...None was more alarming that Jack Beckman’s 3.913-second run late in the afternoon with a top-end speed of 323.74 mph.
“That’s a perfect day for me,” he said.
Beckman, Ron Capps, Courtney Force, Robert Hight, Del Worsham, Matt
Hagan, Tim Wilkerson and Head all beat the previous Funny Car track
record.
“It’s headers, headers, headers,” Beckman said. “Ever since we laid
the headers back, you’ve seen this. I believe there’s a 3.8 [second] out
there.
“What’s scary is that wasn’t all the car had. We weren’t swinging for the fence.”
The exhaust pipes for Funny Cars used to point upward. When the
engine is a full power, it essentially creates thrust that keeps the car
glued to the race track.
The class went to new headers that are aimed upward and toward the
back of the car. It still creates some downforce, but it also adds a
forward boost.
With 15 Funny Cars in the field, everyone was guaranteed a spot in
Sunday’s run-offs. Top Fuel has 16 cars, so nobody will be sent home
before the round-of-16 eliminations.
Force waited until dusk to set the lowest elapsed time of the day. And like Beckman, she said the car was capable of even more.
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