Beckman reaches second round at Las Vegas

April 04

Jack Beckman in his Valvoline/Aaron’s Dream Machine Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car defeated Paul Lee in the first elimination round, but, despite an even better run in the second round, lost to red-hot Robert Hight’s Ford  today at the 12^th annual SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals here on The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

In the closest race of the round, Beckman ran 4.182-second/301.47mile-per-hour lap, while Hight countered with a 4.157/305.15 pass. He posted a 4.238/293.28 round in outrunning Lee, who recorded a 4.905/164.15 1,000-foot pass in the opening stanza.

“Warren Johnson, the sport’s all-time winning Pro Stock driver, once said that there are no bad wins and no good losses, but that being said, we are confident that our Valvoline/Aaron’s Dream Machine Dodge Charger Funny Car is a top-five machine,” said the 44-year-old Californian. “We are getting down the track with a chance to win every round, and we are sticking around Monday to test a few new ideas to make us even faster.

“With the playoff system in effect at the end of the schedule, you really need to average two elimination round wins, so we have some catching up to do, but everyone on the team believes we have the car to make a run at the championship.”

Beckman ended today seventh in the NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car championship standings with 172 points. The veteran driver is 117 points behind leader Robert Hight who won the Las Vegas race in a tight final round against Beckman’s Don Schumacher Racing teammate Johnny Gray.

The NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing series next moves east April 14-17 for the VisitMyrtleBeach.com NHRA Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Charlotte, N.C.