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Reading: Tim Wilkerson Friday report

WILK VAULTS INTO NO. 7 SPOT ON STRONG LATE RUN Tim Wilkerson's Levi, Ray & Shoup Shelby shook the tires hard on its first attempt at Maple Grove Raceway, contested under brilliant sunny skies and near-perfect atmospheric conditions. Heading into ...

Published: Oct 9, 2010, 6:22 PM

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WILK VAULTS INTO NO. 7 SPOT ON STRONG LATE RUN

Tim Wilkerson's Levi, Ray & Shoup Shelby shook the tires hard on its first attempt at Maple Grove Raceway, contested under brilliant sunny skies and near-perfect atmospheric conditions. Heading into the second session, under the lights when the "mineshaft" was even more in evidence, the pressure was clearly on to make a good lap, right then, with no waiting around for the Saturday afternoon runs.

Wilk delivered, with a near-flawless 4.094 at a strong 306.12 mph, running as part of the second pair of Funny Cars in Q2. At the time, it leapfrogged him all the way up to the No. 2 spot, but in the end it was still good enough for the 7th slot on the sheet, after a slew of big hitters took their best shots.

"We were a bit delayed getting going, basically because the weather was too nice," Wilkerson said. "Seriously, they've had about seven inches of rain here in the last week, but today it was nice and sunny, barely a cloud in the sky. That was all good, but it caused some water seepage issues down in the shutdown area, and that sort of thing isn't too uncommon when your race track is sitting on saturated ground. Once we did get out there, it was a little tighter than we planned for and I wondered if my guys put square tires on it by mistake. It about shook me like a can of paint.

"So we were slowest in the first session but the second pair to run in Q2, because a couple of guys took the first one off. Maybe that helped us, I don't know, but we obviously had the right set up in the car for the time we ran, and that's what matters. That was a strong, clean, and safe run and for us that was pretty big speed. Some of the big home run hitters hit long balls after we ran, knocking us back a few, but I feel good that we put a good solid lap on the board when I felt like we really had to do it. That feels pretty good."

-source: twr

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