Andy Wilkinson pilots three race cars for 2008

It’s a three-car season in 2008 for longtime area street stock driver Andy Wilkinson of York.
This year Wilkinson has added a NASCAR NAPA Late Model and a NASCAR Modified to his street stocker, making it a three-car stable flying the No. 15 colors. Wilkinson runs primarily at Junction Motor Speedway, but also finds his way to other dirt circles in the area when the schedule works out.
Last weekend he took his first Late Model A-feature win at JMS, to which he added an eighth place finish in the Extreme Automotive Modified. Sunday he ran third in a the World of Dirt Racing League special event at Boone County Raceway in Albion.
It’s all added up to a lot of seat time on the weekends and wrench time in between for Wilkinson, a repeat Street Stock points champion at JMS. Wilkinson said the team with which he’s associated this year includes hobby stockers driven by Cory Dumpert and Shane Schneider, too.
Wilkinson said a sponsor bought the Modified car and added it to the mix, “Then about two weeks after that went through,” he said Steve Wright from Benedict bought last year’s Junction Motor Speedway point championship NAPA Late Model from John Bridges. “He wanted me to get it ready and drive it,” he said.
Voilá! Just that quickly Wilkinson found himself running a three-car fleet.
The Street Stock car runs when time allows. The other two take the track every time their respective divisions run at JMS. Wilkinson said he can’t bring himself to drop the Street Stocker, a car that’s been very successful in years past.
“It’s gone good,” said Wilkinson recently of the changes. “We’re fourth in points with the Modified and sixth with the Late Model. We’ve got a feature win with the mod” in addition to “a couple heat race wins and a couple top five feature finishes with the Late Model” ahead of last Saturday’s first NASCAR Late Model main-event victory.
It’s a challenge, he admitted, “trying to learn two new classes at the same time.”
Challenging? Yes. But it’s obviously a lot of fun, too, for this local dirt track enthusiast.
Junction Motor Speedway hosts the popular two-day O’Reilly POWRi Cornhusker Midget Challenge next Tuesday and Wednesday, July 29, 30. Next weekend on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 1, 2, this year’s version of the King of the Hill Late Model Shootout comes to McCool Junction. Friday’s show features the Major Late Model Racing Association and the National Championship Racing Association’s Late Model division in action along with the track’s Cruisers and Quad Rods. Saturday  night the NCRA and MLRA Late Models are joined by Stock, Hobby Stock and Modified cars.
Results from Saturday night, July 19:
• NASCAR NAPA Late Models — 1) 15 Andy Wilkinson, 2) 16 Tom Svoboda, 3) 28 Bill Leighton, 4) 2x Andrew Kosiski, 5) 1w Mike Wallace, 6) 51 Lester Siebert, 7) 17 Dave Livingston, 8) 43 Matt Buller, 9) 199 Kenny Edwards, 10) 17v Rick Vanderheiden, 11) 2 Dwane Pospisil, 12) 57jr Micah Veleba, 13) 2d Todd Morgan, 14) 105 Denton Buller, 15) 52 Rob Kosiski, 16) 15w Sam Wiarda, 17) 5m Michael Svagera.
• NASCAR Modifieds — 1) 77k Kurt Johnston, 2) 9 Brandon Blochlinger, 3) 95 Robert (Buzz) Wilson, 4) b9 Sean Burklund, 5) 1r Matt Richards, 6) 15hh Jared Hoefelman, 7) 1 Mike Johnson, 8) 15 Andy Wilkinson, 9) 8 Justin Bell, 10) 8j Joe Borer, 11) 64 Dusty Blake, 12) 59m Travis Mack, 13) 10j Josh Hessheimer, 14) 77jr Jarrod Johnston, 15) 55 Shane Stutzman, 16) 28n Daniel Neeman.
• NASCAR Stock Cars — 1) 46 Jason Van Winkle, 2) 44 Bryon Boersen, 3) j3d Jed Williams, 4) 07 Mike Goldfuss, 5) 14 Brant Beam, 6) 49x Chad Sanders, 7) 59 Kerry Foster, 8) 55 Ronald Veleba.
• NASCAR Hobby Stocks — 1) 15x Shane Schneider, 2) 77c Cory Dumpert, 3) 71 Rocky Zimmerman, 4) 21k Brent Kassik, 5) 7t Nick Topil, 6) 2t Jerod Timmermans, 7) 61b Brandon Wergin, 8) 77 Keith Dragoo.
• Two Person Cruisers — 1) 42b Greg Ekeler and John Miller, 2) 99 Brent Kassik and John Miller, 3) 24x Sheldon Sandall and Reed Hitz, 4) 01 Jarrod Aspegren and Tom Dunker, 5) 77 Ken Barry and Drew Barry, 6) 22b Tyler Mark and Brian Klein.
• Holiday Inn 4 Cylinder Front Wheel Drive — 1) 10t Troy Hofmann, 2) 15w Cale Wiarda, 3) 6j Jeremy Foos, 4) 2xx Larry Burklund, 5) 7 Dillon Denny, 6) 35 Troy Porter, 7) 99 Ryan Pedersen, 8) 15m Mallet Meyer.