SEATTLE, WA – (August 9, 2016) Tim Wilkerson made very strong qualifying runs, but encountered problems on race day at the 2016 Protect The Harvest NHRA Northwest Nationals.
Wilkerson qualified sixth at 3.878 seconds at 328.14 mph. In a bizarre first round against Cruz Pedregon, Pedregon smoked the tires right away leaving fans thinking Wilk won the race. But a problem on the Levi, Ray & Shoup Nitro Funny Car caused it to coast across the finish line. (5.928/223.92 to 7.107/84.11)
“I pulled the tires loose out there at 80 feet and I didn’t catch it quick enough and coughed the burst panels out of it,” Wilkerson said. “Just one more bad luck after another on race day.”
Another factor Wilkerson felt played into problems was that this was the second weekend in a row where on-track delays stretched out the first round of pro eliminations almost two hours.
“Once again, the track wasn’t what we thought it was; It’s driving me crazy,” confessed Wilkerson. “We thought for sure we would be fine this time. We really did.”
While most teams will have next weekend off, Tim Wilkerson Racing will be running at the Night Under Fire at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park in Norwalk, OH. Before that, they have a lot of work to squeeze into a short amount of time.
“We are going home to get this bent chassis out to Murf (McKinney) to fix. He has our other body that we crashed in Denver and it’s done. Then we gotta get that back home and get it to Kim’s Auto Body to be painted. We also have to get the trailer up to T&E Ent. Auto Haulers to get a new generator put in it, all in three days and then go match racing,” Wilkerson said. “And in the mean time we need to get ready for the Brainerd race. So it’s going to be a busy next five or six weeks. Hopefully we can get our bad decision making out of our hair for our next Race Day.”
Wilkerson leaves Seattle Ninth in the NHRA Mello Yello Championship Points Standings.