"We were halfway there, but we were absolutely only thinking one round at a time, and the weather was changing very fast on us," Wilkerson said. "We went from basically fog in the morning, to overcast, and then just as the second round was about to begin we saw the first patches of blue up there. It didn't take long for it to then clear right up and heat up, just like the forecast said. The trick was to adapt to each round, and we knew we had to slow it down after the big run in the first round.

In the semifinal, Wilk faced off with Matt Hagan in a round that was three parts DSR and one part TWR. With Ron Capps and Jack Beckman, both Don Schumacher Racing drivers, squaring off in one semi, and with Wilk tackling Hagan (the third DSR flopper) in the other, it seemed incumbent upon Wilkerson to carry the torch for Ford. He did so, with another beautifully clean lap, taking out Hagan with a 4.249.

In the final, Capps was the opponent and the NAPA team had lane choice. They chose the favored left side, and as the sun lowered in the western sky at the end of the track, Wilkerson knew much was at stake. Just two races ago, he'd been in 9th place and was far too close to falling out of the Top 10 to be comfortable. A runner-up in Bristol gave him a cushion. A win in Norwalk moved him up a few spots, and made the cushion even bigger. This one would all but lock up his spot in the 2010 playoffs.

Capps got a slight edge at the tree, but before the 60-foot timer the two cars seemed locked together for the length of the track. Whoever won this one, would be doing it by inches, and the LRS car was the one to trip the win lights, take the prize, and earn the points. Wilk's 4.221 beat Capps' 4.246, and when factoring in the drivers' reaction times, the margin of victory was a miniscule 14-thousandths of a second. Tight? Yes. Hard fought? Absolutely.

"I have to give credit to my guys, who were just terrific all day," Wilkerson said. "As we said, it wasn't an easy day to race and any team out here would have had unlimited excuses for losing their focus or whatever out there. Somehow we put four great laps together on one of the most challenging days of the year, and I mean that in every respect. We went through all sorts of different weather and track conditions, and we dealt with a big blow, but we overcame it all.

"At the end of a day like this, and after finding our way to our third straight final and our second win in a row, the tiredness sets in but it's a feeling that you know you earned. We earned every bit of it today."

Every bit. 
(Bob Wilber)

Ron Capps reached his second final round of the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series at the 23rd annual NHRA Northwest Nationals and, despite the disappointment of losing to Tim Wilkerson, was pumped up about the progress of the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger Funny Car team. With this result, he moved into seventh in the class point standings.

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