Wilk's Bristol Goal: Create Echoes of Success
Posted by: Team Manager Bob Wilber
BRISTOL, Tenn. (June 9, 2014) -- Bristol Dragway is affectionately referred to as Thunder Valley by racers and fans alike, and that nickname is an accurate one. The track itself slices between a pair of towering Appalachian hills, creating a vista that is unique on the NHRA Mello Yello tour, but the thunder created at Bristol Dragway is only part of the allure. The echoes created by the hills are also unique to Bristol, and are as fascinating as the view.
This weekend, at the Ford Thunder Valley Nationals, Tim Wilkerson aims to create some echoes of his own with an overriding goal of ending a winless streak that is now approaching three full years. His last win came in Seattle in 2011 and he will enter this weekend's competition with a 64-race albatross around his neck, or possibly a 64-race monkey on his back, keeping in mind that neither animal is thought of in positive terms. A win in Bristol, however, would clearly create a pleasant echo of cheering and celebration among Wilk's Warriors, and would effectively remove the large pest from the premises.
"Great place, one of our favorite stops on the tour," Wilk said. "The people are friendly, the track is good, and the atmosphere is really unique with the big hills in one direction and the famous circle track off in the distance when you look the other way. We've had some success at Thunder Valley, and we'd sure like to take what we have now, which is a pretty good race car, and make it a winner.
"Right now, we're in one of those good news/bad news deals, where the good news is we're getting a lot of wins in the first round but the bad news is that we're not doing much in the second round. I have a feeling that if we can just get to the second round and then get a win there, that we might just get on a roll and win one of these things. When we beat Courtney Force in the first round in Englishtown, we had one of the best cars in the race. We just have to stay that way throughout the day."
Wilk's most recent form of success at Thunder Valley came in 2010, when he came ever so close to victory when racing John Force in the final. Wilk had been plowing down the Bristol track with consistency all weekend and all day, but a glitch in the car's automatic emergency shut-off system turned the motor off and deployed the parachutes not far off the starting line. The only actual emergency was a drastic decline in the moods of Wilk backers everywhere.
"The system is built for safety, but in my case it malfunctioned and as hard as I could push down on the pedal there wasn't anything I could do," Wilk recalled. "Just one of those things, and it was pretty infuriating at the time, but we took what we learned there and went on to the next race, up in Norwalk, and won there. I guess if I knew for sure that we could go on and win the next one, I might take the runner-up deal again, but the truth is we all want to win so bad and it's so hard to just get to the final that none of us would want to do anything but win.
"Every race has its own set of challenges, wherever we go, and Bristol is just like that. You've got two pedestrian tunnels that create small bumps, and that's just how it is with tunnels, whether it's a drag strip or a circle track. We know right where they are and we try to compensate by settling the car down a little in those spots, and we know that both lanes have to cope with it, so it's not an unfair deal. It's just another challenge, and we're always up for that. Bottom line for me, though, is that we love Bristol and we love the people there. It's always a highlight, and I'd like to make it a little bit more memorable, if you know what I mean."
Wilk Warriors from coast to coast and around the world know exactly what he means. Four rounds on Sunday would create a nice echo.
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