BECKMAN SHOOTS VALVOLINE COMMERCIAL
In actuality, Beckman and the Don Schumacher Racing crew were shooting a commercial for the team’s primary sponsor Valvoline at the North Carolina facility in the shadow of Rockingham Speedway, the one-mile oval that hosts NASCAR events, among others.
"It was great," said Beckman, who is currently No. 8 in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car rankings. "I've never been to Rockingham before. Steve Earwood manages it and he gave us the total red-carpet treatment.
In the dark of night last Wednesday, Jack Beckman and the Valvoline/Mail
Terminal Services Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car team were spotted at Rockingham
Dragway secretly testing a new, trick Funny Car under the lights. Well, that's
one way to start a rumor.
In actuality, Beckman and the Don Schumacher
Racing crew were shooting a commercial for the team’s primary sponsor Valvoline
at the North Carolina facility in the shadow of Rockingham Speedway, the
one-mile oval that hosts NASCAR events, among others.
"It was great,"
said Beckman, who is currently No. 8 in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Funny Car rankings. "I've never been to Rockingham before. Steve Earwood manages
it and he gave us the total red-carpet treatment.
"All we did was two
short squirts in the same Valvoline/MTS car we've been running all year and we
dragged the parachutes on a couple of runs just to get that certain kind of
effect. It was really fun."
A veteran of commercial shoots as an
instructor at Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School, Beckman was prepared for the
late-night staging, and showed more concern for his crew. "I filmed a lot of TV
stuff at the drag racing school over the last 10 years," said Beckman, "so I had
a pretty good idea of how it worked. They wanted all night-time stuff so we
filmed from like 7:30 p.m. to just past midnight. But the crew got out there and
started setting up in the rain at 11 a.m., and didn't get out of there until 2
in the morning and then they had to take everything back to the shop. So, they
really had to do double duty there.
"They were shooting different camera
angles. It was very interesting in that I had to launch the car into a smoke
screen, which they generated with a big smoke-making machine. That is something
that I've done in other film shoots with the Super Comp dragster with a radio
talking to another instructor making sure everything was clear. I had never done
that in a nitro Funny Car before.
"And then they had some floodlights on
the car when I staged. So it was a little bit tough to see relative to what you
would expect in one of those cars.
"We did a lot of shots with the
engine off where they just pushed me back and forth and simulated what the crew
does when they lower the body and I pull up to stage. We also idled the car a
little over two minutes so they could get the effect of the exhaust coming out
of the pipes, with the crew simulating all the last-minute adjustments, dropping
the body down and pushing me forward and then pulling me straight back. So we
had to do three consecutive takes of that with the engine running. That was
interesting.
"It's only going to be a 15-second spot they say, so I think
they were concentrating mostly on the car and the crew. I think the theme is
something like 'Valvoline is the brand trusted by car guys,' and that 'More top
NHRA crew chiefs use Valvoline.' So I don't think there's going to be anything
of me in there."