Pomona: Jack Beckman Saturday summary

Beckman Grabs No. 6 In Qualifying At Season-Opening Pomona

POMONA, Calif. (Feb. 10, 2007) - "Fast" Jack Beckman continued gaining valuable seat time in the Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car, after only five events in 2006 competing in that class. And he's doing just fine, thank you very much, as he qualified No. 6 at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series season-opener, the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona today.

Beckman, an instructor at Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School at this track, set his quickest pass in the final qualifying session today, a 4.734-second elapsed time at 324.28 mph. His previous runs included a 4.883/284.45, a 4.774/325.53 and a 5.628/170.28.

"Still working on that learning curve," said Beckman, of North Hills, Calif. "Still trying to stage shallow, keep the thing in the middle of the lane. So we probably would have run a high .70, a low .71 (in the final pass). I let it roll in a little bit on the start line. It's just getting up to speed in these things.

"The MTS Dodge is still a monster. It's not like over the winter I suddenly figured out how easy this is to do. I think we're actually pretty consistent. I lifted on the third run because I thought I felt something and I didn't need to. It would have been a mid-.70 on that one. So, I think we're very consistent. Todd (crew chief Okuhara) and Phil (assistant crew chief Shuler) will race the race track tomororw. We're racing (Jeff) Arend, we've got lane choice, so I like our odds tomorrow."

First round of eliminations begin at 11 a.m. on Sunday, and will air on ESPN2 beginning at 8 p.m. ET.

-credit: dsr