BRISTOL, Prerace: As Tim Wilkerson and his talented team roll into Bristol Dragway for the 8th annual O’Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals, they are on a high they have never experienced before. The Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS is undeniably the best Funny Car on the NHRA POWERade Drag racing circuit right now. After seven contested races, they have captured two wins, four No. 1 qualifying positions, are No. 1 in U.S. Smokeless Showdown points, No. 1 in the Full Throttle Pit Crew Challenge and, best but not least, No. 1 in POWERade Championship points.
After their spectacular outing last week in St. Louis, the fanfare and notoriety that has surrounded Wilkerson and his team is exciting and well deserved, but the level-headed Wilkerson is a realist and knows that this tremendous streak may not last forever and could come to an end at any time. He knows they need to keep a collective level head and not get over confident or let their feelings of stardom get in the way. He knows they need to keep focused and approach this weekend’s race as a brand new opportunity, a new challenge.
“It’s going to be tough but we need to pretend that St. Louis never happened and approach Bristol as the first time we’re going to try and win a race,” said Wilkerson. “We’re looking to approach it that way and hope for the best.”
At the beginning of the season, Wilkerson set-up one goal to be the team’s focus this year and even though they have achieved and even surpassed that goal several times, it remains the same. So as Wilkerson prepares for Bristol, he tucks away the past and focuses on his challenge at hand. He knows it is crucial that they stay focused on the goal they set out for themselves at every race.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again and again,” explained Wilkerson, “we need to keep our goal in mind, and that goal is three fold. First, we need to qualify for the race. We don’t have to top qualify, even though that’s been great in helping our U.S. Smokeless points. And last week in St. Louis, it was great being the No. 1 qualifier because we were able to break the not winning from the No. 1 spot jinx that has been hanging over us. So, another No. 1 would be an added bonus. The second step in achieving our goal is to go rounds. We have to go past the first-round in order to keep going. And if we do that, maybe we can fulfill our third step, which is to win the race. But if we get side-tracked and lose focus on our goal, we’re going to get in trouble. So, we need to keep on track and keep up our momentum, and hopefully we can be a thorn in everybody’s side, again.”
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