Wilkerson can't overcome a mountain of problems

DENVER, Saturday: Funny Car tuner and driver, Tim Wilkerson knew the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway was going to be a tough challenge. But problems arose in his Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS that made the challenge impossible to overcome.

On today's first run, Wilkerson blew a motor and only ran a 7.790 at 109.67 mph. This put him out of the show, so the last session was Wilkerson's last chance. As the car rolled into the staging lanes, it began to rain, which delayed the action and Wilkerson's last hope. But when the weather broke, Wilkerson took advantage of the opportunity, laying down his best pass of the entire weekend, a 5.024 at 287.17 mph. This moved him up into the middle of the pack, but by the time the last Funny Car blasted down the track, Wilkerson sat in the No. 17 spot.

"We found some fuel delivery problems with our car this weekend," explained Wilkerson, "and it was real ugly. We've got a big pile of carnage. We knew it was going to be tough to qualify here, and if it had rained, we would have been in good shape. I had it tuned-up for the sun and I told the guys I had it figured out and we should make a good run. Well, we just made a run and too many of the other teams made lucky runs.

"Not making the show hurts us in points, but at least our problems came to a head this weekend and we can move on and be in better form next week."