It was one of the shortest race days Tim Wilkerson has experienced in a long time, as the driver and tuner of the Levi, Ray and Shoup Impala SS Funny Car fell victim to Ashley Force in the opening round of eliminations today at the Inaugural NHRA Carolina Nationals at zMax Dragway @ Concord.
In one of the closest side-by-side races of the round, Wilkerson was just a little bit short with his 4.187 at 291.82 mph against Force’s 4.164.
“We had a good car all weekend,” said Wilkerson, “it just wasn’t fast enough. It wasn’t fast all weekend. We just didn’t have any power here. We had a good race against Ashley; we just were on the wrong end of it.”
The repercussions of that race were immense for Wilkerson. His point lead was in jeopardy. And as Wilkerson sat back in the pit and watched the competition continue to win rounds, the inevitable happened. Wilkerson lost the lead.
“Well there’s not much we can do about it,” expressed a philosophical Wilkerson. “We did the best we could do. We’ll go home and work on it and then go and try to make up some ground next week in Dallas.”
Wilkerson leaves North Carolina fifth in points. But on the bright side he doesn’t have much ground to cover, as he’s only 13 points out of the No. 1 spot.
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