Chicago, pre-race: Funny Car pilot, Tim Wilkerson and his Levi Ray & Shoup (LRS) team are eagerly looking forward to competing at the 7th Annual NHRA Route 66 Nationals this weekend. It was here at Route 66 Raceway in 1999, that Wilkerson scored his first Funny Car win defeating the legendary, John Force.

Since that time, Wilkerson and his LRS team have become a very strong force on the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing circuit, amassing their additional three wins within the last nine months. Coming off a No. 3 qualifying spot and a semifinal round appearance at last weeks Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals presented by Pontiac, the Springfield, Ill. native is looking forward to continuing the car's strong performance at one of his hometown tracks.

"We enjoy coming to Joliet," said Wilkerson. "A lot of family and friends join us here, and we like having them with us. Plus we have great memories from our first Funny Car win here. This year we are coming to this track with a good feeling. I don't want to call it confidence, because being too confident can cause your demise. But we have a good database of information and we have started to be able to get the LRS Monte Carlo to react to what we are telling it to do. And as long as we tell it smart things, we should be in good shape. We got a little greedy in the semi's last week in Atlanta, so we'll just have to celebrate our fifth win this weekend."

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