Beckman explodes to $100,000 Traxxas Shootout title; Brown edges Schumacher for U.S. Nationals Top Fuel pole
annual NHRA U.S. Nationals far exceeded any boomers Mother Nature produced the day before.First, Jack Beckman’s engine held up just long enough before it blew most of the body off the Valvoline MaxLife/MTS Mail for Wounded Warriors Dodge Charger R/T. Beckman used a starting line advantage to edge Cruz Pedregon at the finish line to win the $100,000 Traxxas Nitro Shootout for Funny Cars.
About an hour later, Tony Schumacher, who owns a record-tying nine U.S. Nationals titles, went to the line for his last qualifying run and was not among the 16 cars qualified for Sunday’s championship eliminations. But the U.S. Army driver uncorked a run in 3.814 seconds that moved him to the No. 1 position.
But before he and his Army crew could celebrate winning another pole, DSR and Army teammate Antron Brown, who rested in the 16th position, topped Schumacher’s run with a time of 3.811 seconds.
Brown will start championship eliminations Sunday at 11 a.m. on the pole while another DSR teammate, Matt Hagan, will start as the No. 1 seed in Funny Car driving the Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar/Rocky Boots Dodge.
Completing a nearly perfect day at the year’s biggest NHRA Mello Yello event of the season was when Hagan clinched the top seed for the six-event Countdown to the Championship that begins Sept. 13 near Charlotte. Hagan, who has won four event titles and three other poles this year, won nothing last year and did not qualify for the 10-driver Countdown.
Beckman’s winning time of 4.086 seconds beat Pedregon’s quicker 4.066. The winning difference was Beckman’s reaction time of 0.052 seconds was considerably quicker than Pedregon’s 0.075 and enabled Beckman to win by three-thousandth of a second or about 1 foot at 310 mph.
A blink of an eye after Beckman crossed the finish line, the engine explosion blew the body behind the front fenders skyward while Beckman was able to maintain control of the bouncing Funny Car and brought it to a stop.
“What happened? What day is this?” Beckman joked about any affects from the concussive blast. “Where are we now?”
“Our car was haulin’,” he said with a smile that was on his face from the moment he stood up in the convertible cockpit with hands raised in victory.
“It was truckin’. Right after it blew (crew chief) Todd Smith got on the radio and kept asking if I was OK. This is how great a guy he is. He didn’t care about anything but me. I said I was fine but wanted to know if we won. Once he gave me a yes I felt even better.”
It was a big win for Beckman and his team, which has yet to win a regular NHRA Mello Yello Series title this year after winning three a year ago.
Beckman’s crew members were headed to DSR headquarters about 2 miles from Lucas Oil Raceway to pick up another Dodge Charger R/T body for use in winner’s circle photos and then to begin the task of completing repairs so the car is ready to race in championship eliminations Monday.
Hagan, Magneti Marelli team earn fourth No. 1 qualifying spot, secure No. 1 slot for NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship
– Matt Hagan was unable to score one trophy on Sunday but has his eyes set on a Wally trophy during Monday’s championship eliminations of the NHRA U.S. Nationals near Indianapolis.
During the first round of Sunday’s qualifying, which doubled as the first round of the Traxxas Nitro Shootout for Funny Cars, Hagan’s Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar/Rocky Boots Dodge Charger R/T posted a 4.109-second pass at 311.20 mph but it wasn’t enough to move on in the Shootout when Hagan’s opponent, Tim Wilkerson, posted a 4.086-second pass at 312 mph.
It was Hagan’s slowest elapsed time throughout four qualifying sessions spanning Friday and Sunday and in various weather conditions. Hagan took the No. 1 qualifier spot, his fourth of the 2013 season, during Saturday’s rain-delayed Funny Car session with a 4.007-second pass, a track record at Lucas Oil Raceway near Indianapolis.
By qualifying for Monday’s 59th annual U.S. Nationals eliminations, Hagan secured the No. 1 slot for the six-race Countdown to the Championship playoffs that begins in two weeks at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte.
“Overall it was a good qualifying effort,” Hagan said. “I hate that we didn’t have it together first round for the Shootout. We were a little too conservative, too soft. But we ended up with a qualifying run in the last session with an impressive 4.04 in what I would call somewhat the heat of the day and it’s just a shame we didn’t have that in the first round.”
But Hagan is happy with his consistent Dickie Venables-tuned Dodge Charger R/T.
“I’m very confident, very positive,” he said. “I’m looking forward to having a long day tomorrow. They’ll be some tough match-ups and tough draws and it’s going to be fun.
“I’m just very, very confident in our crew and what we have going on right now. It’s the U.S. Nationals man, you want to win it. You only get one time a year to come out here and do this one. Let’s make it count all day long tomorrow and not leave anything on the table or the racetrack tomorrow.”
After struggling through the 2012 NHRA season where the team reached four final rounds but never took home the trophy, Hagan thinks every Wally trophy carries special meaning.
“It’s huge. Every trophy is special. I think I used to take it for granted and last year (after not winning) and it made me realize how special they are and how hard they are to get. The U.S. Nationals, that’s one of those that you want to put in your showcase before your run is done out here and there’s not too many guys out here that can say they’ve done that. Obviously it would be nice to go rounds out here tomorrow and do that.”
The winner of the 2012 Traxxas Top Fuel Shootout would like another shot at the one he missed last year in the final round of NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing eliminations near Indianapolis.
“We’ll be satisfied if we reverse our roles and take home the Wally on Monday instead of the Traxxas Shootout trophy,” Massey said. The Battery Extender Powered by Schumacher dragster was ousted in the second round of this year’s Traxxas Shootout by Steve Torrence, who Massey defeated to win the $100,000 bonus last year.
Massey also reached the final round of the U.S. Nationals in 2012 but came up short to DSR teammate and 9-time Indy winner Tony Schumacher.
“The U.S. Nationals is a big race and it’s on top of every drivers list of races they want to win,” Massey said. “It’s supposed to be a little bit cooler tomorrow than what we’ve seen in qualifying so it’s going to be really interesting. But this Battery Extender dragster loves to make horsepower and put up some good numbers on the board so I’m feeling confident.”
Monday’s Labor Day eliminations, set to begin at 11 a.m., is the final race of the NHRA regular season before the six-race Countdown to the Championship playoffs kick off in two weeks at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte.
“We’re sitting in a good spot in the points right now and those are all going to be reset and we need to be ready to strike when this Countdown starts. On paper our qualifying efforts don’t look so great but tomorrow with some cooler weather, it’s a whole new ball game.
“I’m glad I have Phil (Shuler) and Todd (Okuhara) in my trailer (as crew chiefs) looking at all of the data and watching the weather and I know they will have a good tune-up to put into this Battery Extender dragster tomorrow. It would be cool to get the guys in the winner’s circle at home with all of their families tomorrow. I’ll do my part and they’ll do theirs and we’ll see how far we go.”
NAPA AUTO PARTS’ Capps misses chance at Shootout trophy but sets sights on Monday’s ‘Holy Grail’ in NHRA U.S. Nationals
– Ron Capps has three Funny Car all-star titles on his resume during events at the U.S. Nationals near Indianapolis but missed a chance at a fourth when he lost in the first round of Sunday’s $100,000 Traxxas Nitro Shootout for Funny Cars.
The driver of Don Schumacher Racing’s NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car, which is ranked second in the Mello Yello Series championship standings, has more on the line Monday at Lucas Oil Raceway. And that prize has far greater meaning that anything he could have won Sunday.
Capps, who is qualified fifth for championship eliminations that begin 11 a.m. on Labor Day, has won 41 NHRA national event titles but never one in the season’s biggest and most prestigious race.
“It was a bummer losing in the Traxxas Shootout, but obviously the focus is on Monday and trying to win the U.S. Nationals,” said Capps, whose crew chief Rahn Tobler won the Top Fuel title at Indy in 1982.
“In the last (qualifying) session, Tobler wanted to go up and get something out of the way we needed to try before tomorrow.
“Sometimes I think you learn more from things that don’t work and hopefully that’s the case on our last run. I always feel like no matter how we qualify that when I show up on race day we are more than capable of winning the title, and I’m excited about this year’s U.S. Nationals.
“It seems like it gets more important (to win this race) as the years go by. I try not to let that be a focal point. I’ve come into this race and really looked at it like the Holy Grail that it is and other times I’ve tried to downplay it. Neither have really worked. I’m just going to try and approach it like (veteran racer and former crew chief) Ed McCulloch used to tell me and that was to look right in front of your feet at the next run and don’t worry about anything else and hopefully we’ll be there at the end of the day.”
Beckman reacts perfectly to win Traxxas Shootout title after sharing his day at U.S. Nationals with special friends
-Despite spending Sunday competing in the biggest NHRA Mello Yello Series event of the year along with Traxxas Nitro Shootout all-star race that would pay the winner $100,000, Jack Beckman spent most of the day with a 10-year-old boy blinded by cancer.
And it was his second day hosting young cancer survivors who were guests provided through Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Indiana.
Sometime good deeds are rewarded.
“It helps put racing in perspective,” said Beckman, a cancer survivor who is a national spokesman for the “Chemotherapy: Myths or Facts” campaign.
“It helps to give back, but now I want to take, take, take.”
He started to receive rewards for good deeds on the championship run of the Shootout.
Beckman’s engine violently exploded and shredded most of the body on his Valvoline MaxLife/MTS Mail for Wounded Warriors Dodge Charger R/T, but he still was able to use a superior starting line advantage to edge Cruz Pedregon at the finish line to win $100,000 for his Don Schumacher Racing team in the Shootout for Funny Cars.
The reigning NHRA Funny Car world champion left Pedregon at the starting line that allowed him to overcome Pedregon’s quicker elapsed time. Beckman used a tune-up from crew chief Todd Smith and assistant Terry Snyder to win the title by three-thousandths of a second that amounted to about one foot at 310 mph.
Beckman’s winning time of 4.086 seconds beat Pedregon’s quicker 4.066. The winning difference was Beckman’s reaction time of 0.052 seconds – his best of the U.S. Nationals weekend – that was considerably quicker than Pedregon’s 0.075.
A blink of an eye after Beckman crossed the finish line, the explosion blew the body from behind the front fenders skyward while Beckman was able to maintain control of the bouncing Funny Car and brought it to a stop.
“What happened? What day is this?” Beckman joked about affects from the concussive blast. “Where are we right now?
“Our car was haulin’,” he said with a smile that had been on his face from the moment he climbed out of new convertible cockpit to stand atop his Goodyear racing slicks with hands raised in victory.
“It was truckin’. Right after it blew Todd Smith got on the radio and kept asking if I was OK. This’s how great a guy he is. He didn’t care about anything but me. I said I was fine but wanted to know if we won. Once he gave me a yes I felt even better.”
It was a big win for Beckman and his team, which has yet to win a regular NHRA Mello Yello Series title this year after winning three a year ago.
“It was running so good I thought OK, I think we have a good chance to win. I think we got it, I think we got it. I put my hand on the parachute lever, I’m just getting ready to let off of it and the thing just blows up. And then you forget about everything except getting that car stopped without crashing the chassis.”
Beckman’s crew members were headed to DSR headquarters about 2 miles from Lucas Oil Raceway to pick up another Dodge Charger R/T body for use in winner’s circle photos and then to begin the task of completing repairs so the car is ready to race in championship eliminations of the U.S. Nationals by 11 a.m. Monday.
After winning two Mello Yello Series titles early in the season, the team began experimenting in preparation for another championship run.
Despite falling to sixth in points heading into this weekend’s U.S. Nationals near Indianapolis, the Matco brain trust proved Sunday their plan is on track.
Going to the starting line late Sunday afternoon for his final qualifying session, Brown was sitting in the 16th and last position for Monday’s championship eliminations.
Don Schumacher Racing teammate Tony Schumacher was in the pair right before Brown and Schumacher was not yet qualified but he ripped off a time that sent him to the No. 1 spot.
And then Brown and his Matco team went out and ran 3.811 seconds to take over the pole and bump his teammate to the No. 2 spot heading to Sunday’s eliminations, which begin at 11 a.m.
“We planned on it. We really planned on it going out there for that last lap and doing that,” Brown said. “We’ve been tip-toeing up on a time like that all week. On that last run, Brian and Mark and all of the Matco boys looked at it and said everything we learned in testing we can throw out the window we gotta come in and focus and make this better.
“They put their heads down and they go ‘we have nothing to lose’. This is the last race before the Countdown and we’re not going out by just half-stepping it. We’re going to give it our full effort and they weren’t scared. That’s the same mindset we have to have going into the Countdown. We are just practicing it right now. So did our teammate (Schumacher) and his U.S. Army car. They had the same thought process. We stepped up to the plate and there were some great runs in that session.
“Tomorrow it’s going to be cooler. Track conditions are going to be even better. We have a run to work off of now because I guarantee you tomorrow in the first round with Morgan Lucas it’s going to be a tough, tough matchup.
“That’s like a final round match-up in the first round. It’s probably going to take a mid 3.70 out there tomorrow morning to get the job done if the conditions are what we think they are going to be.”
