There’s no better elixir for an ill drag racer than winning. Battling the effects of the flu bug, Jack Beckman, driver of the Mail Terminal Services/Valvoline Dodge Charger drove his way to the winner’s circle by stopping a tire-smoking Robert Hight.

“Every round win is huge, especially when you have the flu and you’re staging next to Mike Neff,” said Beckman. “This whole crew has never worked together before this season. They stood up to the challenge and this is going to pay dividends at the end of the season.”

The Phoenix triumph marked the fourth national event victory for Beckman in six final round appearances. The dream continues to expand for Beckman, a cancer survivor who won a sportsman world championship and then gained the drivers seat of a Funny Car for Don Schumacher Racing.

 

There’s no better elixir for an ill drag racer than winning. Battling the effects of the flu bug, Jack Beckman, driver of the Mail Terminal Services/Valvoline Dodge Charger drove his way to the winner’s circle by stopping a tire-smoking Robert Hight.

“Every round win is huge, especially when you have the flu and you’re staging next to Mike Neff,” said Beckman. “This whole crew has never worked together before this season. They stood up to the challenge and this is going to pay dividends at the end of the season.”

The Phoenix triumph marked the fourth national event victory for Beckman in six final round appearances. The dream continues to expand for Beckman, a cancer survivor who won a sportsman world championship and then gained the drivers seat of a Funny Car for Don Schumacher Racing.

"I went through chemotherapy," said Beckman of his illness, "so I get a flu shot now every year, but I guess the flu this year is immune to that shot. I'm living proof. We drove the motor home out here (from North Hills, Calif.) and I had to make an appearance on Wednesday. You get up in the morning and you just feel like hell. I'm thinking it will go away tomorrow and it didn't. And you look at the back of the cold medicine and it says 'do not operate heavy machinery.' I don't know if that counts as a Nitro Funny Car. I didn't want to take anything, but after the second round I finally had to take some Tylenol. It was just getting hot in that thing. I'm glad it wasn't a 95-degree day in the summer. We would have been in big trouble.”

Beckman admitted he wasn’t completely at his best during a day that clearly showcased his talents as a driver.

"Your head's kind of fuzzy all day long and we went out there and won the semis and I told (announcer) Alan Reinhart at the top end, Ooh, great, we're going to the semifinal,” admitted Beckman. “I couldn't even keep track of winning two or three rounds there. And it's a little bit surreal because of that, but more so because of what the crew was able to pull off on this deal.”

The fact Beckman and his team have advanced past the first round in two races, much less win rounds is impressive considering the huge obstacle they faced entering the season.

"In the off season Jerry Toliver came on board as another Schumacher car and basically the Valvoline/MTS car started from scratch,” said Beckman. “We had an empty trailer, bare chassis and a crew that had never worked together as a group of nine. And they assembled everything, ordered new tools for it, re-stocked the trailer, put new motors together, so they hadn't torn a car apart as a team until we came here for the test session, and I think it was nice to get 12 runs here in the test session. My God, are they jelling now. Two races into it we've already gotten to the winner's circle."

With the victory, he extended his winning streak against Robert Hight to two. He last beat Hight in a final round during the 2005 NHRA Las Vegas Nationals in Las Vegas, less than five races after replacing Whit Bazemore.

Beckman knew today was his day, but he’s not so naïve that he believes the team is above the adverse fate he predicts will visit the leading teams on the tour.

"I don't think there's a Funny Car driver or team owner here that would get arrogant or try to make any predictions for this year," Beckman said. "It's going to be a dog fight all year long. You've got 21 teams showing up for most of the races. Everybody who qualifies is tough. Look at us, we squeaked in the 15th spot and had a good car on race day. If you can get in, you can win. And I just think this year you're going to see a whole lot of big names on the DNQ list, and we're going to start sharing the wins amongst all the teams here.”

The victory moved Beckman into the second round in points, 27 behind Hight.