Tim Wilkerson is a dedicated, determined Funny
Car driver who needs a few breaks to go his way to be back in the thick of the
hunt, and he wasn’t helped by missing the cut in Las Vegas.  Still, the Illinois
veteran has not only a world of personality, but he’s got a positive attitude
that results in his seldom appearing down.  He’s got a new Chevy Impala shell
almost ready for his Levi, Ray & Shoup entry, which will debut in Atlanta.

Tim’s son, Dan, is competing in both regional and national
event competition with tuner Fred Mandoline serving as both master mechanic and
driver mentor.  It must be working, because he won the Memphis points race.

“Fred hasn’t done that kind of thing for six or eight years,”
Wilkerson said.  “He’s kind of re-learning what he has to do, and the kid’s
learning, so it’s all good.  Fred’s a real good driving coach, so it’s going to
work out fine.”

You would never guess from looking at Jessie Harris, an attractive 25-year-old
woman with a wholesome personality, that she has an obsession about going
fast.

In fact, she climbs into a special
dragster powered by a military jet engine that produces 6000 pounds of thrust.
Although it’s the same jet engine used in the first F-117 stealth fighter
prototype, and can take a two-passenger jet to 30,000 feet in one minute,
Jessie’s challenge is just to stay on the ground as she reaches speeds of over
300 miles per hour in around five seconds.

HITnRUNtravel.com has been named the official travel source for the AMS Staff
Leasing Pro Modified Challenge presented by Tindle Enterprises, Inc., with a
large portion of the proceeds generated from the website going to fund Parker's
Partners, the official charity partner of the AMS Series.

 
HITnRUNtravel.com is associated with the parent company of Travelocity
and is a portal for discounted airfare, cruises, hotel rooms and car
rentals.
 
Parker's Partners, a 501c3 non-profit company, works with the
goal of embracing all children with unconditional love and educating families
about children with Down's syndrome and other childhood diseases. The foundation
is named after Parker Seward, a three-year-old with Down's syndrome, the son of
journeyman Pro Mod racer Bryan Seward.

After competing for the last couple of years behind the wheel of Kenny
Koretsky’s NitroFish Pro Stock Mopar, the Northrop family will return
to Pro Stock with their own team.  The family has been hooked on racing
for years.

Patriarch
of the family, Paul Northrop said, “Let’s face it. I just want to enjoy myself
and we talked about going back to our own car for a while. This particular deal
came about through our relationship with Bill Jenkins, who built the engines for
our Comp car years ago, along with supplying engines for us to run Pro Stock
before we ran with Kenny.”

“It’s
just about everybody’s dream to run a Pro Stocker,” says Dave, “and we dabbled
on our own for several years and had a great time. We were fortunate to hook up
with Kenny [Koretsky] two years ago, which had me driving one of his cars. For
that, we’ll always be grateful, and our relationship with him goes back a long
ways, which we’ll still maintain.”

In a rain
shortened qualifying at the West Coast Hot Rod Association Auto Club Raceway
event 2006 PSCA Pro Street
World Champion Steve Paulauskis ran another stellar pass to lower the West
Coast E.T. mark to 6.33 seconds. Unfortunately the WFO Motorsport team did not
get a chance to turn the number into a record when the event was cut short
after delayed qualifying and severe weather rolled into the Bakersfield area overnight. Paulauskis was
distinctly upbeat, “To run like that at my sponsor’s race is great, Team
Transit Mix Inc. had a bunch of customers and employees on hand for an
Appreciation Day and I hope we made them proud. Kelly did a great job today he
had this thing flying”. Kelly Bluebaugh of WFO Racing and Machine who serves as
crew chief on the Team Transit Mix Cavalier continued, “The tune-up for that
pass was conservative, it was safer than when we ran the previous West Coast
best at Speedworld and I truly did not expect a number like that. It would have
been nice to have got another pass and stepped it up, the chances of running a
twenty were pretty good.”

The Mopar® 2007 HEMI® Challenge Race Series hits Belle Rose, La. this weekend.
The second-to-last leg of the 2007 points season will take place on Saturday,
April 21 at the Jeg’s Cajun SPORTSnationals.

The first 2007 HEMI
Challenge race saw Rick Houser drive his Jim DeFrank & Sons 1968 Barracuda
Fastback to a win over Jerry Jenkins at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March at
the 5th Annual Mopars at the Strip. Another large contingent of HEMI-powered
cars is ready to mix it up again this weekend at No Problem Raceway.

Today, one of the
most popular and colorful drivers in recent drag racing history is slated to
make an announcement that will leave his thousands of fans
heartbroken.  Six-time champion (five in Top Fuel, one in Funny Car
in 2005), Gary Scelzi will step down at the conclusion of the current season,
but this will not be a retirement
announcement.  Scelzi plans on leaving the door open for a possible
return at some point in the future.

Looking for a top-tier
Funny Car ride? Don Schumacher will begin his driver search this week and the
top item along with talent will be personality. The successor had better be
able to crack a joke or two.

"I have talked to a
couple of individuals really on the sidelines," Schumacher said.
"Until Gary
really made his decision ... I hadn't made a decision as to what I was going to
do. We are going to look out there in all of the classes from the alcohol
classes down into the Pro Stock classes. I will communicate with many drivers
out there.

The following is a note from Bob Pagano, Founder and President of
the Disabled Youth Awareness group. We'd like to pass on his message.