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Leicester: Gene Wilson preview

Gene Wilson Lets The Competition Know, Don't Start The Party Yet LEICESTER, NY. - Gene Wilson doesn't consider himself to be a cocky individual, just confident of the team surrounding him and of his own abilities. So when one journalist asked him ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

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Gene Wilson Lets The Competition Know, Don't Start The Party Yet

LEICESTER, NY. - Gene Wilson doesn't consider himself to be a cocky individual, just confident of the team surrounding him and of his own abilities. So when one journalist asked him does this mean his reign on the Sunoco Pro Stock class is over? The 27-year old, Pro Stock racer from Canton, Ga., promptly replied, "Don't start the party yet."

Wilson, who drives the Don Smith Ford-sponsored Cougar of Charlie Hunt, expects to be back at the top of the game when the IHRA tour rolls in Leicester, N.Y., for the IHRA CARQUEST Empire Nationals.

"I can't say enough about our team and how their hard work has put us at the front of the class," explained Wilson, who carried a 15-round winning streak in the Pro Stock final at Cordova. "We had parts failure in Cordova and that cost us a race that I felt we could have won. I never thought I could go the entire season undefeated, but then again I never felt like one loss could break our whole season, either. We'll be in New York and we'll be ready to win again."

Wilson has been deadly all season. He posted an impressive win at the season-opener in Rockingham on a holeshot that was stout enough to eclipse the quickest run in Pro Stock history. Proving that win to be no fluke, he repeated on another holeshot at the next outing in Dinwiddie. As the tour rolled into Grand Bend, Canada, the commanding points leader had the complete package of lightning-quick reactions and the performance factor to make him deadly. Those traits enabled him to roll through the Pro Stock field at the Mopar Parts Canadian Nationals and score his third victory of the season.

Had it not been for a clutch explosion in the finals at Cordova, he might have made it four in a row.

"I hate to say we should have won because Tommy Lee earned the win," explained Wilson. "I wanted it as bad as he did. When I roll to the line at Leicester, whomever I face off against had better be ready, because I'm going to be hungry. Once you win, it only fuels you to want to win more."

-HSC-

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