Veteran fuel racer Tim Wilkerson has a plan. And this plan involves him, but not in the way one might think.

Wilkerson, a decorated driver in the Funny Car ranks, has purchased a Top Fuel dragster. No, he doesn't plan to drive the rail but figures he will make the machine available for those who do want to.

"We're just trying to get some people some licenses and stuff," Wilkerson confirmed.

Maybe the dragster doesn't produce enough clutch dust messiness for his liking. Maybe not.

"Trying to make a little money with it," Wilkerson admitted.

Wilkerson already has a few clients lined up, including Keith Murt, who tested the car the day after the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMax Dragway.

A lot of the process is trial and error for Wilkerson, who said his approach is not a lot different than that of Del Worsham, who also has a dragster for rent.

"We are trying to figure out if there's anybody that would like to do something like this," Wilkerson said. "Del's a west coast guy, and there's really nobody on the east coast here to do anything."

Wilkerson understands he's got a ways to go to understand fully the nuances of tuning a Top Fuel as opposed to a Funny Car.

"To tell you the truth, I don't know anything about it until I try," Wilkerson said. "You know what I mean?"

Wilkerson did pretty good tuning Richard Hartman to the world's fastest Fuel Altered pass not so long ago.

"I don't know if it's going to have anything to do with that or not," Wilkerson said. " I'm not going to try to be Richard Hogan, but I don't want to be a leaker either. I don't want just a car that just goes down through there, and blows up all the time, and spends more time with people cleaning up behind it. You know me better than that.

"If there's a short field, we can help fill it. I'm just trying to get more cars to run with. I think that's important. That's what I'm trying to do. Yeah, make a little money doing this, maybe. And I don't know if that's an oxymoron with a top fuel car or not, but we'll find out."