Reading: Jack Beckman Saturday report

BECKMAN BAGS NO. 4 IN READING QUALIFYING

MOHNTON, Pa. (Oct. 9, 2010) - Jack Beckman collected No. 4 in Funny Car qualifying for the 26th annual NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway (just outside of Reading, Pa.) racing the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger Funny Car to a 4.068-second pass at 308.00 mph in Friday night's session under excellent conditions.

His other laps included a 4.150/293.09 (No. 4), and 6.795/98.05 (No. 4) and 4.114/303.16 today. He will face Jeff Arend in the opening round of Sunday's eliminations.

"We're OK; we finished fourth," said Beckman, who is third in the point standings with three races remaining in the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season. "After it went out and smoked them on the third qualifying run we weren't sure if it was the tires that we had, so we went back to a fresh set. Rahn (Tobler, crew chief) said, 'We're going to put a 4.10 tune-up in it and not be heroes. We just need to go down the race track.'

"It spun [the tires] a little bit out there, and went a 4.11. We're right on what the tune-up numbers should have been. We're pretty comfortable going into tomorrow."

-source: dsr