Beckman eliminated early at Texas from Traxxas Shootout, more focused on winning rounds Sunday in championship race

September 22

ENNIS, Texas (Sept. 22, 2012) – Jack Beckman hopes to take advantage of a big opportunity during the opening round of eliminations in the AAA Texas Fall Nationals on Sunday at the Texas Motorplex outside of Dallas.

For the ninth time out of the last 10 events, Beckman and the Schumacher Electric Battery Extender/Valvoline NextGen Funny Car team qualified in the top-three for Sunday eliminations.

“It’s nice because we got a couple of qualifying bonus points and we need those,” Beckman said.

Temperatures throughout qualifying were in the mid-90s and track temperatures exceeded 125 degrees. Beckman will line up against Kalitta Motorsports’ Jeff Arend in the opening round of eliminations on Sunday. Arend is also in NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship.

“We’ve got another Countdown car first round so we’ve got an opportunity to help ourselves out,” he said. “We don’t want to look past that, but if I look past that, three of our four Don Schumacher Racing Funny Cars are on the same side of the ladder and that’s not the way we would prefer to have it.”

Beckman’s Saturday also didn’t go the way he preferred when he was eliminated in the opening round of the Traxxas Shootout by eventual Shootout winner John Force. Beckman’s Funny Car slowed to a 4.48-second elapsed time while Force went on with a 4.29-second lap.

“It was a disappointing day for us because we really thought we had a car that could win the Traxxas Shootout and we didn’t even get past the first round,” he said.

But there’s one thing that could heal the wounds that the early shootout loss left behind.

“We will definitely forget all of that and leave with smiles on our faces if we get that Wally trophy tomorrow.”

The following are Beckman’s qualifying and Traxxas Shootout results along with other notes from the NHRA Fall Nationals outside Dallas.

FUNNY CAR
No. 1 Qualifier: Courtney Force 4.081 sec., 308.21 mph
Traxxas Nitro Shootout champion: John Force

Jack Beckman, Schumacher Electric Battery Extender Dodge Charger R/T
Qualified: No. 3
Round 1 opponent: Jeff Arend

FRIDAY QUALIFYING
Session 1: 5.571 sec., 125.01 mph
Session 2: 4.109, 303.98
SATURDAY QUALIFYING
Session 3: 4.483, 274.94
Session 4: 4.177, 298.21

SATURDAY’S TRAXXAS NITRO SHOOTOUT – FUNNY CAR
(DSR drivers in CAPS)

FIRST ROUND
No. 1 seed RON CAPPS (4.134 sec., 295.01) def. No. 8 Courtney Force (4.1998, 294.95)
No. 7 Jeff Arend (4.783, 241.07) def. No. 2 Robert Hight (5.657, 132.32)
No. 6 John Force (4.294, 268.38) def. No. 3 JACK BECKMAN (4.483, 274.94)
No. 4. JOHNNY GRAY (4.254, 290.82) def. No. 5 Mike Neff (4.784, 175.89)

SEMIFINALS
CAPPS (4.201, 291.26) def. GRAY (4.925, 169.44)
J. Force (4.234, 292.08) def. Arend (4.253, 281.19)

FINALS:
J. Force (4.218, 296.57) def. Ron Capps (4.223, 296.50)

WEATHER.COM FORECAST
SUNDAY: High 92 degrees; 10 percent chance of rain

THIS WEEKEND’S EVENT SCHEDULE
Sunday: Championship eliminations, 11 a.m. (CT)

ON ESPN2
SUNDAY: Re-air of qualifying with Traxxas Shootout, 1 p.m.; Final Eliminations, 8:30 p.m. (all times ET)

About Valvoline
Valvoline, a brand of Ashland Inc., has been serving American motorists longer than any other motor oil. The Valvoline family of products includes Eagle One™ appearance products, Car Brite™ car restoration products, Zerex™ antifreeze, SynPower™ performance products, MaxLife™ products created for higher-mileage engines and NextGen™ motor oil, created with 50 percent recycled oil.
With more than 820 locations throughout the United States, Valvoline Instant Oil Change™ is a leader in serving the quick lube market.

About Don Schumacher Racing
Don Schumacher Racing, headquartered in Brownsburg, Ind., consists of seven professional NHRA teams: in Top Fuel, the U.S. Army dragster driven by seven-time world champion Tony Schumacher, the FRAM/Prestone dragster of Spencer Massey and the Matco Tools dragster of Antron Brown; and in Funny Car, 2011 NHRA Funny Car champion Matt Hagan in the Aaron’s Dream Machine/Mopar Dodge Charger R/T, Valvoline NextGen Dodge piloted by Jack Beckman, the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge of Ron Capps and the Service Central Dodge of Johnny Gray. DSR has won 192 NHRA national event titles and nine world championships.

Follow Don Schumacher Racing at ShoeRacing.com, on Twitter at @shoeracing and Facebook.com/shoeracing.

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