Beckman misses field in Bristol

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2008 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 8 of 24
NHRA THUNDER VALLEY NATIONALS
Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway
May 16-18. 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501; cell 203-243-2438;
jstropus@earthlink.net

BECKMAN MISSES FIELD IN BRISTOL

BRISTOL, Tenn. (May 17, 2008) - Jack Beckman missed qualifying for the NHRA
Thunder Valley Nationals today at Bristol Dragway. This is the second
straight event for which the driver of the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services
Dodge Charger R/T has failed to qualify.

Under cool, sometimes windy conditions on Friday and warmer, sunnier ones on
Saturday, Beckman struggled to make full passes down the quarter-mile. His
qualifying attempts included a 5.685-second pass at 219.26 mph, followed by
a 4.933/318.84, a 4.932/266.21 (good for No. 15) and finally an
11.307/76.60.

"To DNQ two races in a row is difficult to accept," said the popular,
fan-friendly Beckman. "Clearly this is something that if we want to remain a
top-10 car we need to fix now. We have four Funny Cars here at Don
Schumacher Racing and we need to pick up the performance on all of them.
It's time to put our heads together collectively and sort through the
issues.

"It's a very difficult position for (new crew chief) Johnny West. He came
in, changed some things on the race car and we got four runs. It showed a
lot of promise on run three. Unfortunately, it spun the tires further down
track than you would expect, and dropped a couple of cylinders and made a
hard move left.

"And then we thought we had what we needed for Q4 and we were looking at the
run (on the computer) and there's nothing obvious about it. It's just trying
to marry 8000 horsepower to the concrete out there and it wasn't ready for
it.

"We got four darts to throw, just like everybody else. There's no excuses.
Were going to test Monday, we're going to try some things. I will guarantee
we will improve our position. The problem is it's a difficult time to be
trying to do that right now, eight races into the season. So, we're battling
against time to get enough quality test runs to pick up our program.

"But, we're not done winning races this year. So, I'm upset and I'm
optimistic."

Next up for Beckman is the NHRA Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka
(Kans.), May 30-June 1.

***