BECKMAN BAGS NO. 2 IN SONOMA QUALIFYING
SONOMA, Calif. (July 28, 2007) - "Back-to-Back" Jack Beckman - winner of the first two events of the Western Swing, Denver and Seattle - bagged the No. 2 spot in qualifying for the Fram-Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway, posting a 4.759-second elapsed time at 324.67 mph in the cooler Friday evening session.
His other impressive straight passes down the quarter mile included a 5.027/297.42 (good for No. 7 at the time), a 4.873/315.78, and a 4.932/308.85, earning the Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car team the Full Throttle Challenge Award for consistency in qualifying.
"The superlatives just keep flowing," said Beckman when he speaks of his car's performance thanks to the tuning of crew chiefs Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler, and the entire MTS team. "We won the Full Throttle award again.
"Two great runs in the heat. Our only minor stub of the toe is we had a mechanical malfunction on run one, and we still were seventh best. So we were seventh, second, second, and then sixth in the last session.
"It's awesome. This MTS Dodge is a bracket car. It can do no wrong. If I do my job tomorrow we'll be deep in the rounds again. I'm so excited now. And it's a snowball effect. I feel more confident, I feel more comfortable. They can feed me more power because I'm doing a better job," added Beckman, who is in his first full season in the Funny Car class. "It's just that everything plays on itself here and I think we are the team to beat right now."
Beckman faces Cruz Pedregon in the opening round of eliminations on Sunday.
