Beckman makes four consistent passes in Valvoline NextGen Dodge

TOPEKA, KS – A year ago at Heartland Park Topeka, not many outside of the Valvoline NextGen pit of reigning NHRA Funny Car champion “Fast Jack” Beckman expected the verbose California driver to take home the event title at Heartland Park.

Beckman and his Todd Smith-led crew, in their third race together did just that, upsetting favored DSR teammate Ron Capps, a three-time Heartland Park winner, in the all-DSR Funny Car final round. Six months later, with two more wins notched, Beckman edged Capps by just two points to earn his first Mello Yello NHRA Funny Car championship.

Following a subpar start to the 2013 NHRA season, Beckman, Smith and Co. flashed that championship form during two days of qualifying in the heartland in which his Dodge Charger R/T flopper improved on each of its four qualifying laps, starting with a 4.227 and ending with a 4.081-second pass for the No. 9 qualifying position.

“We made four consistent passes and I don’t think we’ve done that in 2013 and that says a lot,” Beckman said after qualifying in the lower half of the 16-car order for just the third time in eight races this season. “The behind-the-scenes story is that on Q3 our pan pressure shut the car off, which is great, because it’s designed to do that from hurting itself worse, but it wounded the supercharger when it did that. We had to stick a supercharger we’ve never run on for Q4 on there and unfortunately it was a little down on power (boost).

“We would have liked to have run even quicker, but the silver lining is that we’re testing the rest of our spare parts inventory if we have to go back to it at a future race. We now know what to expect.”

Beckman, who usually is adorned with a smile, has reason to boast. The 15-time NHRA winner appears to have his most consistent race car in eight starts this season and the veteran nitro pilot knows consistency is the key to winning races and fighting for a championship.

“I’m happy and I feel optimistic. We weren’t going to turn this around over the course of two or three runs. We’ve been chipping away at this thing and we’re getting back to a predictable race car and once it is back to predictable, it will be back to consistent again and we might be there.”

Photo – Courtesy of Comp Plus