Backstretch Motorsports

Springfield, IL — Tim Wilkerson is in the midst of a dream season. By anybody’s standards. The fact that his is a one car team winning against the likes of John Force Racing, Don Schumacher Racing and the unlimited budgets of those giants is downright inspirational.

The Levi, Ray and Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS driver is leading the NHRA Funny Car points with 4 event wins and round by round, leading the way for the independents of the sport. And as an independent driver/owner/crew chief that means giving a fit to the large, well-funded multi-car teams is pretty enjoyable.

It also means there’s a tremendous amount of work that he himself does around his shop.

As we spoke on Wednesday morning, Tim was changing out an air compressor… “I wonder if John Force would be up on a ladder with tools in his hand doing this kind of stuff,” Wilkerson laughed.

“Probably not”, I replied.

As the 2008 NHRA POWERade season is drawing closer to the Countdown to the Championship, Wilkerson has the most enviable position, the view from the top of the standings.

As the Team Wilkerson Racing crew was getting ready for the second event in NHRA’s grueling Western Swing at Pacific Raceway, Wilkerson took the time to talk about the successes his operation has enjoyed so far and looked ahead to the possibility of the 2008 Funny Car title being in his grasp.

“There’s no doubt this is the best year that we’ve ever had. That shows in the way the car is running,” Wilkerson began. “I think we’ve won some rounds this year based on past performances and we’ve tried not to beat ourselves by trying too hard. I did put myself in that position in the finals at Topeka earlier this year. I didn’t mean to, I just got a little greedy and we got beaten pretty soundly that day when I smoked the tires.”

Is there any one thing you can point to and say ‘this is why we’re having this season?’

“I really believe it’s just personnel more that anything; we’ve got key people in key positions that have really worked out well and I’m proud of the way the guys have worked together,” Wilkerson explained, “We’ve got the best parts and more money than we’ve ever had. Our affiliation with Don Prudhomme Racing has allowed us to check those parts on a frequent basis. That’s led to our being to our car being more consistent.”

Is being 215 points ahead at this point a comfortable margin for you?

“Is that what it is? I never look because it doesn’t mean anything till after Indy (Mac Tools U.S. Nationals being the last race in the Countdown to 10).” He continued. “We take each race and do the same thing. Our first goal is to qualify our car. Then its simply a matter of going rounds. ”

Speaking of qualifying, all you have to this weekend is make a qualifying pass and you’ve clinched your Countdown berth.

“I didn’t realize that… I can’t tell you who I race on Sundays; I don’t look ’cause it doesn’t matter. I look at the track and say ‘if its 70 degrees, this is how fast we want to go, if its 130 degrees this is how fast we think we ought to go.’ It doesn’t matter who is in the other lane.”

“What we learned earlier in the year is what won Denver for us. What we learned by winning at Englishtown and Denver will take us with confidence into Seattle and the rest of the season.”

You’ve said recently that you cannot be conservative; you started the season being aggressive and you’ve got to stay aggressive. Will that change as the Countdown begins?

“I went through that mode at Bristol and Joliet and I was kind of mad at myself because I got beat by thinking ‘well, maybe we shouldn’t take the chance of messing up, maybe we should just go down he track.’ To heck with that. You’re going to see me doing the same things I’ve done all season, and if we smoke the tires, so be it. I’m going to come out swinging with everything I’ve got in every round.”

The first stop in the Countdown to 1 is the new stop on the schedule, which is the Z-Max Raceway at Concord, NC. That’s a totally unknown entity. What is the thinking as you look at a place you’ve not been to and it being in such an important position in the Championship crunch time?

“We go to every track and look at it individually anyway. We look at it and say ‘here’s the good part of the track and here’s the more challenging part of the track’ and work at it from there. Everybody is racing the same track we are. I don’t think they’re going to make me race on the dirt and everybody else races on the asphalt,” laughed Wilkerson. “As long as the rubber sticks and NHRA has prepared the track as they usually do, I don’t worry about it. If it’s got good traction, we’ll use more clutch; if it has less traction, we’ll use less clutch. The car doesn’t care. It’s not that smart. It might take a couple of runs to figure it all out.”

The Levi, Ray and Shoup, Inc. sponsorship (LRS is an industry leader and global provider of information technology software) has been a part of Team Wilkerson since 1999, one of the longest sustained pairings in the NHRA paddock. What’s their reaction to this season?

“Dick Levi is one of the best people to be with. He’s passionate about the sport. He’s a businessman and wants the most bang for his buck, but I can go to Dick and say we need this, this or this to be better and he’ll say ‘if that’s what it takes, we’ll try it.’ Now when you talk to Dick about this year, it’s like he’s won the lottery. That’s a great feeling. He’s such an easy person to talk to, it’s a great relationship.”