His experience so far in the 47th annual NHRA Summernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park is bearing out that outlook.
At last weekend’s NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event in New Hampshire, the team unveiled a new Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car after a broken engine part led to an explosion that destroyed the carbon fiber body and bent the chassis.
The team led by crew chief Jimmy Prock with assistants John Medlen and Chris Cunningham tuned the new Dodge on its first two runs to a pair of 3.93-second runs.
Upon unloading that car when it arrived at Englishtown, N.J., Beckman opened qualifying Friday afternoon with a time of 3.981 seconds at 318.17 mph with the Infinite Hero team sponsored by Terry Chandler.
Not a great run, but a very solid run.
Then the unpredictability of Funny Cars showed up and the team’s last three runs ranged from 11.876 to 4.148 seconds. That leaves Beckman seeded 10th for eliminations that begin at 11 a.m. (ET).
“It is an interesting weekend for us,” Beckman said. “We changed cars after a big explosion Saturday in Epping last weekend. We looked pretty darn good with a completely new racecar on race day in Epping.
“We unload here and we’re struggling. I don’t think it’s the racecar, I think it’s just trying to get this tune-up to adapt to this racetrack.
“We’ve kind of painted ourselves in a corner but you know what, we did this earlier this year and turned it into a final round. I believe that we can have a good, long race day tomorrow.
“Here’s the thing, we’re going to have to be aggressive first round, not just to get a win light, but to get a handle on what this car really wants here in Englishtown. If this Infinite Hero car turns on the win light first round, look out.”
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