{"id":1982,"date":"2016-04-25T20:07:46","date_gmt":"2016-04-25T20:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=1982"},"modified":"2016-04-25T20:16:55","modified_gmt":"2016-04-25T20:16:55","slug":"milestone-victory-for-wilk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=1982","title":{"rendered":"Milestone Victory For Wilk!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Driving a recently debuted all new race car,\u00a0Tim Wilkerson drove his Illinois-based Levi, Ray & Shoup Nitro Funny Car to the Winner\u2019s Circle at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals presented by Lowe\u2019s Foods.<\/span><\/p>\n

The victory marked Wilkerson\u2019s second win of the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series and his 20th career win.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Concord-FC-Tim\"<\/a>
\nWilkerson came into race day qualified No. 8 with a 3.970 E.T. at 319.07 mph. This is his first Four-Wide Nationals win and an accomplishment he is proud of.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wilkerson powered past the competition in the final round with a performance of 3.967\/315.56 in his Levi Ray & Shoup Ford Shelby Mustang. He was followed across the finish line by Cruz Pedregon with a 3.995\/313.37,and then Ron Capps and Matt Hagan coming in third and fourth.<\/p>\n

Wilkerson\u2019s machine was the top Funny Car on race day, finishing first in all three quads he raced. He opened with a win against Jeff Diehl, top qualifier Alexis DeJoria and series points leader Robert Hight. In the round two quad he outran Pedregon, Courtney Force and Jeff Diehl.<\/p>\n

\"Concord-FC-4\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were the fastest car out there every round and I was pretty proud of that,\u201d said Wilkerson. \u201cI told my guys: that\u2019s one thing you need to be proud of. You got money running out your ears at those two big camps over there, but you guys were the fastest dogs out there every round. You need to be proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the best start to a season Wilkerson has experienced and he credits his crew and their hard work ethic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe work hard. I have a great bunch of kids on my crew. The other teams may out-spend us, but they will never out work us,\u201d said Wilkerson. \u201cMy guys really do try hard and have a lot of heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilkerson is one of the few drivers who also tunes his own car. He did double-duty this weekend helping out his son Daniel, who drove Brian Stewart\u2019s Nitro Funny Car.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I had my plate full. I left my trailer at 10:45 last night if that tells you anything. I was up late working on the time curves for Daniel\u2019s car as well as mine,\u201d said Wilkerson. \u201cThose poor kids over there had two lines crossed and the blower safety switch caused the car to shut off in round one. Daniel had a good car; it was going to go a 4.05, so he would have easily been in the second round of racing. But that is how you learn. I\u2019m really proud of those kids over there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Concord-FC-Dan\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

This win at the Four-Wide Nationals pushes Wilkerson up to the No. 4 position in points in the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Standings.
\nIn his 20-year career Wilkerson has won the prestigious U.S. Nationals and claimed victories at his home tracks in St. Louis and Chicago, but he admits the Wally from this event is also going to have a special place in his trophy case.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got this off my bucket list,\u201d Wilkerson said. \u201cI\u2019ve been in the finals at this one twice, so I am really happy to get it done. I am excited about it. The whole year has really been exciting, especially with the new TV package and the way everything has been going. My buddy Brittany has won twice, so that\u2019s really cool, too. I was happy to see her win. The Four-Wide is really a neat deal, especially since I won.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"(Bob<\/a>

(Bob Tasca returned to NHRA circuit action – he qualified #14 at 4.103 secs)<\/p><\/div>\n

Event Essentials: \u00a0 NHRA Four Wide Nationals \u00a0(April 22-24th, 2016)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nNAME<\/strong><\/td>\nET<\/strong><\/td>\nMPH<\/strong><\/td>\nCAREER WIN<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Winner:<\/strong><\/td>\nTim Wilkerson<\/td>\n\u00a03.967<\/td>\n315.65<\/td>\n\u00a020th<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R\/UP:<\/strong><\/td>\nCruz Pedregon<\/td>\n\u00a03.995<\/td>\n313.37<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Low ET:<\/strong><\/td>\nAlexis DeJoria<\/td>\n\u00a03.934<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Top Speed:<\/strong><\/td>\nMatt Hagan<\/td>\n<\/td>\n323.50<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bump Spot:<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\n\u00a04.673<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Event Entries:<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a018 Cars<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\"(Matt<\/a>

(Matt Hagan had the FC provisional pole after Friday and set top speed at 323.50 mph)<\/p><\/div>\n

Posted with files by Nicole Erickson & NHRA Communications<\/em><\/p>\n

Photos by Bruce Biegler & Steve Embling<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Driving a recently debuted all new race car,\u00a0Tim Wilkerson drove his Illinois-based Levi, Ray & Shoup Nitro Funny Car to the Winner\u2019s Circle at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals presented by Lowe\u2019s Foods. The victory marked Wilkerson\u2019s second win of the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series and his 20th career win. Wilkerson came into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1982"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1988,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982\/revisions\/1988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}