How would you describe the perfect race weekend?

A race win? Consistency? A national record? Huge ground made up in the championship standings? How about all four. In the same weekend. By one team.

That was the weekend in a nutshell for Jack Beckman and crew chief Jimmy Prock, as Beckman blasted to a new Funny Car national record of 3.921-seconds in the Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger R/T for Don Schumacher Racing and collected the win all while tying the record for the most points scored in a single race weekend during the 28th annual NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway.

Beckman was quickest in seven of his eight passes during the weekend to earn his fifth Wally of 2015 and the 20th victory of his career on a historical afternoon that saw all four number one qualifiers visit the winners circle. Sunday’s other NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series winners were Antron Brown (Top Fuel), Chris McGaha (Pro Stock) and Eddie Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle).

“Everything about this win makes it extra special. Getting that trophy at the end of the day is satisfaction that your team did everything better than everyone else that day. I will qualify 16th if we can get the trophy. As it turns out, we got the trophy and qualified first and set the national record,” Beckman said. “That is icing, on top of icing, on top of the cake. It couldn’t have been any better.”

Beckman completed the weekend sweep with a victory over Tommy Johnson Jr. on Sunday, finishing off the historic race with a 4.037-second pass at 310.63 mph to collect his fifth win of 2015. Johnson had a slight starting line advantage, but conceded the win by the 60-foot mark as Beckman blasted by for his second win in a row. Johnson had a 4.073 at 308.99 mph in his third final of the year.

With the national record, number one qualifier award, quickest lap bonuses and race win, Beckman compiled 147 points in one race weekend to narrow the gap between himself and his championship-leading DSR teammate Matt Hagan from 145 points down to just 57 points with three races remaining before the Countdown. 

“Prock is the favorite for the championship and I get to drive his car,” Beckman said. “Matt Hagan and Dickie Venables have been the class of the field all year. We were very fortunate this weekend. We made up a lot of points in qualifying, we made up 20 for the national record and they got beat in the second round, so we made up 90 points.You don’t do that on a car of that caliber in one race, but it happened here this weekend. You could just as easily lose them the next race, but we feel good about where we are right now.”

Beckman, who had five passes in the three-second zone during the weekend including the two quickest passes in NHRA Funny Car history, made easy work of the competition during eliminations on Sunday. Beckman recorded wins over Tony Pedregon, Chad Head and Robert Hight to reach the final, before eliminating Johnson in the deciding round. Beckman had laps of 3.993, 3.979, 4.037 and 4.037 on Sunday, quickest in each session.

Add in his 3.921-second pass Friday night, a new NHRA 1,000 foot national record, and even much heralded crew chief Jimmy Prock was taken aback by the extreme success of the car this weekend.

“We have been working on some stuff and it has obviously made us much faster,” Prock said. “And to be honest, I wasn’t doing a very good job of predicting what this car could run. You analyze all of your data and I always look at it like, if you can guess it, you know you are doing good. As stuff has improved over the years, we are getting better at being able to control the variables and predict what these cars are going to do.

“I missed it Friday night. I didn’t try to run for the record, but the thing left so good that it ran three hundredths better than we were trying to run. I knew it was running good, but when I saw it, I have to admit I was surprised.”

But it wasn’t all fun and games for the Infinite Hero Foundation team. In the first round against Pedregon, Beckman felt the car may run into trouble and his prediction almost came true.

“In the first round, I get in the car and I always go over everything. I make sure I am tightened in right, make sure the car is in the correct gear, I check all of the linkages and everything else on it. So when I go to touch the reverse lever and it goes forward more than I remember, I called my clutch guy over and he looks at it, but we didn’t have time to dig in there,” Beckman said. “I got on the radio with Jimmy and I told him I think we have a problem. I told him I am going to do a short burnout so that if I can’t get it in reverse, they can push me back.

“I did the burnout, went into reverse and then I thought, I hope it goes into forward. When I put it in forward, there was no positive stop. All 10,000 foot pounds of torque goes through the reversers and they are not that beefy and they can explode on you, but you have to blank that out of your mind.

“When we got it back to the pits, that thing was about ready to break. That was a lucky break for us. We could have been done first round, but boy did it turn out just fine.”

With wins at the last two races, Beckman will travel to Seattle next week with a chance to sweep the famed NHRA Western Swing, becoming only the second Funny Car driver and eighth overall driver in the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series to accomplish that feat.

So does Beckman feel that he is the favorite next week in Seattle? Just ask him.

“I am a fan, so I am going to give you the fan perspective instead of the driver perspective. I think you would be a fool not to consider our car the favorite,” Beckman said. “Our performance has been stellar the last two races. But these cars have a 10-foot wheelbase and 10,000 horsepower and are hard to predict. But I like our chances.”

Either way, with Jimmy Prock on his side, Beckman feels there is nothing this team can’t accomplish the remainder of this year.

“It is easy to get nervous when you are racing against Jimmy Prock. But the other side of it is when you are driving for Jimmy Prock, it is easy to let that pressure and expectation get to you,” Beckman said. “I have to do my best, to do my best.”

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