NHRA Funny Car veterans Tim Wilkerson and Cruz Pedregon were uninjured in a freak incident during qualifying for the 32nd annual Menards NHRA Heartland Nationals at the Heartland Motorsports Park in Topeka, Kansas.
The incident occurred during Saturdays second round of NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series professional qualifying, as Wilkerson and Pedregon, qualified ninth and seventh at the time, were looking to improve on their earlier efforts and climb up in the Raceday order. After a solid start to their attempts, both drivers lost traction on the top end. Wilkerson’s problems were more severe, though, as his machine put a couple of cylinders out in the process, and the loss of mechanical downforce through the header pipes sent him drifting toward the centerline.
Unable to overcome the momentum, Wilkerson struck the rear corner of Pedregon’s slowing car and sent him bouncing off the guardrail. The contact then caused Wilkerson’s Mustang to become tangled up in the parachute and wheelie bar of Pedregon’s machine — the two cars fish-tailing through the shutdown area attached to another like a pickup truck and a camper trailer. Wilkerson’s mount eventually became dislodged from the Snap-On tools machine and both drivers coasted to a stop separately.