Joliet, Prerace: Springfield, Ill. native, Tim Wilkerson doesn’t have far to travel to one of his favorite race tracks, Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill., just southwest of Chicago. In 1999, Wilkerson celebrated his first Funny Car win at Route 66 Raceway and he would like nothing better than to celebrate a win in his Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS at this weekend’s Torco Racing Fuels Route 66 NHRA Nationals at the fabled track.
Wilkerson and his team are hungry for a win, because it’s been awhile. The car is showing some strong performance, and a win is brewing deep inside. But Wilkerson is a smart and seasoned crew chief and knows that he has to bring the car into it’s glory logically and one step at a time.
“We’re looking for a strong consistent race car, ” said Wilkerson. “Sometimes that’s what it takes to win. You may not need a record-breaking run; you just need to go down the track. And that’s what we’re trying to build. It’s what we had last week in Topeka. We went down the track on every run. So, it looks like the changes we made in our clutch program are working.
“We still have some things to work on but I really like what I’m seeing. You’re going to see some good things out of our car soon. Will it be in Joliet? I don’t know. Joliet is a strange place. It could be unseasonably cold, and the track could awesome and you’ll see monster runs. Or it could be miserably hot and humid, which will make the track a tire smoking jungle. We’ll just have to wait and see what’s waiting for us. ”
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