READING, Prerace: For the 17th stop on the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing tour the teams head to the east coast for the 24th annual Toyo Tires Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa. Nestled in the rural countryside the slow paced lifestyle of the scenic Pennsylvania Dutch Country is a sharp contrast to Funny Car points leader Tim Wilkerson’s fast paced four-second world. And the talented tuner/driver hopes the atmosphere of his surroundings doesn’t affect his Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevy Impala’s performance this weekend.
Last week at the Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, Wilkerson had the quickest Funny Car on Sunday. It didn’t start out that way, as Wilkerson struggled in qualifying, but when it counted on race day he was the quickest of every round as he soared to the semifinals. Wilkerson is hoping that he will be able to take what he learned in Minnesota. And use it to his advantage all weekend, not just on Sunday.
“Reading is a beautiful area of the country,” expressed Wilkerson, “but it can be a queer duck because of the altitude. And if it’s hot and humid, it can be even tougher to understand.”
“So, the first thing we’re going to have to do when we get there is figure out where we are, and then we can figure out how to run the car. It took me four runs to figure things out in Brainerd, but I sure hope it doesn’t take me four rounds this weekend.”
Wilkerson is 141 points ahead of second place, Tony Pedregon in the POWERade Championship standings, and he looks for another good weekend in his outstanding season so he can carry his lead onto the next race, the Mac Tools U. S. Nationals.
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