Jack Beckman made a charge into the semifinal round today at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals before
being defeated by his Don Schumacher Racing teammate (and eventual event winner) Ron Capps.
Driving the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Funny Car, the No. 4 qualifier first dismissed
his former DSR teammate Jerry Toliver with a 4.267-second lap at 294.31 mph, then defeated Bob
Tasca III in the quarterfinal with a solid 4.170/300.20.
Beckman entered the semifinal match-up with lane choice, but a loss of traction at the 660-foot
mark (of a 1000-foot race track) resulted in a losing 4.825/199.17 to Capps' winning 4.203/294.63.
He holds on to fourth place in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series class point standings.
"You always want to win," said Beckman, who scored his second national-event victory of the season
in Norwalk, Ohio, two weeks ago. "We can't help but feel optimistic from this point on. And the
nice thing is we have a race this coming weekend (Seattle) and we have a race in two weekends
(Sonoma, Calif.).
"By the end of Sonoma I think that we are going to be a top-four car on a consistent basis. We're
still ironing out a couple of things we're working on, but we're showing improvement every single
run.
"And the things that we worked out this weekend gave us a great hot rod at the end of qualifying, a
stout car today, and I think we just got bit. There was a long delay up there before the semifinal
round, with I believe three oildowns in a row. And the clutch combo we took up there we tried to
compensate for in the staging lanes. But when the track got more heat in it was just too much for
us.
"Congratulations to my teammate Capps for his win today!"
Next up is the NHRA Northwest Nationals in Kent, Wash., July 17-19.
