TOPEKA—Funny Car favorite, Tim Wilkerson increased his POWERade points lead today at the O’Reilly Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka by taking his beautiful Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevy Impala SS all the way to the final-round.
The very talented Wilkerson put his qualifying struggles behind him as he charged his way through the ranks. In the first-round, Wilkerson sent Frank Hawley packing with a holeshot as Wilk’s. 072 reaction time gave his 4.889 the win light against Hawley’s 4.849. In the second round, Wilkerson beat Jerry Toliver with a 5.005 to Toliver’s 5.021. In the semi’s Wilkerson faced Gary Scelzi. This round was a pedal-fest, and when the dust settled, Wilkerson again had the win light.
Then for the third time this year, Wilkerson advanced to the final-round. And again for the third time a Team Force car was in the other lane. This time it was the car driven by the boss himself, John Force. But unlike the other two finals, Wilkerson didn’t get the upper hand, as he smoked the tires and handed the win to Force.
“I was feeling optimistic at the start of the day, ” said Wilkerson. “I was pretty happy first-round because we were fortunate to get by Frank. His. 84 was great and I didn’t expect that they would run that good. We just did the best we could do against them and I pulled it off. Then for the next rounds the track got worse and I just didn’t keep up with it with my tuning. I really thought we had something for Force in the finals. But I got a little bit out of the groove out there and when I was dragging it back it porpoised the tire a few times.
“But it was a good weekend all in all. We didn’t hurt anything and we padded our lead a little bit and put a little extra money in our pocket, so it was a good weekend. ”
Not only did Wilkerson increase his POWERade points lead, but he held onto his U. S. Smokeless and Full Throttle Pit Crew Challenge leads as well. And so he heads into Joliet, Ill. for next week’s Torco Racing Fuels Route 66 Nationals still as the best in his class.
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