Wilkerson made his climb to the winner’s circle easy, but he had his share of troubles.
“We dropped a cylinder at the hit on our run against Capps,” said Wilkerson, “so we had to change motors. I want to thank the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco guys that came over to help us. And then in the final-round, we kept dropping cylinders as we went down the track. By the time I got to the finish line, I had a five cylinder race car. So, we were fortunate to get the win. But I held on and never saw Ashley. I really wasn’t concerned about having the right lane for that last run, because I got down it yesterday in qualifying, so I was pretty confident that I could get down it today.”
(Ron Lewis photo)
“I didn’t know I was the points leader until after the race,” Ashley Force admitted. “I was surprised. It definitely made not winning a little better. We are enjoying it now while we have it, but we know there are three other teams in our camp alone who are gunning for that number one spot. We are happy to enjoy it now and remember this great weekend in Las Vegas.”
Force dropped her second consecutive final round of the season losing to Tim Wilkerson at Las Vegas and veteran Del Worsham two weeks ago in Houston. She has dropped her three finals by a total margin of .229 seconds (.018, .064 and .147 seconds) and at LVMS that margin shrinks to .082 seconds.
She left Las Vegas with a five point lead over Wilkerson. She becomes the first woman to ever lead the Funny Car points and only the sixth woman overall to ever lead a professional points class.
(Tim Marshall photo)
“I thought we made a little progress this weekend,” said Monster Energy Funny Car driver Tommy Johnson, Jr. “We got two good runs in qualifying. We had a little engine problem in qualifying Saturday morning and I thought we fixed that.
“In order to understand the level of competition, you have to take a look at the class as a whole,” continued Johnson. “When John Force (14-time champion) doesn’t make the show, and you know you’re not doing as well as you’d like, it underscores the degree of difficulty in this class. Realistically, I think we’re making some progress.”
Johnson qualified No. 13 with a 4.924/309.49.
In the first round of race day action, Johnson had a substantial starting line advantage over opponent Ashley Force but was unable to capitalize on that lead.
“I couldn’t see her (Ashley Force) at first,” explained Johnson. “I knew the Monster Energy car’s engine wasn’t running as well as it could be, and I was hoping for the best, but she finally came around me. It’s frustrating to get qualified two races in a row and try to make a little progress and then encounter engine problems.
“We’re planning to test the new car Monday here in Vegas and see if we can use that to help us figure out our gremlins. Hopefully by the time we get to Atlanta, we will have learned why the engine has been hurting itself.”