Commerce: Jack Beckman Saturday summary

BECKMAN QUICKEST OF FINAL ROUND, QUALIFIES NINTH IN ATLANTA

COMMERCE, Ga. (April 28, 2007) - Jack Beckman drove the Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car fast and straight down the Atlanta Dragway quarter-mile in the final qualifying session to post the quickest pass of that round under hot and humid conditions.

His 4.768-second elapsed time at 317.79 mph qualified him No. 9 for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals and was his best of the weekend. His previous tries produced a 5.037/296.57, a 4.780/322.11 and a 4.839/319.22. In a very competitive field, which just fell short of being the quickest in NHRA history, Beckman barely missed qualifying in the top half of the field in each session.

Beckman faces his teammate and four-time NHRA champion Gary Scelzi in the opening stanza of Sunday's eliminations.

"Second low E.T. of the third session, low E.T. by a bunch of that last session, and maybe more important, three good solid runs in a row in varying track temperature and air temperature, so I think we're in good shape for tomorrow," said Beckman who credits crew chiefs Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler for putting a strong hot rod under him.

"The only thing that I don't like about where we ended up is that we have our teammate Scelzi in the first round, and it's like putting a Xerox copy of your car in the other lane, only Gary Scelzi is driving it. I'm encouraging him to stay up really late tonight.

"It's going to be exciting tomorrow for everybody, and the upside is you get a Don Schumacher Racing car in the second round. The downside is all three DSR Funny Cars should be getting in the second round. I'm excited."

-credit: dsr