Photography: John Force Racing / Gary Nastase / Auto Imagery
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 7, 2025) – Racing on the track that is home to Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School for whom he has been a driving instructor for more than 20 years, Jack Beckman drove the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet SS to a best time of 3.832 seconds at 334.65 miles per hour Friday to claim the provisional No. 1 qualifying position for Sunday’s 56th annual NHRA Gatornationals.
Teammate Austin Prock, the reigning NHRA Mission Foods Funny Car Champion and Gainesville track record holder at 3.820 seconds, struggled mightily and finished the first day in the No. 15 position in his national record-holding Cornwell Tools Chevy SS at a pedestrian 4.231 seconds at 206.10 mph.
Prock, who begins defense of his Mission Foods Funny Car Championship on the same track on which his grandfather, Tom, was the Funny Car runner-up at the 1975 Gatornationals, will have two opportunities on Saturday to improve his starting position.
“When the season ended last year, I wasn’t sure if I’d be back,” Beckman said of his status after subbing in for an injured John Force over the last eight races of the 2024 season. “I thought I’d get the nod, but I wasn’t sure (so) I can’t put into words how awesome it is to be strapped into John Force’s PEAK Funny Car and have John walk by and give you a thumbs up before they fire it up. I am unbelievably lucky.
“Tonight, there was a part of me that expected to see someone run 3.81,” said the 35-time Funny Car winner. “But I’m happy with a 3.83. We were low of both sessions in completely different conditions.”
Riding a wave of momentum generated in a jaw-dropping performance during pre-race testing, two-time Top Fuel World Champion Brittany Force drove her Monster Energy dragster to the provisional No. 6 qualifying position on the first day at 3.696 seconds, 331.77 mph.
After throwing down the gauntlet in Wednesday testing when she accelerated to 302.69 miles per hour in the first 660 feet, the fastest speed ever at that distance, Brittany was slightly less spectacular on Friday but still will be one of the favorites in Saturday’s fourth Right Trailers All-Star Top Fuel Callout, a bonus race in which she was runner-up in both 2022 and 2024. She will oppose Justin Ashley in the first round.
“We got two qualifying runs in today,” said the 17-time tour winner and former Rookie-of-the-Year. “Our first run put us third. That last run, the track was tricky (and) we didn’t get down (so) we’re currently sitting sixth. But we got one good run under our belt. We get two more qualifying, getting ready-for-race day runs Saturday, potentially three with the Right Trailers All-Star Callout, before we go into racing on Sunday.”
Prock appeared to be on his way to besting Beckman’s pacesetting time of 3.873 seconds in the first round of qualifying when his Cornwell Chevy suffered a broken rear end that cost him five penalty points and precipitated a two-hour long cleanup effort on the part of the NHRA Safety Safari.
“Tough day at the racetrack,” Prock said. “We had a pretty significant failure that was totally out of our control in Q1. The car was flying, we were going to have about four hundredths on the field if it would have made it, but the rear end let go and I’m lucky I’m safe.
“Everything that the NHRA has done, and Force American Made (has done) to make these cars safer back there definitely helps. I got out lucky there. It could have been much worse,” said the eight-time Funny Car winner and former NHRA Rookie-of-the-Year (2019).
“I’m just happy to be OK after that. Obviously, we had a lot of work to do in between rounds and NHRA had a lot of work to do to the racetrack as well,” said the man who began his driving career in oval racing. “We got the racecar all bolted back together and everything was functioning properly (but) when you get put in a situation like that where you kind of have to lay up, we wanted to make sure it went (down the track) so we slowed it up and it was just too much.”
Racing full-time for the first time since 2020, Beckman is hoping to get his second career win at Gainesville (he won in 2018) and secure his third victory since taking over the controls of the PEAK Chevy last August in relief of the team’s founder who continues to provide moral support to his sponsors and teams while recovering from the Traumatic Brain Injury he suffered in a crash at Richmond, Va.
Driving a PEAK performer prepared by Daniel Hood, Chris Cunningham and a crew led by Tim Fabrisi, Beckman has won two of his last four starts including the 2024 season-ending In-N-Out Finals in Pomona, Calif.
“It’s pretty cool to be sitting No. 1 on Friday night,” said the U.S. Air Force veteran and cancer survivor. “Interesting deal. New visor, new helmet. I pull up there and the right side of the windshield is fogging up. I can’t see the pre-stage and stage lights. Everything is a haze. I flip my visor up and I’m like ‘ah, well it’s the visor.’
“So, you breathe in, breathe out, Frank Hawley school stuff. I put my visor down, I’m rolling in and I pre-stage and it starts fogging again and I’m like, well ‘Dan (Wilkerson) is already staged, I’m not going to hang him out,’” he recalled. “So, I went in and every time this PEAK squad sticks this car right down the lane. Piece of cake.”
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GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 7, 2025) – Racing on the track that is home to Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School for whom he has been a driving instructor for more than 20 years, Jack Beckman drove the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet SS to a best time of 3.832 seconds at 334.65 miles per hour Friday to claim the provisional No. 1 qualifying position for Sunday’s 56th annual NHRA Gatornationals.
Teammate Austin Prock, the reigning NHRA Mission Foods Funny Car Champion and Gainesville track record holder at 3.820 seconds, struggled mightily and finished the first day in the No. 15 position in his national record-holding Cornwell Tools Chevy SS at a pedestrian 4.231 seconds at 206.10 mph.
Prock, who begins defense of his Mission Foods Funny Car Championship on the same track on which his grandfather, Tom, was the Funny Car runner-up at the 1975 Gatornationals, will have two opportunities on Saturday to improve his starting position.
“When the season ended last year, I wasn’t sure if I’d be back,” Beckman said of his status after subbing in for an injured John Force over the last eight races of the 2024 season. “I thought I’d get the nod, but I wasn’t sure (so) I can’t put into words how awesome it is to be strapped into John Force’s PEAK Funny Car and have John walk by and give you a thumbs up before they fire it up. I am unbelievably lucky.
“Tonight, there was a part of me that expected to see someone run 3.81,” said the 35-time Funny Car winner. “But I’m happy with a 3.83. We were low of both sessions in completely different conditions.”
Riding a wave of momentum generated in a jaw-dropping performance during pre-race testing, two-time Top Fuel World Champion Brittany Force drove her Monster Energy dragster to the provisional No. 6 qualifying position on the first day at 3.696 seconds, 331.77 mph.
After throwing down the gauntlet in Wednesday testing when she accelerated to 302.69 miles per hour in the first 660 feet, the fastest speed ever at that distance, Brittany was slightly less spectacular on Friday but still will be one of the favorites in Saturday’s fourth Right Trailers All-Star Top Fuel Callout, a bonus race in which she was runner-up in both 2022 and 2024. She will oppose Justin Ashley in the first round.
“We got two qualifying runs in today,” said the 17-time tour winner and former Rookie-of-the-Year. “Our first run put us third. That last run, the track was tricky (and) we didn’t get down (so) we’re currently sitting sixth. But we got one good run under our belt. We get two more qualifying, getting ready-for-race day runs Saturday, potentially three with the Right Trailers All-Star Callout, before we go into racing on Sunday.”
Prock appeared to be on his way to besting Beckman’s pacesetting time of 3.873 seconds in the first round of qualifying when his Cornwell Chevy suffered a broken rear end that cost him five penalty points and precipitated a two-hour long cleanup effort on the part of the NHRA Safety Safari.
“Tough day at the racetrack,” Prock said. “We had a pretty significant failure that was totally out of our control in Q1. The car was flying, we were going to have about four hundredths on the field if it would have made it, but the rear end let go and I’m lucky I’m safe.
“Everything that the NHRA has done, and Force American Made (has done) to make these cars safer back there definitely helps. I got out lucky there. It could have been much worse,” said the eight-time Funny Car winner and former NHRA Rookie-of-the-Year (2019).
“I’m just happy to be OK after that. Obviously, we had a lot of work to do in between rounds and NHRA had a lot of work to do to the racetrack as well,” said the man who began his driving career in oval racing. “We got the racecar all bolted back together and everything was functioning properly (but) when you get put in a situation like that where you kind of have to lay up, we wanted to make sure it went (down the track) so we slowed it up and it was just too much.”
Racing full-time for the first time since 2020, Beckman is hoping to get his second career win at Gainesville (he won in 2018) and secure his third victory since taking over the controls of the PEAK Chevy last August in relief of the team’s founder who continues to provide moral support to his sponsors and teams while recovering from the Traumatic Brain Injury he suffered in a crash at Richmond, Va.
Driving a PEAK performer prepared by Daniel Hood, Chris Cunningham and a crew led by Tim Fabrisi, Beckman has won two of his last four starts including the 2024 season-ending In-N-Out Finals in Pomona, Calif.
“It’s pretty cool to be sitting No. 1 on Friday night,” said the U.S. Air Force veteran and cancer survivor. “Interesting deal. New visor, new helmet. I pull up there and the right side of the windshield is fogging up. I can’t see the pre-stage and stage lights. Everything is a haze. I flip my visor up and I’m like ‘ah, well it’s the visor.’
“So, you breathe in, breathe out, Frank Hawley school stuff. I put my visor down, I’m rolling in and I pre-stage and it starts fogging again and I’m like, well ‘Dan (Wilkerson) is already staged, I’m not going to hang him out,’” he recalled. “So, I went in and every time this PEAK squad sticks this car right down the lane. Piece of cake.”
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