Wilk Shifts Focus To The Strip
Posted by: Team Manager Bob Wilber
LAS VEGAS (April 7, 2015) -- After a string of consistent and successful runs in Gainesville, which at times bordered on the simply unbelievable, Tim Wilkerson was riding high and his confidence level was running parallel to his on-track results as he packed up and departed Florida. Fast-forward two weeks, to the 4-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, where his weekend could not have ended in a more befuddling or frustrating way, and the well-earned success in Gainesville seemed like a distant memory.
Now, heading to Las Vegas for the first of two 2015 races on The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Wilk is looking to get "back to normal" and with that he hopes to again be on the upswing with a Levi, Ray & Shoup Shelby Mustang that can clearly run with the big dogs. It's just a matter of being in the moment and paying no attention to the past, whether the results were good or bad.
"That's the thing about this sport, when you think about it," Wilk said. "It's not just that these cars basically refuse to listen to everything you want them to do, but there are also going to be 15 other teams in the race and every single one of them is good enough to win. You add it all up, and you better not get too proud of yourself when it goes good. You also better not get down on yourself when it doesn't, because none of it matters when you get to the next race.
"Gainesville was great, and we could've won the whole thing but there's nothing you can do when Ron Capps beats you by a half-inch when you're both running over 300 miles an hour. Then we got to the 4-Wide deal, and it's like you've changed sports for a weekend. You bring your football helmet, and they put you in at shortstop. You spend a lot of energy trying to concentrate on things that are very different, but then we really never got to see if we had a chance to win some rounds there, so you just forget about it. We got tripped up, but it's over and now we head to Vegas. Nothing we did in Gainesville, or in Charlotte, has anything to do with how we'll do this weekend. It's a clean slate."
To get back on track, and back on that upward trajectory, Wilk is not only going to have to forget his goofy result in Charlotte, he's also going to have to pay no attention to his own recent history at the spring race in Las Vegas. In the past six years, he's only advanced out of the first round one time, and that was in 2010. The last time Wilk tasted the sweet flavor of success in Vegas was 2008, when he won the race to put him on his way to a stirring 2nd-place finish in the Funny Car point standings, where he came up just short of a world championship on the season's final day.
"These last few years don't mean anything but being able to do some good again at the Vegas track is absolutely what I'm focused on," Wilk said. "There are some tracks where you kind of dread going there because nothing good ever happens but Vegas doesn't seem like that to me, so I'm not paying too much attention to how we've lost in the last few years. It can be a tricky track, just like every one that has a tunnel running under it, and the conditions can be all over the board, especially at the spring race, but I think we have a good enough handle on our race car to get back to where we want to be.
"I looked at the weather forecast, which is generally a pretty dumb thing to do, but it looks really good. If it stays a little warm during the day, and if the winds don't pick up and blow everything around like they do sometimes, we'll be able to negotiate it just fine. That's all that I'm thinking about. I know both Las Vegas races are like big parties for a lot of people, but I'm not into that. To me, it's just another race in another town and we don't go out where the action is, so I'm not a part of any of that. I'll be in Vegas to race, and hopefully my payoff will come on Sunday in the Winner's Circle."
In NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing, the past can't hurt you but it also can't help. The future, meanwhile, isn't worth worrying about. Only the present matters. The wins and losses, and the points you earn, are what happens in the moment. And not being distracted by the bright lights might be a solid advantage.
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