Denver: Tim Wilkerson Friday report

No. 10 WILK FINISHES FRIDAY WITHOUT A BLOWER BELT

Tim Wilkerson will admit that his Levi, Ray & Shoup Shelby Mustang was on a good lap, but not a great one, under the lights on Friday night at Bandimere Speedway near Denver. He was running side-by-side with Jack Beckman, who ended up posting a 4.251 that was good enough for the 8th spot overnight, but Wilk's mount chucked the blower belt at just past the 800-foot mark, and when he coasted across the finish line with a 4.386 he landed 10th after one day of competition. With two afternoon runs in the rarified Denver air slated for Saturday, it remains to be seen if much ladder juggling can occur.

"It was running okay, but we were a tick behind Jack at every increment, so I don't know if the belt had stayed on to the stripe if we'd have even moved up any higher than 9th," Wilkerson said. "My first impression is to tell you we kind of got it wrong both ways today. For the first session, we were thinking a 4.29 or a 4.30 would be a good number on that hot track, but Force led the way with a 4.40 and we smoked the tires. We really didn't think it was that much better under the lights, but it was and we didn't have the tune-up in it to really run much better than a 4.28 or so on that run. It got better out there, for sure.

"We at least got nearly a full run out of it, so we have that to work from and if the belts will stay on the rest of the weekend we should be in pretty good shape. We just want to give ourselves the best shot at winning rounds, so it really depends on the weather on Saturday. If the track temp is well up above 100 degrees, and the corrected altitude is up there like it was today, it will be hard to run good numbers, but maybe we'll get some cloud cover or some cooler air in here. I've heard a rumor about it being cooler on Saturday, but I'll believe that when I feel it."

-source: twr