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Commerce: Jack Beckman preview

BECKMAN SEES ATLANTA DRAGWAY FOR FIRST TIME IN "NEW" HOT ROD NORTH HILLS, Calif. (April 25, 2007) - "Fast" Jack Beckman jumped from 17th to ninth place in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car point standings following his drive to the ...

Published: Apr 25, 2007, 11:51 PM

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BECKMAN SEES ATLANTA DRAGWAY FOR FIRST TIME IN "NEW" HOT ROD

NORTH HILLS, Calif. (April 25, 2007) - "Fast" Jack Beckman jumped from 17th to ninth place in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car point standings following his drive to the semifinal round at The Strip at Las Vegas last week. And he credits his "new" Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger R/T "hot rod" tuned by Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler for the comeback, as the series heads to the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway this weekend.

"Everybody's feeling better," said Beckman, who suffered a DNQ and three first-round losses before Las Vegas, following a stellar end to 2006, where he reached two final rounds, won once, qualified No. 1 once and set national records in speed and elapsed time. "I think we've got the hot rod back that we had last year. We had to change the chassis after Phoenix. We think that one had gotten compromised when we blew the tire at pre-season testing and now I think we've got a really good handle on the other chassis and what it wants.

"So, I feel great going into Atlanta. I feel optimistic. We're one spot out of the Countdown top eight and we're two spots out of the Skoal Showdown points. I think now is when we need to peck away. It's important for us to build on this momentum and not get far behind in the Countdown and the Skoal Showdown points."

Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Ga., is another new venue for the 2003 NHRA Super Comp champion who joined Don Schumacher Racing in the Funny Car class for the final five races of 2006. "It's actually doubly exciting, because I'm doing the whole tour this year, and it's the first time that I'm going to get to go to a lot of the races," he said. "There's a lot of venues that I haven't even seen. There's some places I've been to but I've never raced at. And Atlanta I've never even been to.

"It's the first time I'm going to see it, first time I'll get to race at it, and there's some good history there," added Beckman, an instructor at Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School, a cancer survivor, a former Air Force sergeant and a new dad. "It's exciting in that regard, but it's also exciting coming off our performance in Vegas. We didn't win, but we almost won. We lost the semis by four thou (of a second) and I think we would have had the car to beat in the final round."

MAIL TERMINAL SERVICES "MAIL FROM HOME" PROGRAM UPDATE:

Mail Terminal Services will be featuring Camp Anaconda this weekend at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals in its "Mail from Home" program. Postcards will be available to send to this war-zone camp at the Don Schumacher Racing hospitality area as well as at a kiosk in the U.S. Army "Racing Zone", the U.S. Army Interactive area located in Nitro Alley.

-credit: dsr

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