Jack Beckman was a happy man after qualifying No. 4 for the Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere
Speedway. The driver of the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Funny Car, whose two years
racing on the drag strip carved out of the Colorado mountain delivered him one victory in two final
rounds, was hoping for a better result, but he's not complaining.
Beckman posted his quickest elapsed time of 4.156 seconds at 303.37 mph in the final qualifying
session in the dark, placing him at the time in third behind teammates Ron Capps and Matt Hagan.
Tony Pedregon, however, broke up the DSR triumvirate by recording a 4.135/294.50 to bump himself
into No. 2.
His other laps included a 5.350/139.49 (No. 10), a 4.412/294.37 (No. 9) and a 4.328/285.47 (No.
13).
"That's mission accomplished," said Beckman. "It couldn't have gone much better. We would have
liked to have been first or second, but I have no complaints.
"We made a lot of little changes to the Valvoline/MTS car, so we weren't quite sure the track was
going to handle the extra power, and I knew the moment I pulled the 'chute that it was a good pass.
I got on the radio and said, Oh yeah. The crew didn't even tell me what it had run yet, but I knew
that was a stout pass.
"This is what we have to do. You get more points for qualifying high, you get a better first round
match-up, and you get lane choice. And this is exactly what we have to keep doing. It doesn't
guarantee we're going to get out of first round, but it gives us a better chance going into first
round."
Beckman faces Jerry Toliver in the first round of Sunday's Funny Car eliminations.
