Wilk Brings New Approach To New Hampshire
Posted by: Team Manager Bob Wilber
EPPING, N.H.. (June 17, 2014) -- Tim Wilkerson had one of those enlightening moments between the recent Englishtown and Bristol races on the NHRA Mello Yello tour. Frustrated by a consistently middling effort in the qualifying department and equally made grumpy by a tendency to get through one round but not more than that, a different lightbulb went on and a new approach was adopted. When he headed to Bristol, he went there with a more aggressive attitude when it comes to his tune-up, and he'll carry that new approach to New England Dragway this weekend, for the NHRA New England Nationals.
The key, for Wilk, was finding the combination that would allow him to step it up on the track without simply overpowering the racing surface. Being aggressive, after all, can be wildly successful if the right buttons are pushed, but it can also create results that are far worse than the win-one/lose-one trap he was in.
"If we were a football team, it's like we were playing the whole game in a prevent defense, trying not to lose instead of racing to win," Wilk said. "It seems like the prevent defense never works, and I think that's because you've gone passive instead of staying aggressive. We're heading for Epping this weekend where we plan to stay aggressive if the conditions call for it, and we'll try to stay smart if the track gets hot.
"We were just being a bit too passive with our tuning approach, trying to not make mistakes and definitely trying to not smoke the tires. What you end up with is an average qualifying record, and that sets you up to run some really good teams on Sunday. I just decided it was time to blitz a little more and not drop back into that prevent coverage."
If Bristol is any indication, the new playbook worked as planned. Wilk's technique was to stay a little safe when the sun was beating on the track and traction was in short supply, but to throw a bomb on Friday night when everything was set up for quick numbers. His 4.013 was a new career best, and it qualified him in the No. 2 spot. Then, on a hot and sunny Sunday, it was back to the strategic mode that allowed him to win three rounds with clean laps and gain a runner-up finish on a day when pedal-fests were the norm on the scorching track.
"There's a difference between being aggressive and being foolish, and trying to run really low numbers on a 130-degree track is just foolish," Wilk said. " In the past, our problem has been the big hero sessions, when we'd get so worried about smoking the tires that we'd simply slow it down too much and end up right in the middle of the pack. I wasn't going to let that happen in Bristol, and this weekend in Epping we'll approach it the same way. We'll make our guess as to what the track will hold, and we'll shoot for that number."
This year's stop in Epping marks the one year anniversary of the NHRA Mello Yello series making its debut in the New England market, and racers and fans are still talking about the attendance from one year ago. New England Dragway was simply bursting at the seams as the avid New England fans turned out in record numbers. A new traffic flow plan has been developed for 2014, in the hope of alleviating some of the gridlock that was a challenge last year.
"It was one of the most incredible things we've seen in a long time, the number of people who came out for the race and jammed themselves into the track," Wilk recalled. "The traffic deal was a real issue, so I hope the fans don't give up on us without seeing if this new program will get everyone in and out better. We've gone through this in other markets, including Norwalk which is coming up in a couple of weeks. The first year there, the cars were backed up for a dozen miles trying to get in, but they analyzed it and figured it out and now it's not that big of an issue. Hopefully this new traffic plan will work in Epping and then everyone can just concentrate on getting there and having fun.
"For us, the key is to have some more fun like we did in Bristol. Winning rounds is fun. Going to the final is fun. Winning one of these would be exactly the kind of fun my guys deserve. They've worked hard and become a team, not just a group of guys, and they're getting the job done well enough to win one. Maybe this is the weekend, in front of those fantastic New England fans."
New attitude, new approach, new success, and a new traffic plan. For Wilk, it could all add up to a new Wally from New England.
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