Driving the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Funny Car, Jack Beckman endured five days of rain at the season-opening NHRA Winternationals, which included qualifying in only one session on Saturday, an aborted day of eliminations on Sunday following one round, a total wash-out on Monday and finally the completion of the event today (Tuesday).
On Sunday, Beckman defeated the reigning NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Funny Car champion Cruz Pedregon in the first round with a solid 4.196-second pass at 284.56 mph, then two days later when the weather cleared he fouled out to Robert Hight. Beckman’s teammate Ron Capps then defeated Hight in the semifinals to claim his first Funny Car victory of the season.
“Incredibly disappointing,” said Beckman, of North Hills, Calif. “I started squeezing the throttle up there. You’re focused on the Christmas Tree, you want to get a good light and I caught myself doing that. So I went to go back to idle and I double-stepped the throttle. Not only did it red-light, it threw the tune-up on the race car completely off.
“The only bright spot of my day is that Capps walked out of here with the Funny Car win. And we only have to wait a week to get back and do it again.”
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