Wilkerson enjoyed his weekend in Topeka

TOPEKA, Sunday: Tim Wilkerson has a history of doing well at Heartland Park Topeka and this year's O'Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals held true to form. Wilkerson qualified in the top half of the field and his Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS made five clean runs down the Kansas quarter-mile. He would have liked to make more runs today, but advancing to the second round feels good.

In the first-round of racing action, Wilkerson had a seven-cylinder race car, but even on seven cylinders, he had the quicker race car. He put out Jerry Toliver with a 4.948 over Toliver's 4.974. Wilkerson had to face Jim Head in the second round. Here again, Wilkerson only had seven cylinders. But this time even though Wilk left on Head, his 5.004 wasn't enough against Head's 4.958.

"We had pretty decent runs today," said Wilkerson. "On the first pass it put a hole out early and on the second run it put one out late. We were close on the first run and were looking to go a little quicker on the second. But it's just not tuned up enough for this crummy weather.

"It was a pretty respectable weekend, really. We made it down the track on every run, so it's showing some good signs. I don't think we have a super-duper race track tune-up yet, but it seems to like everything I do to it. So, now we'll go to the next race and see if we can get it respond even better."