Tim Wilkerson is a dedicated, determined Funny Car driver who needs a few breaks to go his way to be back in the thick of the hunt, and he wasn’t helped by missing the cut in Las Vegas.  Still, the Illinois veteran has not only a world of personality, but he’s got a positive attitude that results in his seldom appearing down.  He’s got a new Chevy Impala shell almost ready for his Levi, Ray & Shoup entry, which will debut in Atlanta.

Tim’s son, Dan, is competing in both regional and national event competition with tuner Fred Mandoline serving as both master mechanic and driver mentor.  It must be working, because he won the Memphis points race.

“Fred hasn’t done that kind of thing for six or eight years,” Wilkerson said.  “He’s kind of re-learning what he has to do, and the kid’s learning, so it’s all good.  Fred’s a real good driving coach, so it’s going to work out fine.”

WORDS WITH WILKERSON

Tim Wilkerson is a dedicated, determined Funny Car driver who needs a few breaks to go his way to be back in the thick of the hunt, and he wasn’t helped by missing the cut in Las Vegas.  Still, the Illinois veteran has not only a world of personality, but he’s got a positive attitude that results in his seldom appearing down.  He’s got a new Chevy Impala shell almost ready for his Levi, Ray & Shoup entry, which will debut in Atlanta.

Tim’s son, Dan, is competing in both regional and national event competition with tuner Fred Mandoline serving as both master mechanic and driver mentor.  It must be working, because he won the Memphis points race.

“Fred hasn’t done that kind of thing for six or eight years,” Wilkerson said.  “He’s kind of re-learning what he has to do, and the kid’s learning, so it’s all good.  Fred’s a real good driving coach, so it’s going to work out fine.”

While Wilkerson handles his own tune-up, he acknowledge that Mandoline was a “real good sounding board for me because he understands everything mechanical.  With our budget we can’t afford to have everyone at all places, so that’s why we decided that Fred would go with Dan.”

Wilkerson continues to try and sell signage on portions of his car, although LRS will remain on board unless they’re somehow able to land that dreamed-of multi-million dollar deal.  “We definitely couldn’t do this without Levi, Ray & Shoup,” Wilkerson said in a considerable understatement.

Wilkerson enjoys an excellent relationship with his sponsor, which comes as no surprise t those who know him.  That’s just one reason why he treads carefully when it comes to any discussion of a “dream” financial backer.  “Mr. Levi’s been with me for six years,” he says.  “That’s why I’m never going to discount his position or importance to us just to gain some additional money from another source.  He’s said if a three million dollar deal came along that he’d understand, but something inside me thinks that if that happened we could work something out.”

In answer to the question as to whether or not a single car team can be competitive in this day and age, Wilkerson, says “Yes, but you’ve got to have the right kind of people working with you.  Unfortunately, with our kind of budget we just don’t have the kind of people it takes to help tune the car and do testing.

“I’ve made mention about restricting testing just because of that.  I talked to Force’s team last year and they’d made like 140 runs by the time they got to Houston.  That’s with three cars.  The guys were bitchin’ ‘cause they were worn out.  They’re young kids, but they were goin’, Man, this wears ya out!  I got to thinking to myself, and I don’t make 140 runs all year.  It’s no wonder those guys are kickin’ my ass up an down the race track.

I’ve talked to a couple of people about restricting testing, and they always say there’s no way you could do that.  They say it’s impossible to monitor it.  No, it isn’t.  It is possible to monitor it.  You say, Here’s your five testing dates, and you only get three runs each day.  Well, you know the big hitters don’t want to hear that.

“But, you can also go to a lot of teams and ask them what they learned testing that day, and you don’t get an answer, and if you talk to the owner he’s not real happy with how things came out.  Deep down inside they may not think it’s a good idea (to restrict testing), but I think even deeper down inside they know it is. 

“If they had  system like that each time you could have the Safety Safari on hand, you could have a (med evac) helicopter there to cover everyone.  Based on our last incident, the idea doesn’t seem nearly as dumb as it did a month ago.”