Wilkerson's hard work didn't pay off in the Seattle heat

Seattle, Sunday: Tim Wilkerson and his talented team worked hard in the heat today to prepare the Levi, Ray & Shoup Monte Carlo Funny Car for the first-round of eliminations at the Schuck's Auto Supply NHRA Nationals. So, they would have liked their hard work to pay off, but Wilkerson was not able to come out on the winning side of his match-up against Robert Hight who laid down a 4.902, the quickest run of the session, against Wilkerson's tire-smoking 7.896.

"It just got out there and knocked the tire off," explained Wilkerson. "Only one car made it down that lane. The tire has just made it impossible to negotiate anything. It's sub-standard, unless you go slow. And I had to run the guy that runs low E.T. of the round, which is normal. We expected him to run that good, so we tried to run that good too, but it didn't work out for us. We're still chasing this new clutch set-up we're running, so we haven't given up just yet. So, now we'll wait and see how it goes in Sonoma next week."

The teams will now travel to Sonoma, Calif. for the last stop on the Western Swing, the Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals.