our best shot every
session, and then we'll try to strap a number on someone in round one. We did a pretty good job of
that in round one in Memphis, running our best lap of the weekend, and we ran pretty good in the
second round, too, but got beat by a faster car. All you can do is your best, out here, and if
they outrun you, well then they outrun you."
Wilkerson has already put the dramatic Memphis Monday behind him, but he knows he won't soon forget
it and neither will his son, Daniel. It was a harrowing moment, for all involved, but such
situations teach valuable lessons.
"First of all, the safety equipment did its job," Wilk said. "He's a young man with a lot of
strength, and he was absolutely fine after the deal. His old man probably wouldn't have jumped out
the car and ran around like he did, but he's young and resilient. Now he knows, first-hand, what
these cars can do to you, and even though he always has had a ton of respect for any car he's
raced, I know he has even a little bit more now. You can go your whole career without something
that bad happening, so he's got that behind him.
"I've known, for a long time, how serious this business is. That's why we hand-pick a crew that
takes it as seriously as our guys do. There's no messing around in our pit, because you're working
on a beast that can take everything from you. I guess I'm just glad we have this behind us,
because it was a tough weekend, and a very tough day. Now we get back to business."
With more than six rounds to make up in three races, the agenda for the business at hand includes a
proposed trip to the Winner's Circle. Only time will tell if that business plan comes to fruition.
Team Wilkerson Racing
NHRA Nitro Funny Car
http://www.timwilkerson.com
