"Fast" Jack Beckman, driver of the Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car, and his wife Jenna hosted 18 second-graders from the local Heritage Elementary School, of Phelan, Calif., on Friday at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. The students were on a field trip with their teacher and local drag racer Joy Linehan. In preparation for their first visit to an NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series national event (this weekend's CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals), they were asked by Ms. Linehan to provide questions for 2003 Super Comp champion Beckman and his wife Jenna, also a Super Comp racer who is expecting the couple's first child on March 28. Beckman, the quickest and fastest Funny Car pilot on the planet after posting national-track records of 4.662 seconds and 333.66 mph at last year's finale here in Pomona, is also an instructor at Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School at the Auto Club Raceway, a cancer survivor, and former Air Force sergeant.

"What a wonderful group," said Beckman. "I tell you, you can't mess up an interview with a second-grader. They're curious, they're great with the questions. They had some fairly technical ones, but they're usually pretty easy to answer. But the cool thing too was their parents all came out and chaperoned them and I think they had as good a time or better than the kids did.

"The kids had never been to a drag race. They knew their teacher raced and coming out here and seeing all the big cars I think made their teacher 10 feet taller in their eyes. So, it was a really neat experience.

"Their teacher had given them talking points. They sent me a bundle of letters with questions from the class. Like, 'What is it like to go 300 mph? Can you see in the race car? We can't wait to meet your wife Jenna. Who wins more races, you or your wife?' So Jenna did 70 percent of the interview with them, because when they first arrived I was busy. "The absolute first question they asked Jenna was, 'Are you pregnant?' Yes, I am,' she said."

Jenna's pregnancy was a big surprise to the couple, who were married last November after Jack received a clean bill of health following chemotherapy for lymphoma.

"After the chemo I was told that that was never going to happen," said Beckman. "And the oncologist said, 'You know, sometimes that will come back,' and I was tested twice and it was nothing. So, it was a big surprise to both of us. We are so excited. "We don't want to know if it's a boy or a girl. After going through the chemo I don't care. I just want a healthy child. We figured, with a new job, a full-time ride, two national records, a win, getting married, that wasn't quite enough, so we're going to throw a kid into the mix," he laughed. "It's wonderful."