Tim Wilkerson Thursday report

Event: Pomona

WILK LANDS 11th AFTER 2011 DEBUT LAP

Tim Wilkerson drove his Levi, Ray & Shoup Shelby Mustang from Point A to Point B on its inaugural 2011 lap, kicking off a new Full Throttle season, but the 4.211 it posted was not the number he was after. Wilk aimed to run a low teen on his first lap, but clutch wear wasn't as expected and the motor gnawed on the No. 4 piston for a bit, slowing the LRS Ford. The run was still good enough to count, as part of the top 12, and Wilk will spend the night in the 11th position.

"Well, it wasn't really supposed to run that but at least we have a number on the board," Wilkerson said. "We've been watching the weather forecasts all week, and Saturday doesn't look very good, but I bet we get to run tomorrow so we'll have to step up then. We have to go into it with the mindset that tomorrow's run might be the only other one we get, because we're going to have to be lucky for this big mess of rain to miss us on Saturday. You never know, though, around here. We've run a full day in Pomona before, when the forecast was 100 percent chance of rain, so we'll just plan to run all four and see how it ends up.

"It got down there okay, but it pretty much mangled the clutch on us and it messed up a head, so it wasn't going to be the sort of run that automatically gets you in the show for good. We still have work to do, for sure, but it feels good to be back out here and get the season started."