Despite struggling this weekend during qualifying for the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific
Raceways, Jack Beckman advanced to the quarterfinal round after eliminating one of his Don
Schumacher Racing teammates in the opening stanza.
After defeating Matt Hagan in the first round with a tire-smoking 4.605/241.67 (Hagan also lost
traction), No. 14 qualifier Beckman then faced his other DSR Funny Car teammate and series points
leader Ron Capps in the quarterfinal. Without lane choice, Capps had the advantage and benefited
from it, winning the round with a 4.250/273.33 pass, while Beckman slowed to a losing 4.359/282.72.
"Frustrating weekend for us," said Beckman, who held on to No. 4 in the points rankings. "We never
really got a handle on the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge. The car was a beast all weekend.
After coming back down from Denver, we made the necessary tune-up changes to back it down to a
sea-level combo and it was just a beast for the first three runs.
"We finally calmed it down enough for the fourth qualifying run, but it was almost too much, and
then we had to try to sneak back up on it first round. We probably were fortunate to get the win
light over our teammate Matt Hagan in the shelor.com car.
"We gave Ron Capps a good run the second round, but they just had a better tune-up this weekend
than we did.
"We came out of here with another round win," Beckman added, in a positive tone. "We go to Sonoma
in fourth place and we get four more qualifying shots to dial in our sea-level combo. We want to
come out of there with a trophy."
Next up is the FRAM-Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., July 24-26.
