"Illinois Boy" Wilk Brings His Hot-Rod Ford to The Land of Lincoln
Posted by: Team Manager Bob Wilber
CHICAGO (July 8, 2015) -- Tim Wilkerson is one of the fortunate few, on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing tour, who can claim two "home races" on the schedule. With his family home and business headquarters located in central Illinois, in the capital city of Springfield, he has no need to cross a state line to attend the fall race in Madison, just across the Mississippi River from downtown St. Louis, nor will he need to leave the Land of Lincoln for this weekend's Lucas Oil Route 66 Nationals near Chicago. In addition, with his longtime sponsor Levi, Ray & Shoup Inc. also located in Springfield, he multiplies the home-crowd feel with every trip to spacious Route 66 Raceway.
Coming off a semifinal finish last weekend, at the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in Norwalk, Wilk will start the Joliet event in eighth place on the Mello Yello Funny Car points sheet, and he'll do all he can to maintain the forward momentum as the NHRA Mello Yello tour begins to wind down the regular-season portion of the schedule. This weekend's event in Joliet is one of only six races left on the docket prior to the Countdown to the Championship playoffs. While Wilk and his LRS team can't mathematically clinch a playoff spot this weekend, they can certainly make great strides in that direction.
"Getting to the semifinal in Norwalk was good, but we're all so tightly bunched from seventh to 11th it can all change again in one day," Wilk said, referring to the razor-thin 37 point gap that separates Cruz Pedregon in seventh from Courtney Force in 11th. "The little points, as we call them, that you can get during qualifying are extra important now, because earning just a couple of those can be the difference between being two rounds up on someone, with a 21-point advantage, or one round up with a 19-point lead. This is the time of year we all start paying a little extra attention to every point that's on the board.
"We might have gotten a little lucky in Norwalk in the second round, when we had a glitch in the ignition timing system, but Cruz smoked the tires and we were still able to cross the stripe first. I can tell you, though, that we've been on the wrong side of lucky too many times to count this year. Right now, we just want to run as hard as we can with the conditions we're given, and I'll take my chances on getting some more round-wins as we finish up the summer and set the Countdown field."
After this weekend's foray into Chicagoland, the tour then heads out on the fabled Western Swing through Denver, Sonoma, and Seattle before heading to central Minnesota for the scenic Brainerd event, and then the regular season comes to an end at the prestigious U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis over the Labor Day weekend. In years past, Wilk has often needed an Indy rally to solidify his spot, but he has not missed the cut since 2008, the second year of the Countdown playoff format.
"We've had some great years, and we even went into the Countdown in the top spot in 2008, but we've also had some scenarios where we needed this guy to lose early, that guy to lose next, and we had to go as far as the final to make it all work. I prefer the option where we're locked in before we get to Indy, believe me," Wilk said.
"This weekend is always a big one for us, with all the hometown fans making the trip up to Joliet, and with Levi, Ray & Shoup being so close by, as well. What we'd like to do is make some good qualifying runs right away on Friday, get solidly in the show, and then keep winning some rounds on Sunday. We're at that point in the year where your whole season begins to be on the line, and every round seems more tense than the one before it. We're not going to be short on supporters this weekend, so it's up to us to give them something to cheer about. That's the goal."
Six regular-season races left. Five racers crammed together in the standings vying for four spots. Qualifying bonus points looming as large as round wins. This is what the Countdown format was designed to create, and Tim Wilkerson always seems to be in the middle of the drama. The fun begins with the first qualifying session at 5:15 p.m. on Friday, followed by Q2 at 8:00. Two additional qualifying sessions are set for 5:00 and 8:00 on Saturday. Eliminations are set to begin at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, with the late rounds slated for "live" television on ESPN2, airing from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Eastern).
Funny Car Top 16 (10 advance to the Countdown playoffs)
1. Matt Hagan - 932
2. Ron Capps - 812
3. Jack Beckman - 781
4. Del Worsham - 779
5. John Force - 748
6. Tommy Johnson - 680
7. Cruz Pedregon - 657
8. Tim Wilkerson - 642
9. Robert Hight - 633
10. Alexis DeJoria - 626
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11. Courtney Force - 621
12. John Hale - 472
13. Chad Head - 453
14. Tony Pedregon - 437
15. Jeff Diehl - 206
16. Terry Haddock - 102
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