"Fast" Jack Beckman drove the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Funny Car into the semifinal
round today at the NHRA Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka.
After defeating Jeff Arend in the opening round of eliminations on another hot day in the American
heartland with a solid 4.259-second run at 292.33 mph to Arend's 4.320/285.77, he faced Tony
Pedregon in the quarterfinal. He easily dismissed the 2007 Funny Car champion with a 4.314/285.17
pass to Pedregon's 4.355/283.31 to advance to the semifinals and face his Don Schumacher Racing
teammate Ron Capps.
The pair took off with nearly identical reaction times (.088 for Beckman, .071 for Capps - .000 is
perfect) and Beckman was looking good for a victory until a broken air line finally slowed Beckman
to a losing 4.394/274.83 pass to Capps' winning 4.289/286.68.
"We had an air line split on the car right at the hit," said Beckman. "We did everything right for
eliminations. And if you look at the numbers up until the time it ran out of air we were hauling
butt. It was going to run a 4.25, it was going to turn the win light on, but our car didn't get
there first, so you have to hand it to the NAPA team.
"The good news is this is last year's car, in its first race out since it's been front-halved, with
a new clutch system. So this weekend, you could almost argue, was a test session, and we tested
awesome. This is exactly what we need. We're on a three-race-in-a-row sweep and we have a great hot
rod. It's going to be hot, so we're going to be in great shape in Chicago."
Next up is the NHRA Route 66 Nationals at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill., June 5-7.
