Tough Jack Beckman Tames Cancer
Top Fuel driver still has a lot on his agenda
By Matthew Brammer
Photos by Roger Richards

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Drag racing is actually a simple concept: step on the gas and try to get to the finish line first.

Teams spend millions of dollars trying to perfect the art, but when the starting lights come on, there is one ingredient all the money in the world can’t buy. It's not ceramic engine parts, Teflon-infused heads, titanium rods or gold-plated spark plug wires. No computer program or even years of training can provide the one elusive thing that every racer longs for: luck. Whether it’s holding your mouth right, rubbing your belly three times before donning the fire suit, or eating carrots before every run down the track – whatever brings luck, racers long for it.

Some get it, some can’t get a break, but for Jack Beckman, luck is his life story. It might be attributed to his positive attitude, his determined approach or his infectious smile, but, whatever the source, he will tell you himself, he’s got it.

“I’ve got purpose, I’ve got joy, and I’m pretty damn lucky,” Beckman admitted, trying to summarize his life. As he starts his first year as a Top Fuel driver, those unfamiliar with his life story might simply agree.

But “Lucky,” isn’t how most would describe a man who lost his mother to cancer and eventually was told he only had a 45-60 percent chance to live because of the cancer in his own body. Then again, Jack Beckman is different than most. He has taken the curves of life and straightened them out into an amazing and inspiring lesson about life, perseverance, and love.

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The story

At around 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, November 8, 2003, at the 39th annual Auto Club of Southern California NHRA finals in Pomona, California, Beckman cut an .016-second light and clinched the Super Comp championship by beating Bill Smith in a double-breakout win: 8.877 (-.023) to 8.872 (-.028). By a couple of inches, he won the title. Although he was denied the double win – winning the crown and the event – by Rod Fuller in Round 6 of eliminations, Beckman was on Cloud Nine.

The euphoria lasted only for a few months. In May, 2004, Jack heard the words from his doctor that every person fears, “You’ve got cancer.”

The average person would think that luck was running thin, and even Beckman wondered if he was on the receiving end of a cruel joke.

“I win the championship in the last race of 2003, and then boom, I get cancer,” he said. “There’s no way that you can’t think, ‘Man, what, was God giving me one last hurrah or something?’ ”

Beckman’s diagnosis was bleak. He said, “I had what they call high grade level 3B lymphoma, and it was pretty pervasive throughout my body. One doctor told me the survival rate for that type of cancer is about 80% and another one said it’s about 50 to 65%. I liked the first doctor better.”

Determined to keep his trademark positive attitude throughout his treatment, Beckman forged ahead. Having lost his mother to cancer several years earlier, he was familiar with the process of trying to beat it. He was surprised, however, about the outpouring of support and the multitude of stories he was told about friends and family members who had beaten cancer.

“I didn’t realize that, even though my mother died of cancer, how many people have had cancer. My mom was overweight and she was a smoker – so there were definitely a lot of high-risk lifestyle factors. I thought ‘I’ll never get cancer.’ I was young, I was healthy.

“It's mind boggling, but I guess it's kind of encouraging that so many people have had cancer and have lived through it. It's beatable,” he said.

Beckman admitted that sometimes, his luck doesn’t always come through and things don’t always make sense. “The doctors said my cancer was just a dumb-luck thing – that there was no reason for me to get it. Maybe I was genetically pre-disposed, but there are people who are disposed to other things that never happen, so what is it that suppressed my immune system that allowed me to get cancer? I don’t know—was it working out and taking creatine once in a while? Was it sleeping in on the weekends? Was it that I microwave a bunch of my food? I don’t know.”

Trying to come to terms with his situation, he applied his positive attitude to the facts to come up with a plan.

“It really changes your perspective on stuff,” he said.

“All of a sudden I found out I had a 46-60 percent chance to live. One inclination was to just say ‘screw it’ and take all my money and go spend it on all the things I’d always wanted to do, but there was a part of me that knew I was going to live.

“Honest to God – I just couldn’t see myself dying. That’s the truth,” he said.

Faced with making a decision about treatment, Beckman had to put things into terms he could understand. “It’s a percentage thing, really. Like, if your car starts making a noise, you can change the oil, you’ve done something! Maybe that’s not the highest percentage deal to keep it running for a long time though; maybe it's time to pop a valve cover and take a look, or have some machine work done.

“For me, the chemotherapy was the highest percentage shot at beating it. I can’t imagine it’s a good thing to pump your body full of poison for six months, but I think that the ultimate cure for cancer is for you not to get cancer.”

He continued, “I think, once you’ve got cancer, it’s too late to think, ‘Gosh, maybe I should be eating some ragweed once a day for six months.’ It’s permeated your body so much, it’s too late to plug the leak in the dam with your thumb.

“Ultimately the goal is for nobody to get cancer,” he said.

Beckman said that the support he received during his ensuing chemotherapy treatments was inspiring and humbling. As he endured, he was encouraged by everyone from friends and fans to doctors and sponsors – even the Jeg’s Foundation for Cancer Research got involved to help him through his pain.

According to Jeg’s Director of Media, Scott “Woody” Woodruff, “A racer like Jack Beckman who has and is battling cancer showed the public this could happen to anyone. He demonstrated a commitment to beat cancer and be a survivor. Jack's way to help is to show people an example. Here’s this guy who races a big and bad Top Fuel car and he is dealing with cancer. He doesn't let it rule him. He wants to win the battle.

“Mind over matter, keeping a positive attitude and never giving up - that's what it's all about. The racing community as a whole has been extremely supportive of the cause, and everyone who puts the race-theme ribbon on their vehicles is helping to create awareness and breaking down the barriers to win the battle over cancer.”

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'Just do something'

Beckman said, “I’m a big supporter of the Jeg’s Foundation. I told Jeg Jr., ‘your efforts will save lives. There’s no question about that. You will absolutely save lives with the difference you’ve made.’

“Before I had cancer, I had probably donated $50 to cancer research. Now, I’ll give $5,000 and not even think about it. Every little bit helps,” he said.

Beckman likens cancer research to advances in drag-racing technology. “The only way people make advances is if one person takes a chance or tries something – and then other people and crew chiefs build on it. Everyone does their little bit, and collectively the sport gets faster, quicker, better. It’s the same in cancer research. It takes money for people to make a small one percent advance, and eventually, combined, they will make an enormous gain. We have to support the research so people will build on what they already know – and then one day, there won’t be cancer.

“It doesn’t matter what you do – just do something,” he said.

Chemotherapy had its usual effect on Beckman, although it was not as debilitating for him as it is for some. He lost weight and all his hair, and he did suffer nausea after his sessions. He said the treatments caused him to miss only a few days of work as an instructor at Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School.

“I only missed two races and two days of work,” he recalled, “I was so lucky I tolerated the chemo so well. And its not because I’m superman, I’m lucky. People think I’m amazing the way I’ve dealt with this – but, you don’t have a choice. The chemo didn’t scare me because it was my best chance of living.

“My health is probably what saved my life because they could knock the shit out of me with the chemo and I was in good enough shape to withstand it,” he said.

Beckman had his eighth and final chemotherapy treatment on October 25, 2004, after which he was informed by doctors that they had been successful and his cancer was in remission.

According to Beckman, however, he is far from being out of the woods. Every pain he feels, every sneeze or cough is cause for concern for the Top Fuel racer. “The next two to five years will be critical,” he said. “With no relapse in this that period, my long-term survival chances go way up.

“I imagine it’s a lot like throwing a rock in the water deal, where the farther you go out, the ripples subside some, I’m hoping that as I get a few years out, a stomach pain will be much less than me freaking out again. Every cold, every ache and pain I get, if I inexplicably loose a few pounds, it scares the shit out of me.

Beckman admits, “I’m afraid of everything now. I used to eat pretty healthy and work out a lot, but, I’ll give you an example – I’m scared to use the microwave anymore. You might think its crazy but for me its not. Strapping myself into a 330-mile per hour car is easy, but I’m scared of a simple microwave oven.”

For Beckman, surviving cancer has given him a different outlook on life and appreciation for friends and fans.

“I’ve got lots of people who have looked out for me in this deal. It’s nice to know that people want to help. People come up to me and say, ‘I wanted to do something for you and I feel bad that I’m not able to.’

“I say to them, ‘The fact that you just came up and said something to me and that you were thinking about me is everything you ever need to do for me. You don’t need to make me food and come over and help me clean the house.’ It’s just the spiritual and mental part of knowing that you have people who want you to stick around. That’s what’s important,” he said.

Just as he was getting the good news about his condition, Beckman’s string of good luck continued. He was chosen as the driver of Dexter Tuttle’s Menards/MTS Top Fuel dragster, fulfilling a goal he set for himself as a young teenager.

“My life goal, apart from being a rock star singer and a jet fighter pilot, has always been to drive a Top Fuel car – and not just drive but I want to win 14 times, because John Force has set the benchmark. There are a lot of things I still want to do,” he said.

Most of all, he wants to make a difference with the opportunities he has been given. On the track, his goal is to win. Off the track, he wants to save lives and teach people about cancer prevention.

Beckman said, “I’ll give you an example of people who make a difference. My girlfriend, Jenna Lucy, decided she is going to run a marathon – not because she’s a runner but because she’s running to raise money in the Long Beach Marathon for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in October. Eventually the fact that she ran 26 miles might save someone’s life because of the money she is raising.

“For me, it all comes down to doing the best with what you’ve been given. That’s what I try to do,” he said.

During a recent follow up appointment with his doctors, Beckman was told that his cancer remains in remission. “That’s the news all cancer survivors hope to hear,” he said. “They told me to come back in three months, which is a big relief since I’ve been going to the doctor every month since my chemotherapy treatments ended. You never forget that you had cancer, but it’s nice to be able to put it in the back of your mind for a while.”

Now he can take his mind off of cancer and focus on one of the things he loves – winning races, and with Beckman’s luck, he’ll be doing that in Top Fuel very soon.   

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