Brainerd: Tim Wilkerson Friday report

PATIENCE REWARDED, WILK IS 5th AFTER RAIN DELAY

It wasn't easy, but one session was finally completed in Brainerd after a mid-afternoon rain storm washed out the first qualifying session. As many wryly predicted, the rain didn't arrive until the first Funny Car was ready to fire at the starting line, right on time for Q1.

Approximately three hours later, after the storm moved through, a single session was completed and Tim Wilkerson's 4.167 was good enough to land him 5th after one day.

"Like we always do, we need to give the Safety Safari some well-earned credit here," Wilkerson said. "It rained pretty good there for a while, and after they got out there to dry and prep the track, the first two cars went right down there without a hitch. They gave us a perfect race track, under tough conditions.

"I wasn't really sure what to expect, and we were kind of prepared to go either way with the tune-up if we saw people out there smoking the tires or making nice laps. I figured it might run a 4.14 or a 4.15, so we weren't that far off with the 4.16 and we can sure work from there. We made a few small, but real, changes to the car after Denver, and it seemed to respond to that so hopefully we can keep it going."

-source: twr