A dramatic holeshot victory by Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) pilot Jack Beckman aboard his 2015 Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car in the final elimination round of the 31st annual National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Keystone Nationals, the third of six “Countdown to the Championship” playoff events, brought to a close a challenging race day that saw the Mopar driver set a national elapsed time (e.t.) record, and earn a career-best seventh title this season. The win was also the 15th Funny Car title for DSR with the new 2015 Mopar Dodge Charger R/T since it made its debut 21 national events ago.

“On behalf of everyone at Mopar I would like to congratulate Jack Beckman on his seventh victory this year and an important playoff win,” said Pietro Gorlier, President and CEO — Mopar Brand Service, Parts and Customer Care, FCA. “To see Don Schumacher’s team take the 2015 Mopar Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car to the winner’s circle for a 15th time this year and battle for another championship is a testament to the amount of time, investment and hard work that has gone in to building this fantastic and competitive new vehicle.”

After wet weather and cold temperatures limited competitors to just one qualifying session in preparation for eliminations, Sunday’s first two rounds were made even more challenging by track conditions dipping into the low 60 degree Fahrenheit range and resulted in an unusual amount of pedal-fests; a battle between racers to regain traction by lifting on and off the throttle in an attempt to reach the finish line first.

Seeded third, Beckman began his drive for the Wally trophy by winning such a pedal-fest against Alexis DeJoria with a 6.625-second elapsed time run at 254.90 miles per hour against his competitor’s 7.468/122.56 effort. He then won an all-Mopar quarterfinal fight against teammate Tommy Johnson Jr. with a 3-second run.

The sun finally peaked out behind the clouds for Beckman’s semifinal match-up with his other DSR stablemate, No. 2 qualifier Ron Capps, where fans were treated to never before seen 3.897-second run (326.87 mph) to reset the NHRA Funny Car national record and earn a 20-point bonus. It is the third time this year that Beckman has reset the record after lowering the bar at Sonoma Raceway and Brainerd International Raceway.

Beckman went on to earn his 22nd career title on a holeshot against Chad Head in the final elimination with a 0.077-second reaction time and 3.910/326.79 pass to his opponents 0.115 start and 3.903/326.16 lap. It was his third consecutive 3-second run and it marked the 58th time that the new 2015 Mopar Dodge Charger R/T has powered its way to sub four-second pass since its debut and the 70th time a Dodge Funny Car has done it since Matt Hagan broke the barrier in 2011.

“When we got out here to qualify yesterday, it was horrible,” said Beckman. “We ran a 5.44 and qualified third. Then we go out there first round and run a 6.62 and it turns on the win light. But you can’t give (crew chiefs) Jimmy (Prock) John (Medlen) and Chris (Cunningham) too many shots at the racetrack. We went on to run 3.925, 3.897 and 3.91 second passes. They got us the win. They got us the national record. It was as good a weekend as we could have hoped to have.”

With the trip to the winner’s circle at Maple Grove Raceway, Beckman moves into second place in the playoff standings and within 16 points of the lead in the Countdown.

Posted by: Pat Caporali

Event Essentials:   NHRA Keystone Nationals  (Oct. 1-5th, 2015) 

(Robert Hight qualified #1 with a 3.922 secs effort and had top speed of the meet at 329.34 mph)

(Alexis DeJoria ran this cool special edition pink wrap on her Patron-sponosred Toyota at Reading)

Photos by:  Dave DeAngelis & Gary Nastase