The 27th annual Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway is over and Springfield, Ill. Funny Car favorite Tim Wilkerson’s Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS was the quickest Funny Car on the property today. And the indisputably talented Wilkerson and his team wowed the packed house by taking his impressive hot rod to the semifinal round of racing action.
In the first-round, Wilkerson faced off against the Force Team car driven by Mike Neff. This was the fifth time the two have met on race day this year. And the outcome was the same as the other four times. Wilkerson got the win light with the quickest and fastest run of the round, a 4.204 at 294.05mph over Neff’s 4.237 at 293.35 mph. In the next round Wilkerson took on rookie, Bob Tasca III. Again Wilk had the best hot rod as he posted the quickest run of the entire class, a 4.162 at 293.73 mph against Tasca’s 4.263. In the semifinal round, Wilkerson faced the guy he beat a few weeks ago in Denver, Jack Beckman. Again Wilkerson laid down the quickest run of the round, but this time being the quickest wasn’t enough as Beckman got the win with his 4.207 against Wilkerson’s 4.203. Beckman was ahead of Wilk by just four feet at the finish line because of his .085 reaction time compared to Wilkerson’s .099.
“Wow what a day,” exclaimed Wilkerson. “I’m really happy with the car and my guys. This track is so cantankerous that t took me a few runs to get this place figured out but I felt good this morning. I was happy when I looked at our fuel system last night, so I knew we might have a good day today.
“Our 4.20 against Neff didn’t surprise me because it was what I was looking for. Then in the next round, I watched Tony Pedregon run a 4.19 ahead of us and I knew I had to pull a rabbit out of the hat so I could have lane choice if I had to run him. So, I went in shallow against Tasca and ran the 4.16. I knew that was in there, so that made me happy. Then in the semis against Beckman, I took a degree and a half of timing out of it and it dropped a hole. I should have left it alone and we probably would have been good.”
And even though being the strong competitor that he is Wilkerson would have liked to have raced all the way to the winner’s circle, having the quickest Funny Car today in all of Minnesota, even the quickest in all of the world has to be a tremendous feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction. And for a tuner/driver/owner that just a few short days ago was concerned that his beautiful Levi, Ray & Shoup Impala had slowed down and he didn’t know what to do, it appears that Wilkerson has gotten his hot rod figured out.
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