Commerce: Jack Beckman preview

BECKMAN TARGETS ATLANTA WIN

NORTH HILLS, Calif. (April 14, 2009) - Jack Beckman, who has six national event victories under his belt in his short two-and-a-half (or so) years in the Funny Car class of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, plus a national top-speed record of 333.66 mph, is still looking for his first win of 2009. He's aiming to fix this deficit at the NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway this weekend driving the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Funny Car.

"You know, it's been an interesting year," he said. "I thought that we would have had a win by this time, but I think that most fans would have also expected that Robert Hight, John Force, Tim Wilkerson and the Pedregon Brothers (Cruz and Tony) all would have had wins by this time in the year.

"The NAPA car, with Ron Capps and (crew chief) Ed McCulloch, has definitely risen to the occasion and set the bar pretty high for the rest of us," added Beckman about his Don Schumacher Racing teammate who has won three of the first five national events of the year and leads the points. "But, I still think this is going to be another Funny Car year where you see 10 different winners.

"To me it's a testament to how competitive this category is. It's so tough to win in Funny Car anymore, so the fact that the NAPA team has won three is actually amazing. And I'm happy for our teammates, but I want to be happy for our crew chief Johnny West and everyone else on the Valvoline/MTS team too.

"We're definitely going to win some races, but it would be nice if we did it this weekend in Atlanta. We've gone rounds everywhere but one race, so it would be nice to get the Valvoline/MTS car in the winner's circle as soon as possible.

"We just have to keep focused on the fact that we are championship contenders, and tell ourselves that every single week. I tell you, everybody on our team has a good attitude, but there's nothing like a Sunday with the trophy in your hands to solidify that good attitude."

-credit: dsr