Beckman Dallas Saturday report

JACK BECKMAN THRILLED WITH SIXTH STARTING-SPOT FOR AAA TEXAS NHRA FALL NATIONALS

Jack Beckman in his Aarons / Valvoline Dodge Charger

Photo by: Ted Rossino

ENNIS, TEXAS, September 24, 2011 – Jack Beckman will drive into Sunday’s 26th-annual AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals here at the Texas Motorplex confident of his chances due to today’s performance of his Aaron’s Dream Machine/Valvoline NextGen Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car in the final two rounds of qualifying.

The 45-year-old Don Schumacher Racing driver will come out of the sixth-starting spot to take on 11th-qualifier Tim Wilkerson in the first round of final eliminations beginning at 11 a.m. CDT.

“I feel really good about the Aaron’s/Valvoline Funny Car for tomorrow’s race because we were the quickest car in both rounds today under conditions which should be similar to race day ones,” he said. “I know the ‘official’ timing sheets do not show us with the quickest round in the third session, but the incremental numbers indicate otherwise and we know just how quick this car was.

“(The incremental sheets) show us with the slowest 60-foot times, but then we are quickest at almost every-other increment; this cannot happen. We believe it was a timing system glitch. Regardless, we wouldn’t have changed (qualifying) positions and we know what we did.”

Confidence is produced by two top-six runs Friday and the two runs today.

“Rahn Tobler (crew chief) and John Collins (assistant crew chief), who is celebrating a birthday today, are doing everything right,” said the two-time 2011 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series winner and number three in the Countdown to the Championship standings. “It’s so nice to see the look of satisfaction on their faces after each run.

“Today’s runs were under conditions which will be most like race day. Even though Tim says these are conditions he likes, I’ve got Rahn and John and I like OUR chances.”