Beckman ousted in Reading opening round

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2009 NHRA FULL THROTTLE DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 17 of 24
25th annual NHRA NATIONALS
Maple Grove Raceway
Mohnton, Pa.
Aug. 21-23, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

BECKMAN OUSTED IN READING OPENING ROUND

MOHNTON, Pa. (Aug. 23, 2009) - After scoring his highest qualifying position
of the season, No. 3, at the 25th annual NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove
Raceway, outside of Reading, Pa., "Fast" Jack Beckman exited early in the
Funny Car opening round.

Facing off against his former Don Schumacher Racing teammate Jerry Toliver,
Beckman launched first with a .099 reaction time (.000 is perfect) to
Toliver's .132, and was in the lead until a loss of traction slowed him to a
4.662-second pass at 204.08 mph. Toliver claimed the victory with a
4.327/258.27.

The driver of the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge held on to fourth
place in the point standings, with one event remaining before the Countdown
to 1 playoffs kick in following the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis on Labor
Day weekend.

"Here's where the championship teams are going to keep their chins up, start
looking forward, maintain that positive attitude," said Beckman, a two-time
winner this year. "We're going to go test Wednesday at Indy. The next race
is at Indy. We won the sixth race, we won the 12th race; we're on par to win
Indy and the Pomona, Calif., finals,² he added with a smile.

"It was very disappointing to lose, especially as well as we had qualified.
It got sunny, hot and gooey out there and with two qualifying runs in
totally different conditions you could see that almost every nitro car first
round had some difficulties, except for the ones who ran way toward the back
and obviously were able to make the correct adjustments for that.

"It's frustrating and we never like to lose. But, at the end of the day,
what's going to help us win is analyzing the data, figuring out how to be
better and going to Indy and getting the Wally there."

Next up is the 55th annual U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, Sept. 4-7, 2009.

Today's racing action experienced a four-hour-plus delay while the NHRA
Safety Safari cleaned up the water that was seeping through the track
surface. Full point standings will be distributed following the completion
of the event.

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