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Racing Luck Frowns on Wilk
Tim Wilkerson made an unfortunate habit, earlier in the season, of running very well in the opening round while uncannily running the one driver who could beat him. As he too often put it "We did all we could, but we raced the wrong guy." By getting out of that routine, and getting hot during the Western Swing, Wilk erased many of those memories and got himself firmly planted in the Countdown field. Today, in the second playoff race of the 2011 Countdown, he was again trapped by the unluckiest of pairings, running well enough to defeat every other Funny Car winner in the opening round (with the lone exception of Cruz Pedregon who ran well on an uncontested pass). The problem was, he was paired up with Jack Beckman, who was the only other driver quick enough (4.148) to take out Wilk's outstanding 4.162 run.
The loss stung particularly hard for Wilk, because the eliminations ladder was laden with possibilities for the Levi, Ray & Shoup team. Six of the eight cars on the other side of the ladder were Countdown teams, meaning a significant number of playoff contenders would make an early exit, and that was the case for John Force, Robert Hight, Mike Neff, and Jeff Arend (who was on Wilk's side of the ladder). Arend's loss was to Jon Capps, a part-time competitor on the circuit, and Hight's was to Melanie Troxel, who did not make the playoffs. The chance for Wilk to make a significant move in the standings was there.
"I hate to look at the ladder before we race, but it was too obvious not to notice all the Force cars and all those playoff cars on the same side," Wilk said. "You get six playoff cars on one side, and have another lose on our side, and you can start leapfrogging some people. We had a good idea what the track would handle over there in the right lane, we knew what we wanted to run, and we went right out there and ran it. We nailed it. Why that's not good enough is just part of the deal I guess, but we've been to this dance before.
"It's no fun, and it's disappointing to lose to anyone, but Jack is such a fierce competitor you might even get a little more amped up to run him. We might be good friends, and who isn't good friends with Jack, but when we light the bulbs I want to send him packing and show the world we can beat those guys. It's a big blow to lose that one, and it's tough to lose it by such a small margin. Let me tell you, there are no moral victories in this sport, and running good but losing is no consolation. It stinks."
Wilk's match-up with Beckman was born from a tough set of qualifying circumstances, and even though the LRS Ford ran both consistently and consistently well on Friday, the Wilk team had both runs on Saturday get away from them due to tire smoke, and the 11th spot was as high as they could land. Oddly, a different match-up was originally on tap, with Mike Neff looking like Wilk's counterpart for the opener, but a weight foul on Bob Tasca's Ford reshuffled the order and the Beckman pairing came back to life.
"Nothing we can do about it now, except try to get over it and at some point this afternoon or tonight we will," Wilk said. "We have four races left, and we still have plenty of chances to do some good out here and win some races. We've won one this year, and we can win more, but if we don't we're still focused on winning every round just as much as we were focused on winning this one. The tough part about drag racing is that all you can do is your best, and if the other guys are faster than you, you can't intercept the pass or tackle him. You just lose.
"So our goal right now is to finish up this three-race swing we're on, next week in Reading, with a better qualifying effort and then turn that into round wins. Where we end up in the standings is still very much up in the air, so we're not thinking of math or rounds or anything else. We're thinking of qualifying well in Reading and then sending whoever we race in round one home. It'll be our turn to break some hearts. Then we'll have three more races after that to break some more."
If Tim Wilkerson could control one thing, for the rest of this season, it would be make sure he doesn't race the wrong guy in round one. Since he has no control over that random factor, he's simply focusing on changing his luck the purest of ways, by outrunning whoever lines up next to him.
