Seattle: Jack Beckman Saturday notes

Defending event champ Beckman is 14th in Seattle qualifying

KENT, Wash. (July 19, 2008) - "Fast" Jack Beckman is out to repeat his 2007 Funny Car victory here at the NHRA Nationals at Pacific Raceways, outside of Seattle, and he'll be attempting to do that from the 14th qualifying position. The driver of the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car posted his quickest pass of the weekend, a 4.130-second lap at 296.05 mph, in the heat of the day today in the third session.

His other attempts produced a 4.139/296.11 and a 4.136/301.33 on Friday, while his final try of 4.178/291.07 fit right into the series of consistent passes for the weekend.

"What we're finding right now with this new car (as of the Denver event last weekend),” said Beckman, No. 10 in the Funny Car standings, “and the clutch stuff that we're running - similar to (teammate Ron) Capps' car - is with the changes we've made before, the car doesn't respond the same.

"The neat thing about the last run is that when we knew that we were in, when we saw that (Tim) Wilkerson didn't improve (and neither did 14-time champ John Force, who then failed to qualify, which guaranteed Beckman a spot in the field), we could actually step it up a little bit. The downside is there wasn't enough race track to step it up much, but it might be good for tomorrow for second or third round."

For the second straight national event, the pro nitro cars will race to the 1000-ft. finish line.

Beckman continued, "4.13, 4.13, 4.13, 4.17. Really, really consistent. We just have to get a handle on making the changes that make this car respond early in the run."

Beckman faces Tommy Johnson Jr. in the opening round of Sunday's eliminations.

-credit: dsr