Beckman bowls 'em over in Pomona, sets both ends of national records, reaches second final

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2006 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 23 of 23
AUTOMOBILE CLUB OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NHRA FINALS
Auto Club Raceway at Pomona (Calif.)
Race Date: Nov. 9-12, 2006

BECKMAN BOWLS 'EM OVER IN POMONA
Sets national elapsed-time record, backs up national speed record, en route
to runner-up finish

POMONA, Calif. (Nov. 12, 2006) - "Fast" Jack Beckman nearly ran the table
this weekend at the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals by
first steering the Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Charger Funny Car to No. 1
in qualifying and then to national-record-setting quickest and fastest Funny
Car laps. He fell victim, though, to newly-crowned 2006 NHRA POWERade Drag
Racing Series champion John Force in his second straight final round of the
season.

While championship contenders Force, Robert Hight and Ron Capps would have
killed for those 20 bonus points for setting a national record, it was
Beckman's 4.662-second elapsed-time pass in the final (backed up by his No.
1 qualifying pass of 4.671 seconds) that got the job done. In only his fifth
Funny Car event and certainly not in the championship chase, the points were
of little help, but the bragging rights were stupendous.

The only down side was that the final pass, at 329.99 mph, didn't hold up
against Force's slower but winning 4.697/319.75. Beckman's .103 reaction
time (.000 is perfect) to Force's .058 made the difference, resulting in a
holeshot loss for Beckman and a margin of victory for Force of .0108 of a
second.

"I've never been so disappointed to be the quickest and fastest Funny
Car driver in history," said Beckman, who set the national speed record of
333.66 mph on Saturday, backed up by his 332.75-mph run in today's
first-round win. "But at the end of the day you really want that win light.

"That Matco Tools Dodge was an animal. It launched good, it just stuck me
back in the seat, and I'm thinking, He ain't gonna hang with this deal,"
Beckman reflected on his run against Force. "And then that thing made such a
hard move to the right and was pretty close to the wall, and I was pretty
close to aborting the run. But, it was still truckin', and it never even
thought about spinning the tire hard down there at the top end. I thought we
were going to win.

"It will go down in history as a holeshot loss," he added. "John is a
master. When he needs it he'll let the car roll way into the start line. The
guys told me to stage as shallow as I could to get more roll out, which will
slow your reaction time. If you watch the video you'll see the butterflies
open at the same time, which means we punched the pedal at the same time,
but where you stage the car has a dramatic effect on reaction time of the
car."

With lane choice for every round, Beckman first defeated Scott Kalitta with
a 4.715/332.75, Tony Pedregon with a 5.060/232.39 and Phil Burkart Jr. with
a 4.743/323.19, before meeting up with Force in the final.

"I hope the Matco Tools guys are happy that we left here with both ends of
the national record, but I know they wanted to run the table, and I'm
disappointed that we didn't. But, as a five-race Funny Car driver, to have
the fastest and quickest runs in Funny Car history and a win, it's something
I'm glad I signed up for," said the 2003 Super Comp champion and winner of
his first Funny Car race in Las Vegas two weeks ago.

"We came out here trying to end the year on a good note," said crew chief
Todd Okuhara, "and we pushed the car hard. We were very aggressive in
qualifying, and it's not very often you are in a position to set a national
record, so Phil (Shuler, assistant crew chief) and I decided to go for it.
And it worked."

Despite Beckman's limited schedule (five events) this season, he finishes
19th (329 points) in POWERade Funny Car rankings, ahead of 15 other regular
Funny Car competitors.