But now the prognosis looks good for the former sportsman veteran, who ended the 2006 season as the hottest driver on the POWERade Series circuit, winning one national event with one runner-up at the final two events. He also set Funny Car national records for E.T. (4.662 seconds) and speed (333.66).

Yes, these days it's very exciting to be Jack Beckman.

Jack Beckman is once again enjoying the ups and downs of drag racing

Thanksgiving is time for reflection and gratitude. No one understands that more than NHRA competitor Jack Beckman, who is very thankful after the past few years has seen him experience more highs and low and ups and downs than a Yo-yo toy.

But now the prognosis looks good for the former sportsman veteran, who ended the 2006 season as the hottest driver on the POWERade Series circuit, winning one national event with one runner-up at the final two events. He also set Funny Car national records for E.T. (4.662 seconds) and speed (333.66).

Yes, these days it's very exciting to be Jack Beckman.

"One of the things about drag racing is that it will eat you a live if you let the lows be too low. So you have to temper it a bit" said Beckman, who won seven of the final eight elimination rounds of the season, including scoring his initial professional victory when he won the ACDelco Nationals in Las Vegas in late October. "Sometimes it just doesn't go the way you'd like it to go. So, if the lows aren't quite as low, it also means you clipped off a little bit of the highs.

"But all that went out the window when I (won at Las Vegas). To do something like this has been a dream of mine for 33 years, since I was seven-years-old when I came to a drag strip for the first time. I'm just kind of speechless, because this is as good as it gets."

Especially, when you consider the ups and downs Beckman has experienced the past few years.

It started three years ago when the Southern California native won the NHRA Super Comp championship in 2003. But just a few months later his excitement turned to concern when he was diagnosed with level-3B Lymphoma. But like always, Beckman turned that worry into a positive.

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"It wasn't about not thinking negative," Beckman said. "I just couldn't imagine dying. The entire concept of not living to 70 or 80 just was something that I obviously wasn't expecting. I couldn't comprehend my body failing and me no longer existing on this planet. It wasn't an option to die."

Or give up, which Beckman has always refused to do, no matter what shortcomings were in front of him.

But by the fall of 2004, his life took a turn for the positive again, when and after several months of chemotherapy; Beckman's cancer was in remission. He was soon rewarded with another high -- an offer to live out his dream and drive a Top Fuel dragster, albeit on a limited basis.

"Driving a Top Fuel dragster is something I've always wanted to do," he said. "At 37, when I went through the cancer, I still had never driven a nitro car. Then Roger Comstock came into the picture and I was able to get into Dexter Tuttle's Top Fuel car last year. And that gives you a taste for what's possible."

But Beckman, who also works as an instructor for Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School, was out of a ride at the beginning of this season. But once again fate again leaned his way, bringing him to the driver's seat of Don Schumacher Racing's Matco Tools/Dodge Funny Car.
 

"Don and I are buddies," Beckman said. "We talked occasionally at the races. He had agreed to let me get a Funny Car license in the car, so I could have more opportunities for a nitro ride. I only had my Top Fuel license, so it limited me, if something came available. 

"Then all the pieces came into place."

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Those particles came together in late August when Matco Tools, the team's primary sponsor, announced it would just be an associate sponsor in 2007. That left then driver Whit Bazemore's status with the team uncertain for next season, paving the way for Beckman. And as it turned out, Bazemore, who has since hooked up to drive a Top Fuel dragster for David Power Motorsports next season, was Beckman's biggest supporter.

"That guy was absolutely a gentleman through this whole deal," Beckman said. "I know it couldn't have been easy for him. This move was fairly unprecedented, and yet he signed off on my license.

"But Whit was such a class act. He gave me a lot of tips and got me up to speed and helped me."

Beckman struggled initially, losing in the first round at Dallas and Reading, Pa. before scoring a quarter-final finish at Richmond, Va. But despite those struggles the team, including crew chief Todd Okuhara, had his back.

"There's just good chemistry on this team," Beckman said. "For them to be that accommodating to me is more than I could ask for. They never razzed me when I made mistakes, liking getting the car out of the groove and costing us a qualifying position. They were more than supportive."

Beckman repaid that loyalty with his win at Las Vegas, where he drove like an experienced veteran, making two low 4.8 runs and two passes in the high 4.7 range to earn his first victory, which he accomplished when he defeated Tommy Johnson Jr. in the final. Ironically enough, Johnson also signed off on Beckman's license.

"You think he wants to take that back?" Beckman joked after winning. "To get (the first win) at a track where I've had a lot of success at and where I love to race at is great. To do it in Las Vegas...it's special."

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Beckman continued his success two weeks later during the season-ending Auto Club of Southern California Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. He earned his first top-qualifier award with a 4.671 and advanced to the finals before losing on a holeshot to John Force, despite lowering the national E.T. record to 4.662.

"Jack Beckman? What can I say? He's done an incredible job," Schumacher said. "This was (his fifth race) in a Funny Car, and to come out and make consistent passes against some of the best drivers out here...he does an incredible job."

But Beckman, despite all of his successes during the final two races of the season, is the first to admit his Funny Car training is far from over.

"I think as you get better at it, it slows it down," Beckman said. "I'm not getting out of this thing thinking, 'Wow, it's easy to drive.' The deal with the nitro Funny Car is that they don't typically doesn’t do the same thing every time down the track. They just don't want to go straight on a lot of runs.

"I'm just not comfortable yet. I'm still about 30 runs from saying that I am comfortable."

By that time, the competition may be in trouble.