FUNNY CAR
In Funny Car, 14-time POWERade Series world champion Force picked up his first win of the season, driving his Castrol GTX High-Mileage Ford Mustang to a 4.996 at 299.66 past runner-up Tim Wilkerson.
Just 252 days after a 320 mile-an-hour crash in Dallas, Texas, Force needed just 4.996 seconds to earn his first victory of the 2008 season; his ninth at Heartland Park.
That performance pushed the 59-year-old legend into third place in the Funny Car driver standings behind only Wilkerson and another Force, Ashley, his 25-year-old daughter. It was Force’s first win since Aug. 12, 2007 when he prevailed in the Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd, Minn.
Force credited crew chief Austin Coil with keeping him focused when he began to question his own abilities.
“It’s huge for me mentally,” Force said. “Coil and I even argued, ‘maybe we should put (Phil) Burkart back in the car’, I said, ‘and let the guys win some races and prove the car and maybe that’ll give me time to heal more.
“And Coil held me to a verbal contract we had. He said ‘you always told me, Force, that if we go down, we go down together. If I suck, you’re staying with me and if you suck, I’m staying with you.’ So he said there ain’t nobody else driving this car but you unless you just ain’t got the strength to get back in it.
“You watch these kids work around the clock (on the race car) and you think it just ain’t fair,” Force said. “if you can’t deliver as a driver, it’s not fair to them (to stay in the seat) just ‘cause I own it.”
Wilkerson put his qualifying struggles behind him as he charged his way through the ranks. In the first round, Wilkerson sent Frank Hawley packing with a holeshot as Wilk’s .072 reaction time gave his 4.889 the win light against Hawley’s 4.849. In the second round, Wilkerson beat Jerry Toliver with a 5.005 to Toliver’s 5.021. In the semi’s Wilkerson faced Gary Scelzi. This round was a pedal-fest, and when the dust settled, Wilkerson again had the win light.
Then for the third time this year, Wilkerson advanced to the final-round. And again for the third time a Team Force car was in the other lane. This time it was the car driven by the boss himself, John Force. But unlike the other two finals, Wilkerson didn’t get the upper hand, as he smoked the tires and handed the win to Force.
Wilkerson kept his points lead with his runner up finish and built a 81-point cushion over second-place Ashley Force after Ashley lost in the first round to her father, John.
Trying to ride the wave of his No. 3 qualifying spot in the O'Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka, former Funny Car world champion driver Frank Hawley missed advancing into the second round of eliminations by a mere .0015 seconds - less than eight inches at the finish line.
Despite delivering the quickest Funny Car elapsed time of the event, Hawley was defeated by current POWERade points leader Tim Wilkerson in a memorable side-by-side matchup. At the stripe, it was Hawley's slower reaction time of .113 seconds compared to Wilkerson's .072 that was the difference. Hawley recorded a 4.849/306.95 to Wilkerson's winning 4.889/307.79 shot.