With two good runs under his belt, Funny Car points leader, Tim Wilkerson is pleased with his performance of his Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevy Impala SS on the first day of qualifying at the ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. And at day’s end, Wilkerson sits in the No. 5 qualifying position.
On his first qualifying attempt, Wilkerson ran 4.154 at 301.07 mph, which put him in the middle of the pack, the tenth spot.
“Our first run was a little slow on purpose,” said Wilkerson. “When you come to this place it seems that if you tune it up wrong, it will smoke the tires, especially on the first run. So, I’m always a little conservative here on the first run.”
As the evening cooled for the second session, Wilkerson stepped it up. And with the champ, John Force in the other lane, the two pros brought the crowd to their feet. With header flames higher than their roofs, Wilkerson posted a 4.090 at 304.05 mph, as Force took the No. 1 qualifying spot, with a 4. 062.
“On our next run, it still probably wasn’t tuned-up quite enough,” Wilkerson explained, “but the weather is going to be nicer as the weekend goes along. So by Sunday, I think the same tune-up is going to hold a 4.05 or .06. So, hopefully we can make it do that and we’ll go from there.
“Both of the runs were nice. The motor is clean, looks nice, and looks like we didn’t even run it, just like you’d want. That’s what we wanted to do, so we can keep the rest of the guys behind us.”
| 
|