Michelle Wilson, the first lady of ADRL Extreme 10.5 (XTF) racing, may bolt on bigger tires.

“You have to run so fast to be competitive in Extreme 10.5 now that by running those same ETs you can qualify pretty good in Pro Nitrous and you’ve got the bigger tire to work with,” she reasons. “I’m not saying I want to get out of Extreme 10.5, because the class is awesome, but if the opportunity came that I had something I could go in Pro Nitrous with; then by all means I’d do it. Give me four wheels and give me something fast and it’s all good.”

Wilson qualified her nitrous-boosted 2000 Firebird for the most recent XTF event (the ADRL World Finals, postponed by rain from Dallas in October to next March at Houston) with a 4.34 pass, which sets up a first-round meeting with Gary White, who placed third with an effort nearly four-tenths quicker. Her husband and crew chief, H.T. Wilson, rounded out the field in 16th place with a 4.47-seconds run.

Michelle Wilson, the first lady of ADRL Extreme 10.5 (XTF) racing, may bolt on bigger tires.

“You have to run so fast to be competitive in Extreme 10.5 now that by running those same ETs you can qualify pretty good in Pro Nitrous and you’ve got the bigger tire to work with,” she reasons. “I’m not saying I want to get out of Extreme 10.5, because the class is awesome, but if the opportunity came that I had something I could go in Pro Nitrous with; then by all means I’d do it. Give me four wheels and give me something fast and it’s all good.”

Wilson qualified her nitrous-boosted 2000 Firebird for the most recent XTF event (the ADRL World Finals, postponed by rain from Dallas in October to next March at Houston) with a 4.34 pass, which sets up a first-round meeting with Gary White, who placed third with an effort nearly four-tenths quicker. Her husband and crew chief, H.T. Wilson, rounded out the field in 16th place with a 4.47-seconds run.  

Meanwhile, the polesitter at Dallas was new class champ Dan Millen at 3.84 seconds, a time that actually would have beaten by two thousandths, Burton Auxier’s number-one run in Pro Nitrous (PN) qualifying for the same event. In fact, the top seven XTF qualifiers at Dallas would have forced their way into the PN field, which featured a 4.00 bump spot with 13 cars not making the cut.

The bigger payout in Pro Nitrous also appeals to Wilson.

“You can make more money, even just qualifying, which for us can be big because a couple of hundred dollars makes a difference,” she says. “If we can go out there and make more money qualifying and maybe even go a few rounds, then let’s do it, I say.”

Like so many race teams, however, the Wilsons’ Azle, Texas-based operation is feeling financial pressure right now, so the search for a major sponsor is in full swing.

“We’ve had a few people come forward and say they’d help us out some, and while we’re very grateful for any help we receive, unfortunately we need more than just some,” Wilson says. “We’ve been very fortunate to run pretty well at times and to receive quite a bit of media coverage and attention and now we’re just trying to find that someone who can see value in what we bring to the table.

“Sometimes I wonder if people see us and think, ‘Well they’re out there, so they must be doing okay,’ when the truth is that it’s very, very hard for us to be out there these days.”

Wilson says she was approached about racing in Qatar during the 2010-11 Arabian Drag Racing League season and while the increased purses and notoriety of competing overseas were enticing, she and her husband simply cannot afford the time away.

“We both hold down jobs that are what actually gets us to the track and if I took that much time off I wouldn’t have any time left to take off to go racing in the summer,” she explains. “You have to weigh everything and figure out what’s going to work or what you at least hope might work for you.”

For now, Wilson says they’ll use the off season to prep her car and H.T.’s ’89 Camaro for another season of 10-wide racing, but her 2011 ADRL schedule remains far from settled.

“I desperately want to be out there. I don’t care which class it is, as long as we can be competitive. I mean, I don’t expect to go out and set world records, but I do want to arrive feeling like we’re going to qualify and maybe go a few rounds and to be honest, that’s not what’s been happening lately,” she says.

“I feel like we know what we’re doing, like we’ve already proven that we can do a lot with not a lot of resources and I just feel like we could really do something good with a little solid backing, no matter what class we end up in.”

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