Photos by NHRA, Ron Lewis, Mike Burghardt
Jack Beckman relished his win at the In-N-Out NHRA Finals because, as he recalled from his 2019 NHRA Finals triumph, “The Finals are the Finals, and the winner can say, ‘We were the baddest on race day.all winter long”
And while his teammate Austin Prock had a mean machine throughout qualifying and the first three rounds, it was Beckman, driving John Force’s PEAK Funny Car, in the end, who lifted the trophy in the air for the 35th time in his career.
The two-time NHRA champion with nearly 500 round wins to his credit rolled out of Pomona with bragging rights heading into next season, if there is a next season for him. If not, Beckman came into what many could consider a tough situation and essentially completed the objective put before him in August.
Beckman had eight races to accrue potentially a 17th NHRA Championship for John Force, his longtime idol. While he came up short in that task, the mission was considered a success. He finished in second place in championship points behind Prock and scored two national event victories.
“Still somewhat surreal for several different reasons,” Beckman said. “I’m 58-years-old now. I’m not the guy I was when I was 30, that paid to drive some shaky cars, and this is all I wanted to do. I was single and had a house payment, but I had no other commitments. I could throw everything I had at drag racing.
“I still love the sport. My perspective and arc and life is at a different point. Right now, I’m working a full-time job as an elevator repairman. When I started driving professionally, I worked at Frank Hawley’s full-time as a drag race instructor, but what we did is altered my work schedule so I no longer did the vehicle maintenance. I only came in on teaching days. So that quickly went to a part-time job and it was directly related to the industry. Elevator repair and driving a Nitro Funny Car don’t have much stuff in common, making it seem a little bit surreal.”
Beckman received the call from team president Robert Hight a little over five months before the NHRA Finals, inquiring if he’d like to help Force and use the NHRA’s eight-race substitute driver policy. Once Beckman checked the boxes of his current employer and Force’s sponsors, he accepted the challenge of filling in for the most prolific drag racer the sport has ever entertained.
“These eight races might be all I get, and if it is, it’s been unbelievable,” Beckman said. “I got to come back, I got to drive for John Force, and I got to win another race. Whether it goes on into 2025, I have my fingers crossed. And if you ask my vote, my vote is yes on that. But if it doesn’t, I got a second bite at the apple, and it went great.”
“When I was younger I had a friend that often would say, ‘It is what it is,” Beckman continued, “I hated that response because I thought everything’s about free will. You’ve got a choice; you can make things happen. As I’ve got older, I’ve learned to embrace that saying it is what it is. I can’t go back in time.”
If there’s one thing Beckman could go back in time to change, it would have been the Texas NHRA FallNationals. It wasn’t that he failed to qualify or lost the first round. Beckman suffered a severe case of vertigo, one that he tried to ride out.
“When I opened my eyes up Sunday morning, and the room was spinning, I knew I was screwed, and I just watched the clock tick down, and I kept getting worse and worse and finally went to the emergency room,” Beckman admitted. “And to know you let the team down and to know you had a car that could have won the race, but I can’t go back in time. So you pack up, and you move on, and the crew handled it with dignity and respect and friendship and kindness, and I couldn’t ask for anything more. And we’ve still got unfinished business this weekend.”
Beckman said he considered playing “hurt,” but as the time got closer for him to race, his body didn’t cooperate.
“Well, at 7:00 in the morning, I thought it was a noon start. I got five hours,” Beckman said. “Maybe I can ride this out, take some meclizine, all be okay. By 10:30, when it got worse, I knew it just wasn’t going to happen. I couldn’t walk to the door. It took till 1:30 until Christine was able to drag me out of the room, walk me to the rental car, and drive me to the emergency room. That’s literally how bad it was. I could not function, so there was no thinking, ‘I’ll push harder.”
But when one looks at his record over the eight races, Beckman clearly made the most of his opportunity. He reached the final round in three of the eight races, and finished the season with an 18-6 round win record. Coincidently, before Force suffered his injuries in the NHRA Virginia Nationals crash, he’d also reached the final round in three races and compiled an 18-7 record in nine events.
Beckman said he’s thankful for the opportunity and even made it public by proclaiming to Force publicly, “If you’re asking about 2025, John … the answer is, ‘Yes!’”
While John Force Racing has never publicly stated Force’s future, Beckman would be a natural replacement for Force in 2025 if he cannot drive.
“This was incredibly satisfying and gratifying,” Beckman said. “To have another bite at the apple, to come out. I wasn’t trying to prove anything. I was getting an opportunity to drive my friend’s car and get back into the sport that I love and miss, and it worked out really good. We put this thing in the winner’s circle and did it again. I’m trying not to think too far ahead because it’s easy to set yourself up for disappointments by having over-expectations. And I’m also trying to be philosophical about this and recognize what this opportunity is and was and what we were able to do with it.”
