Sonoma, pre-race: The 17th Annual Fram Autolite Nationals at Infineon Raceway is the last leg of the western swing on the 2004 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series tour. But Funny Car pro, Tim Wilkerson is not looking for it to be the end; instead he's looking forward to it being the continuation of the good performance he has uncovered.

In Seattle last weekend Wilkerson showed that he and his team had things going in the right direction with his Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Monte Carlo. All weekend long, Wilkerson's fuel coupe was the quickest Monte Carlo on the premises. Then on Sunday, Wilk laid down the quickest E.T. of the event.

"I really think we can continue the performance we found in Seattle," said Wilkerson. "We've got a good clutch program, it's acting good and doing what we're telling it to do."

Last year at Infineon Raceway, Wilkerson qualified in the No. 9 position, but went out in the first round even though he ran the second quickest E.T. of the round.

"We ran pretty good at Infineon last year," said Wilkerson. "We just had some bad luck in the first round; the blower pulley exploded. We had Tommy Johnson, Jr. just like last weekend in Seattle; but that time he won because our car broke."

This year at the Fram Autolite Nationals, Wilkerson and his team plan to take their well behaving Levi, Ray & Shoup Funny Car right into the winner's circle.

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