Beckman snags No. 7 in Pomona qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2010 NHRA FULL THROTTLE DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 1 of 23
50th ANNUAL NHRA WINTERNATIONALS
Auto Club Raceway at Pomona (Calif.)
Feb. 11-14, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

BECKMAN SNAGS NO. 7 IN POMONA QUALIFYING

POMONA, Calif. (Feb. 13, 2010) - Local boy "Fast" Jack Beckman placed the
Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger Funny Car in No. 7 during
qualifying for the 50th annual NHRA Winternationals.

His quickest lap of 4.101 seconds at 310.91 mph came in the opening session
on Thursday. He then matched it with a 4.104/307.93 in the final session,
which was delayed for several hours because of oil downs and 50th
anniversary festivities. In between, he posted a 7.562/84.82 and a
4.453/208.78.

"It was nice," said Beckman, of Norco, Calif. "We book-ended our runs with
4.10s. We opened nice, picking up right where we left off from testing in
Jupiter, Fla., in January. The Valvoline/MTS group, including new crew chief
Rahn Tobler, is working perfectly together right now.

"We went out there and tried a couple of things in the second and third runs
and they didn't work. We needed to make sure that the car was back where we
thought it should be for the last run so we could take it into Sunday.

"That long wait gave us a race track that we probably won't see even in the
final tomorrow. So, on one hand, you could say that may not be a relevant
run, but we adapted to it well enough to run a 4.10, which was third
quickest of the session.

"I think, more importantly, it gives us a lot of confidence going into race
day knowing that the changes we made resulted with a good run. And we just
have to make four winning runs tomorrow."

Beckman faces Tony Pedregon in the opening round of Sunday's eliminations.

***