Wilkerson ready for race day action

ATLANTA, Saturday: Tim Wilkerson worked hard to make sure his Levi, Ray & Shoup Funny Car would be in the show at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals, and his hard work paid off. Even though Wilkerson didn't improve upon last night's run, he was able to stay in the field, ending up in the No. 16 position.

On his first qualifying run, Wilkerson had problems and only ran a 7.284. Then in the second session, during the hottest part of the day, Wilkerson made a nice clean pass, which he was looking to do in order to help him prepare for tomorrow. He posted a 4.827 at 316.52 mph.

"Again we put a brand new blower on the thing, well not brand new to us, but with a brand new case on it for first qualifier today," said Wilkerson. "And again, it was not a very good piece. So, for the second pass we went back to our old blower again. The only one we have that's worth bolting on the car is the one we ran. So, until we can acquire new ones or do something different, we're just going to quit using the other blowers and use that one. I thought we would go a little faster than it did, but I think it will. It's got that in it."

The only problem with being the No. 16 qualifier is that you have to go up against the No. 1 car. That means tomorrow Wilkerson will face Mike Ashley in the first round of action. But Wilkerson is not going to worry that Ashley had low E.T. of qualifying.

"We're just going to try to go down the track tomorrow," said Wilkerson. "If those guys can run mid-70's they're probably going to beat us, but we're going to try not to give it away the way we have this year. We'll see how it goes."