Goodson Tools & Supplies Blog

POMONA, Cal. (February 21, 2011) — Tim Wilkerson has long been known as a racer who is rarely hard on parts, often going many months on the NHRA Full Throttle tour without dropping so much as an ounce of oil on the race track. How ironic, then, that Wilkerson’s Levi, Ray & Shoup Shelby Mustang was the unfortunate transgressor at the final race of the 2010 season when new rules were implemented, and the letter of one such rule stated that any time a team that did leave oil on the track, the run in question would be thrown out. On a lap that was quick enough to have qualified him for the field, last November in Pomona, Wilk blew up a motor, caught on fire, and oiled the track, all of which added up to the deletion of his elapsed time and an inglorious DNQ to finish the season.

This year, the new rules remain as a permanent part of the landscape in the Funny Car and Top Fuel classes but Wilkerson feels confident that, despite last season’s fiery end, his track record should fit nicely with the harsh new statutes. When the Full Throttle tour reconvenes this weekend to kick off the 2011 campaign, right back in Pomona at the Kragen O’Reilly Auto Parts Winternationals, Wilk will simply rely on a career full of clean racing to help him avoid the pitfalls of the new regulations.

“I guess that was just one of those Murphy’s Law deals last year, because I couldn’t even remember the last time we blew up and caught on fire, but we managed to do it at the first race with the new rules, on the run that would’ve qualified us,” Wilkerson said. “The whole thing was kind of strange, but a rule is a rule and we got bitten by it. I do think that there ought to be some sort of reward for the teams that consistently don’t oil the track, not just a punishment of anyone who does, but we’re all going to have to live with how it’s written and hopefully, over the long haul, we might pick up some ground on people if we just do our normal thing and keep the track dry.

“Nobody goes to the starting line thinking they’re going to oil the track or trying to do it, we all know that, but as the season ended last year we had some really bad sessions where we couldn’t seem to go two laps without a huge clean-up, so they had to do something. It was getting to be a terrible show for the fans, and we can’t stand for that. Now, we just have to get back to our routine, and the Levi, Ray & Shoup team should be fine, but as a class we all have to work a little more on containment, I think. These motors are bombs, and you’re not going to keep them airtight and clean forever, so we all need to work on better ways of keeping most of the oil off the track, even when things do go wrong.”

The kickoff for a new season also wipes the slate clean on points, and Wilkerson will join the entire Funny Car contingent in a huge tie for first place when he arrives in Pomona. That tie will be broken as soon as Thursday, with the awarding of qualifying bonus points based on the top three runs in Q1, and by Sunday evening the first version of an actual points leader board will begin to take shape. As Wilk knows well, however, in the ever-changing world of Full Throttle points, things don’t begin to solidify for quite a few races.

“It’s really easy to get caught up in that stuff right off the bat, but you’re way better off to just ignore it for a while,” Wilkerson said. “Don’t get me wrong, coming out of Pomona in first place would be great, because it would mean you won the race, but coming out of there in 16th isn’t nearly as bad as it looks. If you’re 16th in the points once June rolls around, then you’re in a bit of trouble, but at the start the season you can just go to the next race and get it all back.

“The overriding goal for us to get out there and be competitive from the first lap on. We didn’t do nearly the preseason testing that a lot of other teams did, but we’re ready to race and we’ll take our chances on figuring out what the Pomona track wants to give us on any given lap. We’ll just do what we always do, and that’s race the track not the opponent. If we do that, and if we run as well as I think we should, I’ll be happy. If we’re competitive, and I don’t have any reason to think we won’t be, we’ll be right in the thick of it all year long.”

A fresh start. New rules. A gigantic tie for first place. It only happens at the beginning of a new season, and the new 2011 campaign is now on the stage and ready for action. In a little less than 10 months, Wilk and his Funny Car colleagues will return to Pomona to end another season and crown a new champion. Only time, and some seriously competitive racing, will tell if that new champ is a popular guy from Springfield, Ill.

From the Tim Wilkerson Racing Team

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (February 7, 2011) — While many of the top professional teams on the NHRA Full Throttle tour have recently been testing in Florida, making lap after lap of “spring training” runs prior to the start of the 2011 season, fans of Levi, Ray & Shoup driver Tim Wilkerson may have noticed that things are “all quiet on the Wilkerson front.”  Too quiet?  Not according to the popular Funny Car contender from the Land of Lincoln.  For Wilkerson, it’s simply a matter of following the plan and not deviating from the norm.

Always known as a racer who can stretch a dollar as if it’s elastic, Wilkerson keeps a sharp eye on his operating budget with the focus of a hawk.  While it was surely tempting to join the legions of pros down in the Sunshine State, such an adventure was never in the plans, and that approach is really nothing new in Wilk territory.

“There have been a few times in our history where the boss went out and spent a bunch of money he probably shouldn’t have, but those times are really pretty rare,” Wilkerson said, speaking of himself when referring to the boss of his organization.  ”Once we get back to the shop at the end of the season, and get our sponsorship stuff squared away for the next year, we know what we have to work with and we know what works best for us.  We’ve never been a big preseason testing team, unless we have so much new junk we feel like we have to make sure it all works and doesn’t blow up on us, and this year there’s not much reason to change our approach because we’re heading right back into it running the same combination we used last year.

“As nice as it sounds to be down in West Palm Beach when we have ice and snow up here in Illinois, it’d be a very expensive vacation to haul all of our stuff down there just to make a few laps.  The trip was never really in the cards for us, so we mapped out our preseason work schedule on the calendar based on that.  That’s why our trailer has been in Indianapolis for the last week, getting a new vinyl wrap installed on it.  We knew we’d have this week at the shop and we wouldn’t be in Florida.”

Wilkerson’s rare use of preseason testing is born from a combination of elements, but the key ingredient is consistency.  Year after year, the LRS organization finds a way to maintain its pace and direction with few major overhauls, which lessens the need to shake things down and learn new approaches.  Other than cosmetics (the aforementioned redesigned transporter, new uniforms, and a freshened-up hospitality area) there will be little to differentiate the 2011 version of Team Wilkerson from the two prior years.

“Same car, same paint job, same driver, same crew chief, same tune-up,” Wilkerson said, again referring to himself, the ultimate multi-tasker.  ”We didn’t have a good Countdown last year, which left us with kind of a sour taste, but we won three races during the regular season and put ourselves in the thing.  You can’t win it if you’re not in it, and we got in it pretty solidly against some tough competition.

“When we race, it’s always a work in progress and we add things as we go, so we’re not standing still or standing pat.  We’ll just get after it and adjust as we go.  That’s nothing new.  When we get to Pomona, every crew chief and driver out there will be adjusting on the fly, based on the track, the air, and all the variables we face on that day.  The playing field is pretty level.”

Even with all that consistency, Wilkerson still values a chance to get his crew limbered up and in game shape, so the current plan is for the team to make a few test runs in Las Vegas, on the weekend prior to the season opener.  The session will be approached as a chance for his guys to get out of the shop in the snowy midwest and back into action, so Wilkerson isn’t going there to light the world on fire.

“I don’t go into any year trying to throw all my touchdown passes in the preseason,” he said.  ”Las Vegas is on the way to Pomona, it’s a great track, and it will give us a chance to fire the car up and make sure we don’t look like knuckleheads when we start the season.  It’s like a walk-through, but we’ll also have the chance to run the car for a few laps to make sure everything is bolted together right and ready to go.  It’s not about running big numbers or anything like that, it’s just a chance to run a few plays and make sure the guys know their positions.

“After that, we’ll pack it up and head straight for Pomona.  My guys know each other, and they know how to work together.  Like I said, we’re not coming into this year with all new stuff and a bunch of new people, so we should be fine.  We have one new guy on the team this year, but he’s fit right in with this group that’s been together for a while now.  We’ll just trust what we know and try to make the adjustments.  The competition will be tough, there’s no doubt about that and it seems like it gets tougher every year, but we usually find a way to be in the hunt and that’s our goal again this year.  We want to be right in it, and then maybe we’ll have a chance to win it.”

With a conscientious approach to his budget and his racing, Wilk has indeed found a way to battle the bigger teams on the biggest stage.  His 11 race victories over the last three years are all the evidence needed to prove such a thing, even if he doesn’t match the competition in terms of preseason testing.