Race report
NHRA
Winternationals ends early for reigning champ Beckman
Valvoline/MTS team shifts focus to next race at Phoenix.
Edited: Feb 18, 2013, 4:14 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
POMONA, Calif. - Reigning world champion Jack Beckman reinforced what drivers always say: Every team that qualifies is capable of winning on Sunday in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
Those prophetic words were echoed on Sunday when the No. 15-seeded team with driver Todd Lesenko survived a tire-smoking battle and eliminated Jack, who qualified No. 2, after both lost traction and smoked their tires in the opening round.
Jack Beckman
Photo by: NHRA
"From a fan's perspective, that's the exciting part of racing," Jack said.
"We had the whole offseason and we knew we would come out here with the No. 1 on the car. We were able test a couple of times, and in our minds we wanted to come out just us strong as we wrapped up last season.
"When we rolled into the gates here at Pomona, my home track, we fully expected to be able to contend for the title. We went out there and dropped (an engine) cylinder right at the hit of the throttle and that drives you to left, plays havoc with the clutch and winds up smoking the tires.
"When something like that happens the hope is you can find the smoking gun to make sure it doesn't happen the next time.
"We have to dig deep into the computer and figure out what went wrong and how do we prevent it next week in Phoenix. It's frustrating, but it is a 24-race season. We know we'll be near the top all through the season."
Don Schumacher Racing
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Brown walks away from crash in Pomona
Next article Courtney Force wins Winternationals
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jack Beckman
Hight, Torrence are champions, Kalitta, Beckman take Pomona wins
NHRA
NHRA
Pomona II
Hight, Torrence are champions, Kalitta, Beckman take Pomona wins
Krawiec takes Pro Stock Motorcycle world title and No. 1 qualifier
NHRA
NHRA
Pomona II
Krawiec takes Pro Stock Motorcycle world title and No. 1 qualifier
B. Force, Beckman, Anderson and Ellis current No. 1 qualifiers at season ending NHRA finals
NHRA
NHRA
Pomona II
B. Force, Beckman, Anderson and Ellis current No. 1 qualifiers at season ending NHRA finals
Latest news
Who slept worst last night: Fernando Alonso
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
22 min
Who slept worst last night: Fernando Alonso
Carlos Ezpeleta: Qatar GP “noise” left MotoGP unnecessarily exposed
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
52 min
Carlos Ezpeleta: Qatar GP “noise” left MotoGP unnecessarily exposed
Oscar Piastri splits from Mark Webber management
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
1 h
Oscar Piastri splits from Mark Webber management
WEC drivers question lack of full-course yellow after heavy Monza crash
WEC
WEC WEC
Monza
3 h
WEC drivers question lack of full-course yellow after heavy Monza crash
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe