Beckman reaches quarters in Denver

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2010 NHRA FULL THROTTLE DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 16 of 23
MOPAR Mile-High NHRA Nationals
Bandimere Speedway
Morrison, Colo.
July 23-25, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

BECKMAN REACHES QUARTERS IN DENVER

MORRISON, Colo. (July 25, 2010) - No. 9 qualifier Jack Beckman raced the
Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car into the
quarterfinal round of the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere
Speedway, after defeating No. 8 Ashley Force Hood on a holeshot.

Beckman launched first at the starting lights, clocking a .068 reaction time
to Force Hood's .104 (.000 is perfect), and led the race to the finish
stripe, taking the victory by a mere eight inches. Beckman edged out the
daughter of the 14-time Funny Car champion John Force with a slower yet
winning 4.238-second pass at 295.92 mph to Force Hood's 4.203/299.40.

He then met up with his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan in the
second round. Beckman repeated his .068 reaction time against Hagan's .091,
but it wasn't enough to hold off the driver of the Mopar Dodge, who grabbed
the win by 16 feet with a 4.276/289.69 to Beckman's 4.336/285.53.

"You can't really use Denver as a benchmark because the mile-high conditions
here are so completely different than anywhere else on the tour," said
Beckman, who leaves Denver fourth in the class point standings. "But you
can't really say, Well, we were frustrated or, Boy, we think we learned
something. We think we learned something for Denver next year and we were
really frustrated in qualifying." Beckman recorded only one good pass during
the four qualifying rounds.

"To go down the track one out of four times (in qualifying) isn't our
style," he added. "So, the silver lining is that we beat a higher-qualified
car the first round, kept our streak of round wins alive with this new
chassis (introduced seven races ago), and gave Hagan a pretty good run in
the second round.

"The downside is we want to win races. So, gosh, now we have to wait three
weeks for Brainerd."

Next up is the 29th annual NHRA Nationals in Brainerd, Minn., Aug. 12-15 -
the final race of the "regular" NHRA Full Throttle season. The Countdown to
1 playoffs will kick in for the final six races of the season.


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