Drag Illustrated Issue 129, January / February 2018 | Page 26

Dirt
C
A POWERFUL
ombination
26 | D r a g
Sandy Wilkins’ engine building talent and driving skills result in ‘dream season’
By Van Abernethy
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
Issue 129
D
rag racing veteran Sandy
Wilkins seems to age like
fine wine within the Top
Sportsman division where
he’ s been faithfully compet-
ing for nearly two decades,
with 2017 being his finest showing to date. Out
of the 13 events he entered last season, Wilkins,
who hails from Mt. Ulla, North Carolina, drove
his 1969 Camaro to the finals seven times, win-
ning five of them.
“I’ve never had a season quite like this!” ex-
claimed Wilkins moments after winning the
season-ending Lucas Oil divisional meet at
Rockingham in late October. It was, in fact, the
dramatic win at Rockingham that put Sandy over
the top in points, which propelled him to clinch
the Division 2 championship, a title that he also
held in 2016, marking his third divisional cham-
pionship overall.
“The Rockingham win was among the biggest
highlights of 2017 because I went into that event
needing to win the whole thing in order to clinch
the championship, so it was really neat to win the
race and the division championship all in one
pass,” says Wilkins.
Other notable highlights in 2017 included
Wilkins traveling to Old Bridge Township Race-
way Park in Englishtown, New Jersey, where he
entered and won the Lucas Oil meet in Division 1.
“I’d never been to Englishtown before, so winning
that race was pretty special.”
He picked up yet another victory in Division
1 when he traveled to Virginia Motorsports Park
in August. Amazingly, Wilkins also won the Best
Package award in Division 1 last season for his
participation in the aforementioned pair of events.
“Division 2 doesn’t have an award like that, so it
was neat to win it by going to just two events in
Division 1.”
Another memorable highlight from 2017 hap-
pened at Atlanta Dragway in May, where Wilkins
won his second career NHRA national event,
which is, ironically, the exact location of his first
national title several years ago.
Wilkins has been experiencing a steady ad-
vance in national point standings within NHRA,
finishing 6th, 3rd and 2nd, respectively, dur-
ing the last three race seasons. Having the right
equipment is of the utmost importance, and
Wilkins has found a winning combination with
his ‘69 Camaro, built by Jerry Bickel.
“The first time I ever laid eyes on the car was
during an ADRL race at zMAX (Dragway). The
car was originally competed in Pro Nitrous by