Wilkerson Makes Final Round, Line Secures Spot in the Countdown

Although Team Summit Racing didn’t bring home a Wally, there were reasons to celebrate on Sunday at the Toyota NHRA Sonoma Nationals.

Greg Anderson had the quickest time in round one of eliminations with a 6.546-second/212.06 MPH pass, beating Tom Huggins’ 6.730/206.99. In round two, Anderson defeated Vincent Nobile, 6.568/211.63 to 6.674/210.31. Anderson lost in the semifinals when he smoked the tires running a 12.623/70.13 to Bo Butner’s 6.572/211.39.

Anderson, the 88-time Pro Stock winner, and his team are looking to build upon every little thing they learned at this event.

“We’re looking forward to Seattle,” said Anderson. “Today was disappointing. We made some good runs in qualifying in our Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro, but lane choice made a big difference. We’ll move on to Seattle, take what we learned here and do better.”

Anderson remains second in the NHRA Pro Stock points standings.

Reigning Pro Stock champion Jason Line qualified fourth and secured his spot in the Countdown to the Championship. He took the win in the first round of eliminations over part-time Pro Stock racer Steve Graham, 6.568/211.96 to 6.644/ 210.14. In round two he lost to rookie of the year contender Tanner Gray, who won on a 6.571/211.76 pass to Line’s 6.601/210.80.

“We don’t have quite the handle on the setup that we once did. It’s a work in progress,” said Line. “The new Goodyear tires are really good. They’re just throwing our car for a loop right now. It’s one of the things we are working to improve.”

Line is currently fourth in the Pro Stock points standings.

KB Racing teammate and current Pro Stock points leader Bo Butner, made it to the final round, but lost to Tanner Gray 6.577/210.93 to 6.572/210.00.

The efforts of Tim Wilkerson and his crew paid dividends in Funny Car in Sonoma as the team made the final round. But the driver of the Levi, Ray & Shoup Ford Shelby Mustang came up just shy of victory.

 

Wilkerson knocked out Cruz Pedregon, Robert Hight, and Courtney Force to get to the 39th final round of his career and second of the season.

“We broke an air line off the throttle switch,” said Wilkerson. “There are a million ways to lose and only one way to win. We had plenty of lucky breaks today. The last one just went the other way.”

At the last race in Denver at the Mile-High NHRA Nationals, Wilkerson broke not one, but two chassis after uncharacteristic wheel stands. The team had to hustle to make it back to car builder Murf McKinney’s shop in Indiana and then back across the country to Sonoma.

“We had a couple little hiccups today, but we’re excited about our new car doing so well,” said Wilkerson. “No matter how you look at it, it was a pretty good day.”

Wilkerson is eighth is the Funny Car points standings.

 

Final Round Results
Top Fuel—Steve Torrence (3.7842/329.42) defeated Antron Brown (3.974/281.83)

Funny Car—J.R. Todd (4.049/323.27) defeated Tim Wilkerson (6.823/100.26)

Pro Stock—Tanner Gray (6.572/210.05) defeated Bo Butner (6.577/210.67)

Pro Stock Motorcycle—LE Tonglet (6.783/197.02) defeated Matt Smith
(6.790/196.67)

What’s Next
The next event on the 2017 Mello Yello Drag Racing Series schedule is the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways in Seattle, August 4-6.

For more information and complete race results visit DragRaceCentral.com