Driving the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet Camaro SS on behalf of sidelined icon John Force is a job for which Jack Beckman never applied, but one for which he was made. After three events in the seat, he earned his best on-track result of the year, a runner-up to teammate Austin Prock last week.<\/p>\n
Out of the sport for the last three-and-a-half years, the 58-year-old Californian never expected to be back in the seat of a nitro Funny Car, especially not one with the pedigree of the Chevy in which he will resume his pursuit of a championship as Force\u2019s proxy in this week\u2019s 16th NHRA Carolina Nationals at zMax Dragway.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my wildest dreams, I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d ever get to drive for John Force Racing,\u201d Beckman said.\u00a0\u201cI still look at the PEAK Chevrolet and it takes a second to set in that I\u2019m driving John Force\u2019s race car.\u00a0I don\u2019t know how you put that into words.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2012 series champion, Beckman won 35 national events before sponsorship difficulties at the beginning of the global pandemic in 2020 left him without a ride. This compelled him to return to his former job as an elevator repairman.<\/p>\n
Despite the layoff, it hasn\u2019t taken him long to get back up to speed.\u00a0Although he will be making only his fourth start this weekend, he already has moved Force from sixth to third in the driver championship standings, 99 points behind pacesetting JFR teammate Austin Prock.<\/p>\n
Beckman has managed to pick up right where Force left off before the June crash at Richmond, Va., left him with a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) for which he is still recovering. After being ousted in the second round in his debut at Brainerd, Minn., the driving instructor and drag racing historian reached the semifinals of the Labor Day U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis and the finals of last week\u2019s playoff opener in Reading, Pa.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not John Force,\u201d said the man who first distinguished himself by winning an NHRA World Championship in the Super Comp class in 2003.\u00a0\u201cEvery driver\u2019s style is different; every car\u2019s footprint is different.\u00a0The more runs we can make with me driving, the better, but it\u2019s such a wonderful feeling to have so much confidence in a car every time we tow to the starting line.\u201d<\/p>\n
That confidence level should remain high this week on a track where the PEAK Chevrolet was No. 1 qualifier at five of the last seven races and on which he won four times.\u00a0It also is a track on which Beckman excelled during his time at Don Schumacher Racing, winning twice in the spring and once in the fall, and earning runner-up honors from a No. 1 start in his last Carolina Nationals appearance in 2019.<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on September 19, 2024. <\/p>\n
The post Jack Beckman Channels John Force at Carolina Nationals<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Driving the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet Camaro SS on behalf of sidelined icon John Force is a job for which Jack Beckman never applied, but one for which he was made. After three events in the seat, he earned his best on-track result of the year, a runner-up to teammate Austin Prock last week. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96039\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}