Joliet, Prerace: Springfield, Ill. Funny Car leader, Tim Wilkerson and his Levi Ray & Shoup (LRS) team are eagerly looking forward to competing at the Torco Racing Fuels Route 66 Nationals this weekend. It was here at Route 66 Raceway in 1999, that Wilkerson scored his first Funny Car win defeating the legendary, John Force. And it is here that Wilkerson hopes to score his eighth career win and his third of 2008.

Since that first win, Wilkerson and his LRS team have become a very strong force on the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing circuit. Being one of the few independent teams gives Wilkerson a distinction of its own, but being the POWERade points leader makes Wilkerson a stand out. Being the only Funny Car to earn four No. 1 qualifying positions and two wins so far this season, makes Wilkerson the leader of the pack. He currently is No. 1 in the U.S. Smokeless Showdown, which will be contested at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals over Labor Day. And after his final-round appearance at the O’Reilly Summer Nationals, last week in Topeka, Wilkerson padded his lead to 81 points in the POWERade championship points standings.

Wilkerson and his talented team look to continue their winning ways and hope being close to home will pay off again.

“Route 66 is special to us,” expressed Wilkerson. “We have a good history here and it’s cool to be close to home. We always have a lot of family and friends cheering for us, which makes what we’re doing even more fun. And I’m hoping we can keep our ‘close to home’ rally going strong. We like the sound of being number one. And with our win in St. Louis which is close to home and our runner-up last week in Topeka which is kind of close to home, it would be great to be able to keep it rolling.

“And it’s a good track. Chris (McMahan of Route 66 Raceway) takes good care of it; it’s always smooth and fast. Even if the weather is hot and nasty, we can be sure that the track will be good.

“So, I need to try and not be as greedy as I was in the finals in Topeka last week. We don't go out there to get beat, I can tell you that. We have this taste in our mouth and we like it, so we're going to try to keep beating on them. We're going to make some mistakes and we're going to do some things wrong but hopefully we’ll keep on truckin’ and with a little luck, stay in first place.”

Back to 2008 Press Releases