{"id":94419,"date":"2024-01-11T12:27:16","date_gmt":"2024-01-11T20:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=94419"},"modified":"2024-01-11T12:27:16","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T20:27:16","slug":"daniel-wilkerson-will-drive-scag-wilkerson-funny-car-full-time-in-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/daniel-wilkerson-will-drive-scag-wilkerson-funny-car-full-time-in-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Wilkerson Will Drive SCAG Wilkerson Funny Car Full-Time in 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tim Wilkerson\u2019s 27-year reign as the full-time driver\/tuner\/owner of his Ford Mustang Funny Car is coming to an end as the Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series begins its 2024 season with the Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway in that Florida city this March.<\/p>\n

After 14 part-time national event races between 2009 and 2022 behind the wheel, and as the tuner of record for Chad Green\u2019s similar Mustang – the car that elevated Green to his first NHRA national victory in the season finale at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Raceway last November – Tim\u2019s son Daniel Wilkerson, 35, will take over the SCAG Wilkerson Racing driver\u2019s seat on a full-time basis.<\/p>\n

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Tim Wilkerson was runner-up in the 2023 season finale, racing against partner Chad Green – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Wilkerson\u2019s team transitioned from being part of the JCM Racing family to being fully sponsored by SCAG Power Equipment this winter. Tim Wilkerson decided that his 24 wins, 20 No. 1 qualifiers and best finish of second place in 2005, combined with 16 consecutive seasons finishing in NHRA\u2019s vaunted Top 10 were the culmination of his years behind the wheel, and it was time to give Daniel his due.<\/p>\n

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Tim Wilkerson’s 27-year career has included 24 wins – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cPutting Daniel in the seat is, quite simply, the right move for this team and for me,\u201d Tim Wilkerson reflected. \u201cI love to drive; it\u2019s why I\u2019ve done it for so long and I\u2019ll miss it, but I\u2019m more excited for Daniel to get this opportunity. We\u2019ve both wanted this for a long time, and SCAG has made it possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tim Wilkerson will continue as the crew chief for SCAG Wilkerson Racing. \u201cDaniel is a great fit for the program. he\u2019s one of the few drivers I\u2019ve put in the seat that can tell me what happened on the run – in detail – and that\u2019s important. And he\u2019ll be a great ambassador for SCAG and our partners. That\u2019s what\u2019s really important, moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Daniel Wilkerson has spent some time behind the wheel, his 2023 results as a crew chief tuning Green, helped that driver secure a fifth place points finish in 2023, thanks to that single win in Pomona, two runner-up results and a single No. 1 qualifying position.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Daniel Wilkerson tuned Chad Green to his first NHRA national event Funny Car win in the 2023 season finale – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI enjoy working on the cars,\u201d Daniel Wilkerson stated. \u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed being a crew chief. I probably could have done it forever. But the dream was always to drive for my dad. It was kind of like when Chad and Tim lined up in the finals at Pomona, going head-to-head for a race win, we always talked about it, but we were never certain it would happen. SCAG has created an opportunity for us that has been 15 years in the making,\u201d Daniel Wilkerson said. \u201cI got my license in 2007. We\u2019ve been trying to put this together one way or another since then and we finally got it done. I\u2019m living the dream!\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Daniel Wilkerson has never participated in more than four national event races in a single season as he learned the driving craft, he\u2019ll be eligible for the 2024 NHRA Rookie of the Year award, an achievement he\u2019s firmly aware of and hoping to achieve. \u201cI had it in the back of my mind,\u201d he said. \u201cI knew what the limit was to stay eligible. What a year to be in the running, too. It\u2019s a strong class and I\u2019m excited to be a part of it. I\u2019ll be even more excited when I say we won it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the official NHRA season begins in March, Daniel Wilkerson will debut as the full-time driver of the SCAG Wilkerson Ford Mustang Funny Car during the SCAG Power Equipment PRO Superstar Shootout, taking place at Bradenton Motorsports Park from February 8-10. He\u2019ll make his full season debut at Gainesville as the 21-race Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series gets underway a month later.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Tim Wilkerson heads for retirement, son Daniel prepares to step into the SCAG Wilkerson ride.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":94422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,3470,5029],"tags":[10130,219,38,10128,7,9283,10129,1093],"class_list":["post-94419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-racing","tag-daniel-wilkerson","tag-ford-mustang","tag-funny-car","tag-mission-foods-nhra-drag-racing-series","tag-nhra","tag-scag-power-equipment","tag-scag-wilkerson-racing","tag-tim-wilkerson"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Daniel-Wilkerson-staging-Green-in-Pomona2-finals-min.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-oyT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94419"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94426,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94419\/revisions\/94426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}