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LAS VEGAS (April 13, 2008) - The Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car suffered a rare mechanical malfunction in the opening round of eliminations today at the NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Beckman, who qualified No. 16, faced off against the No. 1 qualifier Robert Hight in that stanza. Without lane choice, he was relegated to the less popular right lane. He launched with a quicker reaction time, a .055 to Hight's .067 (.000 is perfect) but an instant breakage halted him in his tracks at the 60-ft. mark and he steered the car to the right side to avoid unnecessarily mucking up the track surface with any fluids.
Hight had his problems but captured the victory with a 5.368-second elapsed time at 220.08 mph.
"What you want to do at the end of the year is not look back at any of those woulda, coulda, shouldas," said Beckman, who is now No. 6 in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car point standings. "A good opportunity, but it slipped away. "This was the first time in my nitro career that it has banged the supercharger at the step of the throttle. It lifted the supercharger right at the hit. We'll figure out what caused it. We'll get our tune-up ready to go and then we'll roll into Atlanta.
"We're going to test here tomorrow and we're going to test Tuesday and we're going to fix our Valvoline/MTS race car. We struggled this weekend, we were fortunate we qualified. We're lucky we are leaving here still in a solid position in the points.
"What we need to do is get back that momentum so we never have to look back at what could've been if we had won that round."
Next up is the NHRA Southern Nationals in Commerce, Ga., April 25-27.
FUNNY CAR POINT STANDINGS (after five events):
1. Ashley Force, 326 (runner-up today)
2. Tim Wilkerson, 321 (winner today)
3. Cruz Pedregon, 294
4. Robert Hight, 290
5. Tony Pedregon, 285
6. Jack Beckman, 280
7. Gary Densham, 260
8. John Force, 229
9. Del Worsham, 219
10. Ron Capps, 204
______________________
13. Gary Scelzi, 178
______________________
18. Jerry Toliver, 140
BECKMAN BREAKS IN VEGAS
LAS VEGAS (April 13, 2008) - The Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car suffered a rare mechanical malfunction in the opening round of eliminations today at the NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Beckman, who qualified No. 16, faced off against the No. 1 qualifier Robert Hight in that stanza. Without lane choice, he was relegated to the less popular right lane. He launched with a quicker reaction time, a .055 to Hight's .067 (.000 is perfect) but an instant breakage halted him in his tracks at the 60-ft. mark and he steered the car to the right side to avoid unnecessarily mucking up the track surface with any fluids.
Hight had his problems but captured the victory with a 5.368-second elapsed time at 220.08 mph.
"What you want to do at the end of the year is not look back at any of those woulda, coulda, shouldas," said Beckman, who is now No. 6 in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car point standings. "A good opportunity, but it slipped away. "This was the first time in my nitro career that it has banged the supercharger at the step of the throttle. It lifted the supercharger right at the hit. We'll figure out what caused it. We'll get our tune-up ready to go and then we'll roll into Atlanta.
"We're going to test here tomorrow and we're going to test Tuesday and we're going to fix our Valvoline/MTS race car. We struggled this weekend, we were fortunate we qualified. We're lucky we are leaving here still in a solid position in the points.
"What we need to do is get back that momentum so we never have to look back at what could've been if we had won that round."
Next up is the NHRA Southern Nationals in Commerce, Ga., April 25-27.
FUNNY CAR POINT STANDINGS (after five events):
1. Ashley Force, 326 (runner-up today)
2. Tim Wilkerson, 321 (winner today)
3. Cruz Pedregon, 294
4. Robert Hight, 290
5. Tony Pedregon, 285
6. Jack Beckman, 280
7. Gary Densham, 260
8. John Force, 229
9. Del Worsham, 219
10. Ron Capps, 204
______________________
13. Gary Scelzi, 178
______________________
18. Jerry Toliver, 140
