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JOLIET – It’s about three hours from Route 66 Raceway to Tim Wilkerson’s home in Springfield – and one can make that trip largely on old Route 66 – but the track felt like old home week to Wilkerson on Sunday.
The 62-year-old machine shop owner won in the NHRA’s Funny Car category for the first time since Charlotte two years ago, beating Ron Capps in the final when Capps’ parachutes deployed halfway down the 1,000-foot track.
The circumstance aside, it was not a fluke. Wilkerson’s pass took but 3.966 seconds, the best in the last three rounds. His trap speed at the finish line was 325.14 mph, the second-best of the day. In other words, Wilkerson’s 23rd victory of his NHRA career was like all the others: hard-earned.
“Capps had a better car than us all day long, but it worked out better for us in the finals,” Wilkerson said. “I did a lot better job tuning than I did driving this weekend. I was consistent, and that’s what we needed to be, because the track was a little tricky.”
“This is a great facility, and to have it locked up for the last four years? Dumb! I’ll start the campaign right now: Joliet 2024.”
— Tim Wilkerson, NHRA driver
Wilkerson won his first NHRA race at Route 66 in 1999, and was close to tears after the victory, his first in partnership with Joe and Cathi Maynard’s JCM Racing.
“I’ve got so many people out there, we’re not going to have a big enough lens for our winner’s circle picture,” Wilkerson said. “Probably two dozen close friends are up here, and we get more when we run in St. Louis than here.”
Wilkerson knocked off Blake Alexander, Alex Laughlin and John Force on his way to the final. Force got off the line faster but smoked his tires within a second, and Wilkerson roared by.
Clay Millican, seeded 11th on the basis of his qualifying time, knocked off three higher seeds en route to the Top Fuel final, then beat 12th-seeded Josh Hart by 0.0106 seconds in a to-the-wire final. Millican, who ran 1,000 feet in 3.801 seconds, was giddy about his first win since Rick Ware Racing bought the team he drives for. Ware also partners with Dale Coyne in IndyCar. Millican hadn’t won a round in the previous five races this year.
“It’s nice to be off the struggle bus,” Millican said. “What a day!”
Their victories, and those of Dallas Glenn in Pro Stock and Gaige Herrara in Pro Stock Motorcycle, came before about 25,000 spectators in the first race at Route 66 in four years. Seating on the north side had to be opened to accommodate the overflow. The NHRA schedule for 2024 isn’t out yet, and both Wilkerson and Millican are worried Joliet won’t be on it.
“Call NHRA, call whoever owns this place and tell ‘em we want to do this some more,” Wilkerson said. “This is a great facility, and to have it locked up for the last four years? Dumb! I’ll start the campaign right now: Joliet 2024.”
Said Millican, “I know with the crowd we had this year we’ll be back next year. I can’t wait.”
Dallas Glenn and Gaige Herrara followed form as top qualifiers to win. Glenn, who beat Deric Kramer in the final, marched through Pro Stock with little trouble, save for his quarterfinal victory over Greg Anderson, when he came close to the wall. Touching it would have meant disqualification.
“I thank for the NHRA for preparing the track so well over there,” Glenn quipped. “I managed to drive through it.”
Herrara, piloting a Vance & Hines Hayabusa, was the class of the motorcycle field all weekend, setting a track record Friday and outdistancing his competitor easily in all four races. He beat Chip Ellis by 0.0627 seconds in the title lap in winning his third race in succession.
“I go round by round,” Herrara said. “I know I’ve got a good bike. I don’t really look too far ahead.”
Off the track, the NHRA confirmed Sunday to the Competition Plus website that Camping World will not return in 2024 as the overall series sponsor after three years.