Jack Beckman Resumes Title Bid in PEAK Chevrolet
It’s been four years since Jack Beckman turned a tire at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and 18 since last he hoisted the winner’s trophy in the NHRA Nevada Nationals, contested this week for the 24th time.
Nevertheless, those numbers haven’t diminished the 58-year-old’s confidence in either himself or the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet Camaro SS he is driving in relief of an injured John Force.
After reluctantly withdrawing from the Texas Fall Nationals three weeks ago due to vertigo-like symptoms, the world’s fastest elevator repairman has been cleared to resume his bid for an NHRA Mission Foods championship in the same Chevy in which Force won two times this year before crashing heavily at Richmond, Va., on June 23.
More important for both Beckman and a team led by Dan Hood, Chris Cunningham and Tim Fabrisi, though, is the fact that, after four months of convalescence, Force, too, will be back at the track if only to provide moral support.
“After not being able to race at our last event in Dallas, I am looking forward to climbing back in the PEAK Chevy this week at Las Vegas,” Beckman said. “We’ll have our boss there to cheer us on and posting another win for him is our ultimate goal.”
Beckman, who for 11 years was a full-time instructor at Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School where his more than 7,000 students included Force’s wife, Laurie, and daughters Ashley, Brittany and Courtney, won 33 NHRA tour events and a series championship in a 15-year run with Don Schumacher Racing that ended in 2021, when the loss of sponsorship sent him back to his old job in the commercial elevator industry.
The first of those Funny Car wins came in this event, on this track in 2006. He then made 27 appearances at LVMS without adding a second victory and had not expected to get another chance. But, that was before JFR President Robert Hight called to determine his level of interest in filling in for the man who bought him his first firesuit.
In six races as Force’s proxy, Beckman has qualified no worst than sixth, has gone to two finals, secured a win in the NHRA Midwest Nationals at Madison, Ill. (St. Louis) and advanced to the semifinals on two other occasions, a performance that has him solidly in second place in the driver standings behind only JFR teammate Austin Prock.
Although he has but one trophy to show for his 28 previous visits to the desert, the air force veteran’s fingerprints are all over the record books at LVMS. He still owns the track speed record of 335.90 miles per hour set in 2019 and, among active drivers, he has qualified No. 1 more often than anyone else – three times in this race (2016, 2017 and 2019) and four times overall.
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