"Fast" Jack Beckman qualified the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Funny Car in No. 10 for
the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway today under hot conditions and no sign of the
predicted rain.
Beckman set his quickest pass of 4.184 seconds at 298.07 mph during the cool Friday night session,
which placed him 10th. He then held that spot through the final two attempts, which produced a
4.661/190.46 and a 4.325/282.95.
"A little frustrating," said Beckman, this year's Atlanta champion. "Last year our big strength was
hot race tracks and, whatever is different in the car this year, it hasn't been responding exactly
the same. So, after we smoked the tires in Q3 we decided to make a big change, get the car to go
the finish line, and look at that data.
"And that might have been one of those moves where it's not a tune-up that we'd use for race day,
but with the things that we learn from that big change we can now go back and split the difference
and have a competitive car."
Beckman faces 14-time Funny Car champion John Force in the opening round of Sunday's eliminations,
against whom he leads in head-to-head career round wins: 7-5.
