Wilk's Denver Assignment: Rebound
Posted by: Team Manager Bob Wilber
DENVER (July 15, 2014) -- For Tim Wilkerson and his Levi, Ray & Shoup Funny Car team<, it was all going according to plan. Kicking off a four-race swing around the eastern United States in Bristol, back on June 13, Wilk hit the ground running at Thunder Valley with a new aggressive attitude and a fast race car, and after qualifying in the No. 2 spot he nearly ran the table, finishing as the runner-up. A week later, in Epping, he had one of the best cars on the property and made the quickest lap of eliminations in round one. Unfortunately, he lost that round by a few inches on a hole-shot.
The misfortune in New Hampshire seemed to turn the tide a bit, and middling qualifying efforts at Chicago and Norwalk led to another pair of first-round losses, and a drop into 11th place in the Mello Yello standings. Now, heading to Bandimere Speedway in Denver for this weekend's Mile-High Nationals, Wilk and his LRS squad are looking to utilize the altitude to perk up the attitude.
"It's funny how things can go a bit sour for no reason, and they can turn around and be good just as quickly," Wilk said. "It may seem like the race car can sense good or bad, but it can't. We came within a hair of winning the race in Bristol and we were pretty much ahead of the field in Epping, but a little bad luck bit us there. We didn't mess up at all, and I didn't mess up as a driver, we just got beat. And then we got to Chicago and we messed up everything. Norwalk wasn't much better, and it's time to turn it around.
"When you get to Bandimere, up on the mountain, the playing field gets leveled for everyone because of the air, but it's a great facility and a great track to run on so we're going there with the attitude that we can win the whole thing. With the cooling system in the track, you can get going better than you used to, and after that it's just a matter of negotiating it to the finish line. I like our chances."
After bouncing out of and back into the top ten all year, Wilk's Norwalk result pushed him back out of the potential Countdown group with five races left to go in the regular season. He's no stranger to late rallies, but he'd like to turn the tide on Thunder Mountain and carry that momentum right through Labor Day and into the playoffs.
"We've had to do some miraculous things to make the Countdown in the past, and we've also had some solid Western Swings to make sure we were safe before we ever got to Indy," Wilk recalled. "The hard part is looking at the class and trying to figure out who doesn't make it. You're talking about a class that's full of great teams, with lots of resources. We just have to be confident in what we can do and then go out there and claim it. Nobody is going to hand us anything, and you don't get in the playoffs because people want you there. We need to win rounds, plain and simple, and this weekend would be a good time to do that.
"What gives us all a lot of confidence is how we've done on the Western Swing in the past. We know how to win at all these tracks, and we've got a history of doing that. We're going to have a lot of people pulling for us this weekend, including Dick Levi on Saturday, so we'll take all that support and pour it right in the fuel tank. We enjoyed the weekend off, but we're ready to go."
There will be thunder on the mountain this weekend. Tim Wilkerson aims to be making quite a bit of that noise himself.
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