Jack Beckman and the PEAK SQUAD took a difficult path to victory in last year’s Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by PEAK so they’re working toward a much smoother route to winner’s circle in this year’s May 15-17 event at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill.
“The big races to win are typically your hometown race, milestone events, the U.S. Nationals and, and the Pomona races. They’re the legendary races,” Beckman said. “But I also put right up there winning your sponsor’s event because their name goes on the trophy at the end of the day, too. When you win at your sponsor’s event, and your sponsor is a company like PEAK and Old World Industries, where all the employees understand the culture of the product that they’re selling, it’s something special. We had so many PEAK employees show up to the race last year. It wasn’t mandatory. They wanted to be there and they were there at the end of the day with the team in winner’s circle holding that trophy up. It’s really hard to think of many better weekends that I’ve had driving a race car than to do it with that PEAK SQUAD surrounding us.”
The PEAK Chevrolet SS was hit with multiple mechanical gremlins in qualifying and traction issues in eliminations during last year’s event. But it all came together in the final round against then-teammate and reigning Funny Car Champion Austin Prock.
Beckman won on a holeshot, cutting a .049 light to Prock’s .063, and taking the win a run of 3.935 seconds at 325.77 mph to his teammate’s quicker run of 3.933 seconds at 329.02 mph. It was Beckman’s 37th NHRA Funny Car career victory.
“It really looked like it was a scripted weekend for the PEAK SQUAD,” said Beckman. “We qualified number one, we win the race. It’s an absolute storybook description but it misses a lot of the details. It was an unusual event in that the quickest qualifying runs didn’t come on Friday, they came on Saturday. We were sitting mid-pack when we came up for the first Saturday run and we go right to the top with a 3.85. We thought it might even be a little bit quicker for the last qualifying run. We go up to the line and our car won’t start. The crew did a number of quick checks but couldn’t find the issue. We eventually found a broken air fitting that disarmed the ignition system. But the silver lining there is it happening qualifying, not on race day.
“Race day comes and the car won’t start in the morning warmup,” Beckman added.” It’s a different issue in the ignition system. We replace the box and now we’ve dodged a couple of bullets. We win 1st round and then smoke the tires in the second round but were still able to win. The car smoked the tires again in the semis but I pedaled it and we got the win. Then we close it with a holeshot win over our teammate, Austin Prock, the defending Funny Car champion and that’s as good as it gets. As a driver, it feels unbelievable to give back to a team that’s given you a fast car all year long because it’s typically the car that wins the race. We bookended qualifying number one and that amazing final round victory with a lot of nail biting.”
Beckman currently sits eighth in points, just 30 points behind Spencer Hyde.
Two rounds of qualifying will be contested at 1:30 and 4:00 p.m. CT on Friday, May 15, and two more rounds of qualifying on Saturday, May 16 at 12:00 and 2:30 p.m. CT. Eliminations will begin at 11:00 a.m. CT on Sunday, May 17.
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