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BECKMAN EYES SECOND STRAIGHT WIN IN ATLANTA
Cancer survivor is halfway to reaching his goal to raise funds for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

NORCO, Calif. (May 12, 2010) - Jack Beckman returns to Atlanta Dragway this weekend for the 30th annual NHRA Southern Nationals as the 2009 event champion. And, following his runner-up finish at the last NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series race in St. Louis two weeks ago, he and the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger Funny Car team are on a solid path to repeat.

"We started the year hot, right on (points leader) John Force's heels after winning in Phoenix. The way Force is running this year (three wins), to be on his heels must mean you're running good," said Beckman, who is ranked third, one point behind his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan in second, and 152 back of Force.

"And then we really faltered at a couple of the hotter tracks, Houston and Vegas. We changed some things and in St. Louis it appeared that the car that we were used to was back. But one race doesn't break or make a team, especially with the Countdown format.

"It kind of affords us the luxury of trying a couple of things that in the past under an absolute points system we wouldn't have necessarily done. That being said, we're going to be competing in nine races in the next 11 weeks, so the goal is not to get too far off track or you're going to find yourself out of the top 10. There's just not going to be the time to test and get a combo back if you stray too far.

"After a final round showing in St. Louis we're very very optimistic that the Valvoline/MTS Dodge is now responding the way we want it to and we should be back in top-contender form in Atlanta."

A cancer survivor, Beckman has been on a 10-week campaign to raise funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. "Right now, I'm about half way to my goal, which is to raise $50,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society," he said. "And, we've got three weeks left in the campaign which comprises two more of the NHRA races. So, I'm really hoping that the race fans get behind this program, and if enough people do, I know I can exceed my goal by a healthy amount.

"What I need is bodies to commit to this. The fans can either come by the Valvoline/MTS pit area to make donations or they can just log onto my web site - www.gofastjack.com - and click on the 'donation' link and send something in.

"I'm not asking people to give hundreds of dollars. Certainly we've had donors who have given $100-200 and that's great. What I'm really looking to do is get thousands of people to give $10 or $20. I really think that's the ultimate way that we're going to raise cancer research dollars and save some lives."

Mail Terminal Services will continue to send boxes of post cards of support and encouragement, along with hand-out cards of DSR drivers, National Dragster and Drag Racing Action magazines to soldiers overseas. This year the program expands the opportunity to participate beyond just the NHRA fans and are including schools and service organizations. If a school or organization would like to write post cards of encouragement to the U.S. troops, the request should be sent to mts.mfh@gmail.com. MTS will be pleased to send post cards for the project and signed handout cards from Funny Car driver Jack Beckman and a Certificate of Service for the school or organization.

To find out more about Mail Terminal Services go to www.mailterminals.com

BECKMAN QUALIFIES NO. 6 IN ATLANTA

COMMERCE, Ga. (May 15, 2010) - Jack Beckman drove the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger Funny Car into No. 6 during qualifying for the 30th annual NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway.

Following a DNS (did not start) in the opening qualifying session because of a broken throttle cable at the starting line, Beckman was the first qualifier to take to the 1000-foot drag strip in the Friday evening session, just as the temperatures were beginning to cool down. He drove the Valvoline/MTS Dodge straight down the track to record a solid 4.168-second pass at 297.35, which placed him No. 1 every so briefly. As temperatures continued to drop, he was relegated to No. 6 by the end of that day.

He held on to that spot through two more rounds of qualifying today, posting a 4.255/293.22 in the heat of the day, then a tire-smoking 6.696/100.97. Ambient temperatures were hovering close to the 90-degree-mark both days and the track temperatures were inching close to 130 degrees.

"We had a throttle cable break on the first run," he said, "and there's two ways to look at that: a bad break or, the way we're choosing to look at it, good luck that it didn't happen Sunday in eliminations.

"We do preventive maintenance on those, and we have no idea why that one broke. The Valvoline/MTS crew is blaming my big right foot for it," he said with a laugh.

"So, we actually made two pretty good runs that we're really happy with. We tried to pick it up a hundredth (of a second) on that last run and the track was worse. We wanted to see what we could get away with on race day and now we know what's too much."

Beckman will race his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan in the opening round of Sunday's eliminations. "We're pretty confident," he said. "The only downside is we hate racing teammates first round. We can't control what happens, but we at DSR all want to end up in favorable qualifying spots so we can't meet first round.

"I love Matt Hagan, just not for about five minutes tomorrow.

BECKMAN LANDS IN HIS SECOND SEMIFINAL OF YEAR IN ATLANTA

COMMERCE, Ga. (May 16, 2010) - No. 6 qualifier Jack Beckman, driver of the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger Funny Car, advanced to his second semifinal round of the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series today at the 30th annual NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway.

First, he defeated his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan in the opening round, with a 4.219-second pass at 299.46 mph to Hagan's 5.082/144.30. He stepped it up to dismiss his other DSR teammate Ron Capps in the quarterfinal with a 4.202/298.67 in an oddball starting-light scenario (see below), then met his demise against eventual event winner Robert Hight in the semifinal stanza.

Both were close in reaction times, but Hight had the edge, which he kept to the finish, defeating Beckman with a 4.197/297.55 to Beckman's losing 4.249/294.95.

"This is the second race in a row where we ran well and Hight's car ran better," said Beckman, who was runner-up to Hight at the last event in St. Louis. "And the way that we will overcome that is by continuing to run well. We're not going to try to take home-run swings when we're not comfortable with it.

"A couple of races ago we made some big changes in the tune-up and we're still picking away at that, and we're still trying to be smart about our decisions. It is far better to get slightly outrun than to go out there and smoke the tires trying to get too aggressive, because, even if we get outrun, we learn something from the run. If you smoke the tires you have no idea how much to back it down for the next track and the next race.

"At least now (crew chief) Rahn Tobler and the rest of the Valvoline/MTS team feel like we're talking to the car and it's responding the right way to us.

"We've got one more race on this chassis in Topeka. This was the very first in-house DSR chassis built, and it's been really good to us. We'd love to retire it a winner, and we're going to replace it with a virtually identical car in Chicago.

"The last two races we've had a semifinal and a final round and there's no reason to think we can't go close the deal in Topeka."

As for the .199 reaction time against Capps in the second round, "Both Ron and I got caught by a long tree," he said. "Neither of us is going to make excuses for it. NHRA extended the random delay-to-tree activation a couple of years ago and, for whatever reason, we both caught ourselves easing off the brake and starting to go down on the throttle. And, like Ron said, he red-lit and the tree just saved him. I stopped the car when the tree came on and it made me late.

"I'm over it; I was over it the very next round. The lesson there is you react. It's not called a thinking time, it's called a reaction time. And the crew won that round for me. I hope in Topeka I can pay them back four times."

Next up is the 22nd annual NHRA Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka, Kan., May 21-23.