Jack Beckman wins 4-Wide race, dominates in Charlotte

April 17

Jack Beckman drove the Aaron’s Dream Machine/Valvoline Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car to his first victory of the 2011 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season today in the 2^nd annual VisitMyrtleBeach.com NHRA 4-Wide Nationals, thus continuing his success here at zMAX Dragway.

Beckman won the inaugural race at the Bellagio of drag strips in September 2008 and went to the finals last October at the fall race here. His overall round record in North Carolina is 12-3.

“Obviously, I like racing in North Carolina,” said the California native who picked up his 10^th professional victory. “Rahn (Tobler, crew chief) and the guys gave me the ‘baddest’ hot rod all weekend, which meant I was really an ‘Aaron’s lucky dog.’ It was so good, I didn’t have to drive the car as much as take care of staging properly and then going down the track.”

 “Fast Jack” lived up to his nickname, setting the standard in all three rounds of this unique racing configuration (four cars simultaneously running; the two best advancing) with both best elapsed time and top speed.

An opening round 4.079-second lap at 313.66 miles per hour allowed him to advance with Mike Neff into the second round. He moved into the final session, thanks to a 4.103/312.57 mph run, along with Bob Tasca from his foursome and then wrapped up his first win of 2011 with a 4.120/309.65-final against Tasca, Tim Wilkerson and Jim Head.

“To get a win is awesome! I drive for Don Schumacher and we get the best of everything, including the best people working on this car, led by Rahn, and everything came together today,” offered the 44-year-old.racer. “I also have to thank Robin Loudermilk and Ken Butler of Aaron’s for joining us this year and for their support of our team and our sport.

“Like what they told Antron (Brown, DSR Top Fuel teammate) who put the Aaron’s Dream Machine/Matco Tools dragster into the winner’s circle at the last race for the first time in drag racing, ‘nobody beats Aaron’s,’ so now it was my turn to deliver.”

Beckman was not shocked by today’s results, based upon the qualifying sessions.

“We came off the trailer Friday and put down a solid run (4.110/307.93), so we swung for the fences in the second one, where we spun the tires. On Saturday, we came out, ran a 4.074 at 314.02 mph, and took a homerun swing in the final qualifying round, again spinning the tires.

“But this gave us great data for today’s race and, of course, I can’t wait to continue and get to the next one.”

Today’s victory allowed Beckman to jump to third (from sixth) in the 2011 NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car championship standings as the series moves to Texas for the April 29-May 1 24^th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals at Royal Purple Raceway.

“This car is not done winning races this year,” he said. “This was not a fluke. “