Beckman settles for No. 14 in Seattle qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2209 NHRA FULL THROTTLE DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 14 of 24
NHRA NORTHWEST NATIONALS
Pacific Raceways
Kent, Wash.
July 17-19, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

BECKMAN SETTLES FOR NO. 14 IN SEATTLE QUALIFYING

KENT, Wash. (July 18, 2009) - Jack Beckman and the Valvoline/Mail Terminal
Services Dodge Funny Car team had a tough time qualifying for the NHRA
Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways this weekend, finally settling for
No. 14 after recording a respectable 4.397-second lap at 227.49 mph in the
final qualifying round today.

Loss of traction in each of the three previous attempts produced a
9.323/76.94, a 5.577/132.13, and a 6.092/107.21.

"All of a sudden this thing is a monster for horsepower with the tune-up
changes that we did for Denver, even coming back to some of the sea-level
adjustments," explained Beckman, a two-time season titlist. "We couldn't
back it down.

"The problem is when you're smoking the tires you don't know if you're
barely smoking them or really smoking them, so you don't know how much to
back it down to get down the race track. And we were down to one run and it
forced us to over-compensate and really slow down the Valvoline/MTS Dodge.

"Hopefully, where that will get us is a little bit closer to that threshold
for tomorrow. Had we gone out and smoked the tires that final run we would
have been completely lost. At least now we know we can step it up in a
couple of areas of the run for the first round."

Beckman faces his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan in Sunday's
opening round of eliminations. "The tough part is having to race a teammate,
and Hagan's car has been pretty fast this weekend, so we definitely have our
work cut out for us first round,² he said.

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