Daniel Wilkerson

Daniel Wilkerson walked away totally unscathed from one of the more incredible accidents in recent NHRA history with nary a scratch and no soreness whatsoever despite a nearly head-on impact with the Memphis Motorsports Park wall. Wilkerson's first reaction was the one any team owner or crew chief would want to hear: He wanted to get back in the race car. Unfortunately for Wilkerson, he has no race car to get back in.

Driving his father Tim's 2008 Funny Car in Memphis, which was sporting a Levi, Ray & Shoup-adorned Shelby Mustang body, loaned to the team by Bob Tasca III, Wilkerson entered the race with an ample amount of spare parts and support but no spare race car and no spare Ford body. Once he climbed from the wreckage at the top end of the track, he knew that his 2009 rookie season was over.

"I guess you could say none of it was mine to begin with, since the car is my dad's and the body came from Bob Tasca," Wilkerson said. "I felt so bad for both of them after the wreck. I demolished a great race car and tore up a body that didn't even belong to us. But still, once I climbed out and everything was still attached, still working, and nothing hurt, the first thing I wanted to do was get right back in.

"Nobody needed to talk to me about respecting the race car because I grew up watching how my dad respects his, and I've seen how bad things can get. That wreck was about as bad as anything I could imagine, but I still want to drive more than anything. If you would've offered me another car to drive right there in Memphis right after it happened, I'd have jumped right in. As a matter of fact, one of the first questions a reporter asked me, no more than 15 minutes after the wreck, was whether I wanted to get back in the car. I told her, 'If I could somehow get Dad out of his car, I'd drive it right now,' and that's exactly how I felt."

The specific cause of Wilkerson's crash, which clearly came about after both rear wheels came off the car, is still under investigation, although the video replays also clearly illustrated that the young Illinois driver was doing all the right things despite being simply along for the ride. His father even went so far as to say he couldn't think of anything he would've done differently had he been in the car and that he was proud of his son for how he handled the situation. Now, both father and son have to reevaluate the future and come up with a new plan to get Daniel on the Full Throttle tour.

"We did Topeka and Memphis this year, and we raced about as cheaply as you can do it," Daniel said. "The goal was to enter a couple of races that weren't too far away from home, where we also thought we'd have the best shot to qualify, and then hopefully help my dad by maybe taking out another contending team. We were on our way to doing that, beating Ron Capps, when the wheels came off.  But as cheaply as you can run one of these cars is still a lot of money, even when you don't have the wheels come off, hit the wall, and demolish everything.

"As much as I'd love to be out there, we're going to have to rebuild, and we're going to have to put a sponsorship together. We have people working on that full-time, and hopefully we can land a deal that works for everyone, and then we can get back to racing. Then, if we can do that, the first step is to put a real organization together with our own full-time crew. I don't think we want to do it the other way anymore. We want to take the next step."

Wilkerson's place in a family led by a famous and very popular father brings with it a unique set of sponsorship benefits, all of which are being trumpeted by Team Wilkerson's full-time marketing department. Packages are being presented on a consistent basis, and the team has  custom designed programs to fit almost any corporate budget. Offering packages that integrate a primary marketing partnership with the younger Wilkerson while delivering a major associate program with the senior Wilkerson allows the team a way to provide far more bang for the buck, and potential sponsors have been listening.

"Our marketing guy, Dave Jacobsen, says the response has been more and more positive lately, with just about every company he talks to," Daniel reported. "I guess a lot of that is the economy coming back, but we think we have some great ideas to show people, where you can combine a primary deal for me with a major associate spot on my dad's car. That's a lot of exposure, and it means a company won't have to completely rely on a young driver and a new team in order to make it worth it for them. They get a relationship with my dad, his team, and Levi, Ray & Shoup, too.

"Like I said, we know it has to make business sense for anyone to get involved. They're not going to sponsor you because they like you or because they think drag racing is fun. The numbers have to be right, and you have to show them how it will help their business. We'll just keep working at it, and hopefully we can put a deal together to get me back out there for at least part of next season. Until then, I'm just going to have to dream about driving because I love being in that race car, and I can't wait to do it again."

Young men fitting the description "Ready to race, just need a race car" can be found just about everywhere. What separates Daniel Wilkerson from the pack are his racing genes and his instinctive ability to handle a Funny Car. That, and his last name. If any 21-year-old has the talent, charisma, and audacity to land a major sponsor, it might just be young Wilkerson.