One Last Ride For Wilkerson's Winning Funny Car In Florida
Posted by: Nicole Erickson
Gainesville, Fla. (March 21, 2016) - Tim Wilkerson came into the 47th annual NHRA Gatornationals as the most recent Funny Car winner in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. Wilkerson qualified the Levi, Ray & Shoup Shelby Mustang high in the fifteen car field, but was disappointed to exit first round.
Wilkerson qualified No. 4 with a 3.928 E.T. at 321.65. He faced No. 13 qualifier Cruz Pedregon in round one. Both drivers have won at Gainesville Raceway before; Wilkerson in 2010 and Pedregon in 1998. Wilkerson went up in smoke as soon as he hit the throttle on the starting line; something he blames himself for.
“Obviously I missed it. I thought it would whistle right down through there, but the air just got away from me. I had it ‘too’ tuned up I believe,” said Wilkerson. “I noticed after I did that everyone switched lanes and ran in the right lane. I don’t think it was the lane, I think I just missed it.”
Cheering on Wilkerson this weekend was also 200 guests from Diversified Yachting Services, a team sponsor based in Florida.
“I got to meet a lot of great people who work really hard for Diversified Yachting,” Wilkerson said. “They all did different jobs for the company and I was honored to have them as guests at the races.”
That first round pass at Gainesville Raceway was the last for Wilkerson’s seven year-old chassis he won with in Phoenix two weeks ago. As soon as the team returned to the pits, they immediately went to work putting the old car away and bringing out the new chassis to begin preparing it for testing.
“We’re going to test the new car and see if we can get the new fuel system dialed in,” said Wilk. “And if we don’t like the new fuel system, then we’ll put our old one back in before we head out to the next race in Vegas.”
Wilkerson leaves this race No. 7 in points for NHRA Nitro Funny Car Championship Standings. Next race for the Levi, Ray & Shoup team is the DENSO Spark Plugs NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.