But in addition to the pain-relieving creams and multi-vitamins in his team’s medicine cabinet, you will also find in Wilkerson’s pits a hard-working driver and crew that are nearly able to overcome the inherent disadvantage of racing a single car in a sport dominated by multi-car teams.

Although under-funded and "over the hill," Wilkerson and his crew have managed to win two national events in each of the last couple of years — most notably the U.S. Nationals in 2003.  And with help from the computer software company Levi, Ray and Shoup, the team has also finished seventh in points for the past two consecutive seasons.

So how are Wilkerson and his team able to be so competitive with an under-funded, single-car team?

Simple: hard work.

If Tim Wilkerson weren't a drag racer, he might have been a career soldier in the armed forces.  He always sports a crew cut, his favorite movies are anything to do with World War II — which his father fought in — and his work ethic harkens back to the days of his father’s generation.  And like the men and women who endured the Great Depression and World War II, Wilkerson is modest about his success.

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Wilkerson won’t say that it’s his team’s hard work that closes the competition gap.  He will only say that the two- and three-car teams that have become the norm in drag racing really don’t have that big of an advantage over a single-car team. 

"If any of those guys had just one car, they would be fast like they are now," Wilkerson said.  "I don’t think that you would see them suffer more. Now, would they be a little less consistent?  Possibly.  But I’ve always said you could give Austin Coil a small block Chevrolet and a piece of plywood for a body and he would still have the fastest car out there.  I really don’t think it makes any difference.  Hell, they kicked everybody’s ass with one car."

But just because Wilkerson doesn’t see that big of a competitive advantage for multi-car teams doesn’t mean that he hasn’t wished about fielding a two-car team once in a while. 

"A lot of days I do," Wilkerson said.  "But a lot of days when we’re working hard and I’m tired of it at the end of the day, I’m like, ‘Wow, I’m glad we’ve only got one of these junks today.’ "

Whether Wilkerson likes to admit it, his success as an under-funded, single-car team hasn’t gone unnoticed by others in the pits.  Jim Oberhofer, crew chief for Scott Kalitta and Kalitta Motorsports manager, has said that Connie Kalitta’s team might be interested in fielding a Funny Car with Wilkerson behind the motor.

So would that job opportunity interest Wilkerson?

"Oh I think it’s a wonderful idea," Wilkerson said.  "I don’t know if you could ever get that worked out, but I think it’s an honor to be thought of by that camp, because those guys are a great group of racers. I would love to evolve to that level and I think that’s a tremendous compliment for Jim O to say that. I’d be proud to be involved with those guys.  That would be a good car, and it would be well-funded. And it would be a different scenario than I’ve ever been involved with."

Different scenario, indeed. 

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Wilkerson’s drag-racing career always has been that of an independent.  There might not be an "I" in team, but there is one in independent, and Wilkerson admitted that the transition from boss to employee would be something that would require "some serious soul-searching."

"I’ve been doing my own deal forever," Wilkerson said.  "There’s something to be said for having your own deal. I think that’s why Tony Pedregon went that way. He had the best ride out here. Why would a guy give that up?  Maybe just because in your heart you want to do it yourself. Well, now that I’ve done it myself, God only knows if I can go the other way. I think in the right circumstance it wouldn’t bother me. That’s probably one of the groups that you could say, ‘I know what I’m coming here to do. I know what they expect of me, and I know what I expect of them.’"

One thing the Kalitta team shouldn’t expect of Wilkerson is to trade his Funny Car for a dragster. Although there are rumors that Doug Kalitta is interested in driving a Funny Car, any rumors that Wilkerson would ever drive a dragster are false. 
   

"I never want to drive a dragster," Wilkerson said.  "I personally think those things are dangerous. I feel a lot safer in a Funny Car. I’ll fight a fire any day of the week. There’s a lot of safety talk in NHRA right now about trying to keep the wings on those cars a little better.  And it’s not anybody’s fault that the wing falls off, it’s just the design of the car.  They are trying to figure out a better way to keep those wings on because if anything at all hits the tire, then the tire ends up hitting the wing. Garlits had an idea with the mono-strut wing, but I don’t personally think that’s the answer — but a lot of people do. Anyway, that’s why I drive a Funny Car; plus, I think they are a lot cooler."

Someone who might agree that Funny Cars are cooler than dragsters is Wilkerson’s oldest son, Daniel.  Only 16 years old, Daniel is currently racing in Super Comp.  And although Wilkerson doesn’t know if his son will follow in his father’s Goodyear footsteps, he’s making sure that racing is not the primary focus in his son’s life . . . yet.  

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"I’ve got a kid coming up that wants to do this, and I’m not sure that I want him to do it, but he’s interested in it," Wilkerson said.  "It’s an honor to me that he wants to be like his dad.  He understands that even if he wants to do this he still has to go to through college and do all the right things. I’d make sure he had a really good job before he went to do this.  Because if you look at someone like the Kalittas —they are a perfect example — if they don’t have a sponsor and they don’t want to go racing, then they won’t. If they want to go racing, then they will. They are a perfect example of how to do it because they are not relying on this thing."

Like Kalitta, Wilkerson doesn’t rely on drag racing to support his family. Proving that he’s just as independent in life outside of drag racing, Wilkerson runs his own business consisting of a full-service automotive repair shop and machine shop. This, he said, gives him peace of mind knowing that his family is taken care of regardless of his drag racing career. 

"We do have something else to do if this goes upside down, but of course we want this to be our career," Wilkerson said.  "No matter what you want to say, no matter how much we all love drag racing — and nobody loves it any more than me — the bottom line is that at the end of the day you have to be able to feed your family.  And I’m not going to do this to where I can’t feed my family. If it gets so bad, then I just won’t go." 

Even though Wilkerson isn’t relying on drag racing for his sole source of income, it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t care deeply about seeing the sport succeed. Wilkerson is a member of the Professional Racers Organization (PRO), a group of drivers and team members that address various issues with NHRA such as safety, purse sizes and keeping the cost of drag racing in check. In particular, Wilkerson represents all those under-funded teams that don’t have a voice in the sport.

So what does Wilkerson feel that PRO is doing to make NHRA drag racing a better experience for fans and drivers alike?

"Our agenda is not to beat up the sanctioning body," Wilkerson said.  "We are here to do the same thing they are: bring more sponsors into the sport, put a better show on for the fans, and get ourselves on television more, which will bring in more sponsors. That’s everyone’s goal out here . . . I’ll guarantee you that."

Wilkerson said the one thing he is most proud of is that "we [PRO] are trying to make the sport safer and more appealing to all the fans and media. NASCAR is running themselves out of business with $30-40 million-a-year sponsors. So somebody could look over here and say, ‘Wow, for $3-4 million we can go over to NHRA and really have a cool deal. We could have corporate hospitality and a really fast car, and we could do it all over there for a tremendous amount of less money.’  We just have to figure out ways to make that happen. I think that’s one of the organization’s biggest goals."

Not surprisingly, the core issue for Wilkerson is family.

"The thing about it is that all these guys have kids out here racing: Connie, Don, Kenny," Wilkerson said. "So everybody wants it to be safe.  And that’s important to me too, because maybe I want to have a kid racing out here as well."

Because family is so important to Wilkerson, the loss of his mother Martha this past June during the Sears Craftsman Nationals has hit him especially hard. Aware that his mother was battling an illness, Wilkerson was prepared to cancel the entire race weekend so he could return home to be by her side — but Martha insisted that he stay and race. Not only did he honor his mother’s wishes and race that weekend, but he ended up going to the final round, in which he lost to Ron Capps. 

During his career, Funny Car owner/driver Tim Wilkerson has proven that a single-car, under-funded team can survive — and even thrive — against larger, better-funded teams.  Unfortunately for Wilkerson, the consistency his team has displayed during the last couple of years has yet to surface in 2005.  A fan of World War II films, this year Wilkerson has been on the losing end of many Funny Car battles. In fact, Wilkerson said that if his 2005 drag racing season was made into a movie, "it would be Grumpy Old Men." 

So why does he believe that it has been so difficult for him to get his first win of the season thus far?

"I just think the 85 percent rule has hindered me a little bit," Wilkerson said.  "We tried some things in the spring that didn’t work out so well. I really think that’s all it is.  We’ve qualified good and we are really happy with our performance. We are just racing the wrong guys at the last five or six races."