Championship Drag Racing

Pontiac Performance NHRA Nationals
Columbus, OH
(May 19-22)

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Driver Profile

Tim Wilkerson Levi, Ray & Shoup Shelby Mustang Funny Car

Columbus, Saturday: After another exciting day of racing at National Trail Raceway the fields are set for the 41^st Pontiac Performance NHRA Nationals. Tim Wilkerson kept his Levi, Ray & Shoup Funny Car firmly planted in the No. 2 qualifying position.

Wilkerson took advantage of his strong position to use today's runs to try some different tune-ups on his beautiful hot rod. To Wilk's dismay, nothing seemed to work today, and he smoked the tires on both passes.

"Unfortunately, the things we were trying to do didn't cooperate," Wilkerson explained. "We had a brand new blower we thought we'd try and we had some brand new clutch discs we tried on the second run, but they didn't work to our advantage. I sat and thought about it yesterday and figured out something to make it go and then I changed it a lot for today, and it threw a curve ball at us. The car is as aggressive as all get up, which is the exact opposite of how it's been all year long. All year we've been dreaming of wheel speed and now we have wheel speed and the thing still acts the same way. So, all that dreaming we were doing is killing us now.

"I'm optimistic that we'll get it together for tomorrow. I'm not even thinking about racing tomorrow, I'm just thinking about going down the track. If we can make it down the track, then winning will come."

Wilkerson will face the No. 15 qualifier, Bob Gilbertson in the first round of eliminations. The last time the two met was in Bristol a few weeks ago, when Wilkerson got the win. The outcome of tomorrow's match-up is still to be determined.

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