Wilk Carries Momentum To Sonoma
Posted by: Team Manager Bob Wilber
SONOMA, Calif. (July 23, 2014) -- Tim Wilkerson advanced to the semifinal round in Denver last weekend, and in doing so he inched his way back into the top 10, but what makes him feel the good vibes of momentum is actually the round he lost. In the semi, racing eventual event winner Robert Hight, Wilk put his best lap of the day on the board, getting down a tricky race track in 4.146 seconds while running 305.98 mph. Hight's stellar 4.115 was too tough to tame, but Wilk came away from the loss smiling more than he did after his two round wins.
Now, as the NHRA Mello Yello tour heads into the middle stop on the three-race Western Swing, this weekend at Sonoma Raceway, Wilk can combine his solid Denver performance with the knowledge of just how well he has done in the past at both Sonoma and Seattle, and that equation adds up to confidence and anticipation. Could it finally be time for another patented Wilk rally on the Swing? The popular tuner/driver thinks so.
"Momentum is a funny thing, because the car doesn't have any ideas about that, it's all in the minds of the people working on it," Wilk said. "But, I'll tell you that it's real and it does have an effect. Winning rounds, even winning them ugly, gets the guys going and it gets the adrenalin up. You start to get in the groove and you pick up some confidence. That semifinal against Robert was the lap I was trying to run all day, we just did it against the one guy who could beat it, so even though we lost there, it was still a real boost to all of us.
"Now, if my plan works out we'll take that and build on it. I said a week ago that we don't want to get to Indy needing another miracle to make the Countdown, and if we could just put together a Western Swing like we have in years past we could not only cement our spot in the playoffs but we could probably even get higher up in the standings. It kind of feels like we're getting there."
Wilk's record on the Swing is a solid one. He's won twice in Sonoma (2004 and 2009) along with one runner-up (2011). Add in his three consecutive wins at Seattle (2009, 2010, 2011) and it's not hard to recognize why he feels some confidence and momentum.
Coming just one weekend after the Mile-High Nationals, the Sonoma Nationals offer a stark contrast to tuners, drivers, and fans, but Wilk has the history and data to make it work.
"About the only thing that Denver and Sonoma have in common is the uphill shutdown area, and other than that they couldn't be more different," Wilk said. "We're going from a mile high, and during the afternoon in Denver the corrected density altitude was around 10,000 feet, to racing at sea level. The car goes from gasping for oxygen to having all it can possibly inhale through the blower. What's crazy about Sonoma, though, isn't so much the drastic change from Denver, it's the drastic changes from one session to the next, especially on Friday.
"It can be brutally hot in the afternoon there, but once the sun goes down and the marine layer starts to come over the hills, right as we're going out there for Q2, the bottom drops out of the thermometer. One minute you're broiling in short sleeves and then a few minutes later you're digging through your stuff to find a sweatshirt or a jacket. It's tough to make tuning calls right around sunset, because you're making the calls when it's still hot and sunny, but you're banking on the fact that it will change. If you get it right, you can go really fast. You just need to get it right when you're figuring out when the heat will vanish."
Change is a constant on the Mello Yello tour. From venue to venue, the atmospherics are different and the Denver to Sonoma differences are stark. From day to day the weather will change, and in Sonoma the alterations can be from summer to autumn in the space of 30 minutes. One thing Wilk doesn't want to see is a change in his momentum, and memories of successful Swings in the past give him reason for confidence. Momentum may be a "funny thing" as Wilk said, but there's no denying it's also a good thing.