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BAYTOWN, Texas (April 1, 2007) - Following a three-hour rain delay of the start of the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals eliminations rounds today, Jack Beckman faced off against his teammate Ron Capps in the Funny Car opening round.
It was a close race, Beckman had the edge in reaction times (.080 to .088), but it was Capps first across the finish line, winning by a mere .0264 of a second. Beckman, driving the Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger R/T for Don Schumacher Racing, crossed the line in 4.906 seconds at 312.78 mph to Capps' 4.872/313.95.
"It's unfortunate," said Beckman, of North Hills, Calif. As for the quicker reaction time, "staging plays a little in the lights," he explained. "Our right feet probably moved at the same time and we were within eight thou in reaction times.
"It's really interesting when you get three team Funny Cars with three great crew chiefs and we all have access to everybody's information. The end result was that Ron's and my runs were pretty darned close. They had lane choice. They got after it a little bit more early in the run, we got after it a little bit later in the run, but the numbers read almost the same if you looked at the scoreboard - just 26 thousandths of a second apart. It was great for the fans.
"It's still disappointing to not win, but everybody on the MTS crew did everything perfectly, I drove all right on that run, I left on time, it just wasn't good enough to beat the car in the other lane. It's easier to swallow that than having a red light or crossing the center line or driving the car out of the groove.
"So, we're not happy with not winning, but we know we still have a bad hot rod to take to Vegas and Vegas looks like our place." Beckman won the second event at The Strip in 2006 in only his fourth-ever Funny Car race.
BECKMAN SECOND IN FIRST-ROUND TEAMMATE MATCH-UP
BAYTOWN, Texas (April 1, 2007) - Following a three-hour rain delay of the start of the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals eliminations rounds today, Jack Beckman faced off against his teammate Ron Capps in the Funny Car opening round.
It was a close race, Beckman had the edge in reaction times (.080 to .088), but it was Capps first across the finish line, winning by a mere .0264 of a second. Beckman, driving the Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger R/T for Don Schumacher Racing, crossed the line in 4.906 seconds at 312.78 mph to Capps' 4.872/313.95.
"It's unfortunate," said Beckman, of North Hills, Calif. As for the quicker reaction time, "staging plays a little in the lights," he explained. "Our right feet probably moved at the same time and we were within eight thou in reaction times.
"It's really interesting when you get three team Funny Cars with three great crew chiefs and we all have access to everybody's information. The end result was that Ron's and my runs were pretty darned close. They had lane choice. They got after it a little bit more early in the run, we got after it a little bit later in the run, but the numbers read almost the same if you looked at the scoreboard - just 26 thousandths of a second apart. It was great for the fans.
"It's still disappointing to not win, but everybody on the MTS crew did everything perfectly, I drove all right on that run, I left on time, it just wasn't good enough to beat the car in the other lane. It's easier to swallow that than having a red light or crossing the center line or driving the car out of the groove.
"So, we're not happy with not winning, but we know we still have a bad hot rod to take to Vegas and Vegas looks like our place." Beckman won the second event at The Strip in 2006 in only his fourth-ever Funny Car race.
