J.C. Beattie Jr.’s breakout season in Pro 632 received another major boost at the Summit Racing Equipment PDRA East Coast Nationals presented by FuelTech, where the progress he made at the season-opening Carolina Nationals rolled into a second consecutive win.
Beattie qualified No. 1 at the season opener and won the first two rounds at Darlington Dragway, and when the race continued at Darana Motorsports Park – Benson, NC on Thursday, he followed through to earn his first win in the class. Beattie extended his win streak by four rounds on Saturday, ultimately getting the win over a red-lighting David Cook Jr. in the final round. Beattie ran a 4.170 at 170.17 in his nitrous-fed ATI Performance Products ’18 Camaro, while Cook posted a quicker 4.163 at 168.87 after going .004 red.
“We’ve been around 632, paid our dues running with an N/A motor, and last year we just had stupid stuff learning the car,” Beattie said. “We have a total of about 60 runs on this car now between racing and testing, and it’s still a little bit of a work in progress. But we’ve got a great tuner, Dave Hanlon. We’ve got a great motor from Reher-Morrison. We’ve got Todd and Scott and the guys at the shop as well, doing the transmissions and converters. I’m always grabbing them, moving them all over the place. It all just came together, and two 660 Men is pretty awesome.”
Qualified No. 2, Beattie opened eliminations with a win over Kevin McCurdy, who was driving the same car that Jeff Melnick drove to the 2023 and 2025 world championships. Beattie ran a 4.151 at 174.14 to McCurdy’s 4.234. Beattie and second-round opponent Jason Ventura left the starting line together, but Beattie pulled ahead to win with a 4.206 at 169.98 to Ventura’s 4.231. With a bye run in the semis, Beattie launched and lifted to a 4.820 at 109.92.
While Beattie was fielding his own car, he was also managing a multi-car Jr. Dragster program that includes his son, 2024 Top Jr. Dragster world champion James Beattie III. That effort also netted the event win in Top Jr. Dragster with driver Kole Paone.
“We had four Juniors on the other side [of the pit] that we run with my son and Richard Tilghman’s two kids. I brought my girlfriend’s son down as well, so we ran a bunch of Juniors around the big car,” Beattie said. “We were able to win in Top Jr. as well with my girlfriend’s boy and then rack up another one with [the Pro 632 car]. Another goal was to win with one of the Juniors so we’ll take it. I’d sure love to be in a winner’s circle picture with my son in one of them, as would Richard with either of his kids. So that’s the next goal.”
Having already checked off the team’s goals of getting a No. 1 qualifier award and a win in Pro 632, Beattie is thrilled with the progress, but he’s not resting. He’s motivated to stay on top of the class as the series continues on next month at the PDRA Mid-Atlantic Showdown presented by Classic Graphix, May 21-23, at Virginia Motorsports Park.
“We just need to tighten the package up a little more,” Beattie said. “We didn’t qualify No. 1. We were right there and we think there’s a little bit left here and there. We’re picking at small numbers now. It kind of brings me back to my class racing when I’d run Stock, Super Stock, things like that, where you’re looking for thousandths, and that’s where we are. That’s what’s fun about 632. The top grouping, everybody’s right there. It’s a race four or five guys can win and I just wish some more people would put them together and come race with us because it’s fun. It’s a lot of fun.”
This story was originally published on April 20, 2026. 
The post J.C. Beattie Jr. Leaves PDRA East Coast Nationals With Two Pro 632 Wins first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
