Wilkerson claims the No. 3 qualifying spot


NORWALK, Saturday: Funny Car pro, Tim Wilkerson claimed the No. 3 qualifying position today at the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park. Wilkerson will have lane choice against first-round opponent, Tommy Johnson, Jr. tomorrow.

Due to yesterday’s weather related problems, Wilkerson only had today’s two qualifying sessions to get his Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevy Impala SS into the show and he did an impressive job of doing just that. On his first qualify run, Wilkerson wowed the fans with his 4.910 at 304.32, which launched him into the No. 1 spot. The next closest run was Tony Pedregon’s 4.975. On his second attempt, Wilkerson ran into some ignition problems and slowed to a 5.161. With two other cars improving ahead of his earlier 4.91, Wilkerson was moved down into the No. 3 position when all the dust settled.

“It was kind of a bizarre weekend based on the weather,” explained Wilkerson. “The track was a little sub-par for our first run and everybody was tip-toeing down it and we made a really nice run. It did put a hole out down there because we just didn’t have it tuned-up enough. It would have went .86 probably if it wouldn’t have dropped that hole. It wasn’t doing anything wrong we just didn’t have it tuned-up enough because you walk that fine line of tuning the car too much when the track is kind of iffy or spinning the tire. We went out the next run and tried to get it a little more tuned-up and I think we lost a coil, because it left pretty nice and all of a sudden it just really slowed down, big time. So for tomorrow, we’re going to replace all our ignition on it, get our blowers all tuned-up, and hope for the best.”