Jack Beckman Leads off the DSR Pre-Indy Report

Beckman adding unwanted drama to U.S. Nationals weekend, wants Valvoline/MTS Dodge to hit winner’s circle at right time

BROWNSBURG, IN – This year hasn’t gone the way reigning NHRA Funny Car world champion Jack Beckman and his Valvoline MaxLife/MTS Mail for Wounded Warriors team expected.It’s not that they thought the Mello Yello Series’ regular season would be easy after winning the world championship last November, but they didn’t believe they’d enter the prestigious NHRA U.S. Nationals ranked seventh in points without an event title through 17 events and one race from the start of NHRA’s six-event Countdown to the Championship playoff.

But that’s what the Don Schumacher Racing team faces when the U.S. Nationals opens with qualifying Friday evening at Lucas Oil Raceway near Indianapolis and just 2 miles from DSR headquarters in Brownsburg.”Indy doesn’t need anything else to be the biggest race of the year, but we’ve added extra drama in a couple of ways,” Beckman said. “We’re locked into the Countdown and it wouldn’t be a stretch for us to move up to fifth in points, and we could move up as high as third. There is some drama relative to race performance aside from winning Indy.”At the end of Monday, getting the trophy would commemorate that we were the best team that day. We have had a tough year. We’re going into our 18th race and we’ve only been to one final round and have yet to win a trophy.”

And he will get two shots to drive into the winner’s circle at Indy. On Sunday, the Traxxas Nitro Shootout for Funny Cars will be held for the eight qualified drivers and the following day – Labor Day – is be the only time all year NHRA schedules championship eliminations for a Monday.

The Traxxas Shootout, which will pay the winner’s team $100,000, makes it even more intriguing because the first round and semifinals of the Shootout run concurrently with the fourth and fifth qualifying sessions.

Beckman with crew chief Todd Smith and assistant Terry Snyder made nine test runs with their Dodge Charger R/T last week near Indianapolis to prepare for this weekend and are satisfied with the results.

“We’re pleased with the direction the car showed us, but test runs don’t mean anything unless you translate that to working under race conditions.

“With these cars the clutch can control the engine, and the engine can control the clutch; there’s not one right way to do it. The problem is more recently we’ve just gotten outside of that window where if you missed it by a little bit, you can’t make it down the track. We had a big window last year.

“We took a big horsepower step at testing to widen that window, to let the engine do the work. So what happens if you look at the scoreboard you go ‘Wow, those guys struggled, they didn’t make it (down the track) a lot.’ But a lot of those runs where we didn’t make it we found out where the limitations are. That being said, testing doesn’t do anything unless the data we use helps us out for the rest of the year. I feel pretty confident. I’d say this was a very productive test.”

“We’re all very optimistic and hopeful. As a fan and driver I’m incredibly excited to get back out there.”

Beckman, who also owns a 2003 NHRA Sportsman world championship, has faced tougher challenges in his life than producing a solid showing over Labor Day Weekend in the U.S. Nationals.

He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force at age 17 and was honorably discharged four years later as a sergeant. He also won his battle with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and is a national spokesman for the Chemotherapy: Myths or Facts™ campaign.

His confidence enabled him to succeed in the military and life-long commitment to supporting America’s military and helping others facing their fight against cancer. Visit www.chemomythsorfacts.com to learn more about the campaign and hear Jack’s story.

As a drag racing historian, he understands what winning an NHRA Wally trophy from the U.S. Nationals would mean to his and his Don Schumacher Racing’s legacy in the sport.

His confidence enabled him to succeed in the military and life-long commitment to supporting America’s military and helping others facing their fight against cancer.

As a drag racing historian, he understands what winning an NHRA Wally trophy from the U.S. Nationals would mean to his and his Don Schumacher Racing’s legacy in the sport.

Most importantly to him, is beating whatever challenge he faces.

NAPA’s Capps hopes past all-star success at U.S. Nationals finally transfers to Mello Yello title at year’s biggest race 

– Three of the biggest and richest titles Ron Capps has won came during the U.S. Nationals, drag racing’s most prestigious event of the season.

Those victories were in all-star specialty events held within the U.S. Nationals weekend near Indianapolis.

Surprisingly, Capps has never won a U.S. Nationals title or even advanced to the championship round of the 59-year-old event at Lucas Oil Raceway near Indianapolis.

“Yeah, that is a little hard to believe,” said Capps, who owns 41 NHRA national event titles including the last one two weeks ago at Brainerd, Minn.

“I know we’ve been in a bunch of semifinals at Indy. We just haven’t had success at Indy on Monday,” he said of when championship eliminations are held on Labor Day. “We’ve been fortunate to have won the Shootout three times. Those were fun, fun races. I’ve had a chance to win three times on Sunday at Indy but haven’t been able to transfer that over to Mondays.”

When the U.S. Nationals begins Friday evening with the first of five qualifying sessions, Capps and the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car team for Don Schumacher Racing will be coming to the “Big Go” as hot as he ever has been entering the U.S. Nationals.

Capps with crew chief Rahn Tobler and assistant John Collins have won two of the past three NHRA Mello Yello event titles. Those victories are sandwiched around a shocking development near Seattle when the team did not qualify for Aug. 4 championship eliminations after rain washed out two qualifying sessions and a rare oversight by Tobler, who won the 1982 U.S. Nationals Top Fuel title as crew chief for Shirley Muldowney.

“I feel like, hopefully, I can look back in November and say that that the Seattle DNQ was much more of a positive,” Capps said. “It’s good it happened when it happened because if it had in the Countdown, we could almost write our ticket out of the Countdown. Also, I think it reminded the rest of our team just how tough this is. You’re going to have to have your act together. I think that happened at a good time for us.”

The NAPA team has won three titles in five championship rounds this season.

Capps won all-star titles at Indy in 1998, 1999 and 2002 while driving for Don Prudhomme. He’ll get another shot to earn a $100,000 bonus for DSR when he competes Sunday in the 2nd annual Traxxas Nitro Shootout for eight of the drivers on the NHRA Mello Yello Series tour. Last year, he was runner-up at the rain-delayed Traxxas Nitro Shootout last Sept. at Dallas.

Not to downplay the value of earning that bonus money, but Capps and his NAPA team are most focused on the U.S. Nationals title and maintaining his hold on second-place in the Mello Yello standings in preparation for the start of the six-event NHRA Countdown to the Championship playoff, which begins Sept. 13 near Charlotte.

Capps’ DSR teammate Matt Hagan has virtually clinched the top-seed in the Countdown that will offer a 30-point lead when points are reset for the 10 drivers in the playoff, but only 114 points separates Capps from No. 7 in the standings. A perfect weekend for a driver in the U.S. Nationals would be worth 153 points, so the current rankings could see a big change over Labor Day Weekend.

Massey hopes to repeat 2012 Traxxas Shootout win, bring home U.S. Nationals Wally trophy with Battery Extender dragster

– Last year at the prestigious U.S. Nationals near Indianapolis Spencer Massey lived out one of his dreams and came just one win light short of accomplishing the other.

Massey was crowned the 2012 Traxxas Nitro Shootout Top Fuel champion and earned the Battery Extender Powered by Schumacher dragster team a $100,000 bonus by defeating David Grubnic, Morgan Lucas and Steve Torrence in the eight-car event.

“Indy was pretty special for me last year,” said Massey. “We won the Traxxas Shootout and went to the final round. But this year we want to win the Traxxas Shootout and the U.S. Nationals title. Indy is a race that everyone dreams of. It’s the big one that you want to win. It’s huge to have that race on your win list and that’s what we’re shooting for.”

The Battery Extender dragster team, seeded No. 2 based on current NHRA Mello Yello Series standings, will race No. 7 Bob Vandergriff in the opening round of Saturday’s Traxxas Nitro Shootout, which begins at 4 p.m. Saturday.

Last year, Massey was runner-up to Don Schumacher Racing teammate Tony Schumacher when Schumacher earned his ninth U.S. Nationals win, tying him with Don Garlits for the most Indy Top Fuel titles.

“Tony got us last year and we’re going to do everything we can to not let that happen again,” he said. “We had a great test session last week and we’re ready for the ‘Big Go.’ It’s looking like it’s going to be a hot one, so as a driver you have to be ready for anything and I am.”

Don Schumacher Racing will kick off the U.S. Nationals Labor Day weekend with its annual Open House on Friday, Aug. 30, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. All DSR drivers will be participating in an autograph session at noon. All proceeds from the open house will go to Riley Hospital for Children.

“I look forward to the Open House every year,” Massey said. “There’s always a good crowd and it’s cool to be able to show the fans around our home.

“I spend all week in Indy hanging out with my team and getting ready for the race. I’m really looking forward to getting things started on Friday and seeing if we can’t get one more win light than we did last year.”

In addition to the 17 completed national events held throughout the country, Brown, 37, makes numerous appearances for sponsors Matco Tools and the U.S. Army where his motivating speeches target high school and junior college vocational school students.

As the reigning NHRA Top Fuel world champion, media requests have been the greatest in his 16-year professional drag racing career.

So it will be greatly appreciated by Brown that he gets to spend each night of this weekend’s NHRA U.S. nationals at home with his wife, Billie Jo, and their three kids, before heading to Lucas Oil Raceway that is only a few miles from their home in Pittsboro, Ind.

It’s one of two “hometown” events for Brown, a native of New Jersey who has competed this year at Englishtown, N.J., where he grew up watching his father and uncle drag race.

With family and friends comprising his entourage at the U.S. Nationals, the former collegiate track star is experienced with shifting from public relations star and hospitality host at races to the competitive athlete with focus when it’s time to pull on his helmet and be strapped into his Matco Tools dragster led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald with assistant crew chief Brad Mason.

“Man, this is the U.S. Nationals. It’s Indy. It doesn’t get bigger than this,” Brown said. “It’s our biggest race of the year and there’s nothing like being able to race in front of your family and friends but doing it at Indy is even more special. We know we’re going to have fun and we know it will be even more fun if we all get to go to the winner’s circle once or twice this weekend.”

Brown has been composed and remained a team leader over the past three months while his dragster was in the midst of suffering from some nagging gremlins and advancing to only two semifinals while losing in the opening round eight times in the past 10 events that has dropped them to sixth in the standings.

Corradi and Oswald have worked to improve the Matco dragster as it closes in on NHRA’s six-event Countdown to the Championship playoff for the top-10 drivers that begins after the U.S. Nationals on Sept. 13 near Charlotte.

The Matco team produced the third quickest run last week during a two-day test at Lucas Oil Raceway with a time of 3.756 seconds at 323.04 mph.

“Brian and Mark have been creeping up on it and this is the time when we want our Matco team to be peaking,” said Brown, who has won 39 NHRA titles including three at Indy (Top Fuel in 2011 and twice in Pro Stock Motorcycle).

The Matco team clinched a spot in the Countdown two weeks ago at the last Mello Yello event at Brainerd, Minn., but Brown is still behind the pace of last season when the team won a series-best six titles in the first 20 events of the season.

The team started strong this year by winning two of the first seven before hitting a mechanical slump.

“This year has been a little different for our Matco team,” Brown said. “We’ve used some runs in the regular season to actually work a little on our tune-up and set-up for the Countdown. We’re going to peak at the right time with our heads down.

“We’ve been winning rounds here and there but not like we were earlier in the year so the team is real hungry. We’ve jelled as a new team. We have four new guys on our Matco crew and the rest of the guys are doing a different job.

“We’ve been through some hard times, and I’ve very impressed how all of us have handled it. We’ve kept a steady mindset and haven’t let anything beat us down. That’s what it takes to go into the Countdown and get the championship.”

Brown and seven other Top Fuel drivers will compete Saturday in the second annual Traxxas Nitro Shootout that will pay the winning team $100,000. The first round and semifinals of the Shootout will run concurrently with the third and fourth qualifying sessions.