NORWALK, Ohio, July 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --
- Don Schumacher Racing's (DSR) Jack
Beckman drives his 2015 Mopar Dodge Charger R/T to a title
win at the Ninth annual Summit Racing Equipment National Hot Rod
Association (NHRA) Nationals
- Beckman earns his third title win in four final round
appearance this year aboard his Infinite Hero 2015 Mopar Dodge
Charger R/T
- Ninth win of the season for the new 2015 Mopar Dodge Charger
R/T Funny Car and an 11th final round appearance in 12 national
events this season
- Beckman defeated all three vehicles belonging to rival team
John Force Racing (JFR) on his way to the winner's circle
- Mopar and DSR now have a 20 -11 win-loss record against
rivals JFR at the mid-point of the NHRA season
- DSR driver Matt Hagan,
Ron Capps and Beckman are 1-2-3 in
Funny Car Championship standings
Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) driver Jack
Beckman earned a hard fought title win aboard his Infinite
Hero 2015 Dodge Charger R/T at the Ninth annual Summit Racing
Equipment National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Nationals. It was his
third victory of the season after posting national wins at
Charlotte and Topeka, and it also marked the ninth title for the
2015 Mopar Dodge Charger R/T since it was introduced to competition
this season following a year of development.
Beckman, who had qualified 11th, put his first round
opponent, 16-time NHRA world champion John
Force, on the trailer and then did the same to Force's
teammate Robert Hight to advance to
the semifinals. Beckman then defeated Tim
Wilkerson to advance to the final round, his fourth of the
season, against Courtney Force.
Beckman initially trailed until half-track then took advantage of
his opponent's loss of traction to speed by and turn on the win
light for his 18th career victory.
"We tore up those Camaro's didn't we," said Beckman who defeated
all three vehicles belonging to his team's arch rival, John Force
Racing, to boost DSR's record to 20 wins-11 losses versus JFR at
the halfway point of the season. "I think the folks at Mopar are
going to be really happy with me. There's a rivalry. You've got
competing auto manufacturers and you've got the two biggest Funny
Car teams out here battling. The fact that we were able to get it
done with that Mopar and beat two other brands makes it a fantastic
day for this team."
"On behalf of everyone at Mopar, congratulations to Jack Beckman for the well-earned title win at
Norwalk," said Pietro Gorlier, President and CEO — Mopar Brand Service, Parts and Customer Care,
FCA. "It is very rewarding to have Jack and his team defeat all
three vehicles belonging to their biggest rival on the way to a
ninth win this season with the new 2015 Mopar Dodge Charger. The
competitiveness and dominance of the new Mopar Funny Car package
reinforces yet again the investment and effort put in by Mopar,
Dodge and Don Schumacher Racing into producing a competitive and
high quality product."
The trip to the winner's circle was also amplified by the amount
of adversity Beckman and his crew encountered heading into the
weekend, in addition to the limited time given to crews between
elimination rounds because of live ESPN television coverage, made
even more stressful by mechanical issues that occurred prior to the
final run.
"We came (to Norwalk) with a
brand new front half on the (chassis) and an entirely new
bell-housing combination because that's what (Crew Chief)
Jimmy Prock does," Beckman said. "We
ran the first three qualifying runs this weekend then switched back
to our old combination and it smoked the tires again. It only made
it down the track one time in (four qualifying sessions) and we end
up 11th and have John Force in the
first round. But we ended up in the winner's circle. This race was
awesome because of what we had to overcome."
The win moves Beckman into third place in the Funny Car
standings behind his DSR teammates Matt
Hagan and Ron
Capps.
Hagan, who started eliminations as the No.1 qualifier, defeated
John Bojec in the first round to
line-up his Mopar Express Lane/ Rocky
Boots sponsored 2105 Dodge Charger R/T against to
Courtney Force in the quarterfinals.
Hagan was upset by Force when he was down on power in the final
stretch.
"We'll come out of here pretty good as far as the points look,"
said Hagan who remains the Funny Car championship points leader as
he works to defend his 2014 world championship. "Of course, we'd
have liked to have won the race, but we're realistic and that's not
always possible. Being the No. 1 qualifier can be a curse. It can
be hard to slow a fast car down in the heat and that's what we got
today. I'm still very impressed with (crew chief) Dickie (Venables)
and this entire Mopar crew. We had one bad run out of a whole bunch
of good ones and that's how this sport can go."
A 4.06-second run wasn't quite enough for Ron Capps who fell in the first round to a
hole-shot win by Courtney Force. His
.086-second reaction time was only slight slower than his
opponent's .080 and the 2015 Dodge Charger R/T nearly caught her at
the finish line, missing the mark by just .0032-seconds after
running a quicker 4.066/312.93 to her 4.069/319.82 pass.
"That was a great run," said Capps who remains second in the
standings, 120 points behind Hagan. "It was second or third
quickest of the round. That would have won most rounds, but
sometimes that's the way it goes our here. It's way better than
smoking the tires because (crew chief Rahn)
Tobler gets good data and you're not beating yourself up
after a lousy run. The saving grace is that we're going to be right
back at it in a few days at Joliet. Anytime you lose a close race
like that on what's considered a holeshot, you feel like you can do
better. I'm very, very encouraged with the way the car is running.
We're going to some tracks where I think we're going to have a lot
of success at and then we'll be ready for the Countdown (to the
Championship) to start."
While DSR teammate Tommy Johnson
Jr. had four strong passes in qualifying and started from
the fifth spot on the eliminations ladder, he saw his day cut short
in the opening round against Alexis
DeJoria when his Make-A-Wish race car lost a few cylinders
on his pass. Johnson remains sixth in the standings.
In Pro Stock eliminations, Allen
Johnson had qualified his "Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar"
Dodge Dart 11th on the ladder to pair him up with
Greg Anderson in the first
round.
While Johnson, in the left lane, had the starting line advantage
with a .035-second reaction time, he saw his hot rod start to drift
towards the center line, opening the door for his right lane
opponent to catch up and beat his 6.592/210.47 pass to the finish
line with a 6.553/211.76.
"The car went right, got out of the groove, and I couldn't get
it back in the groove," said a frustrated Johnson. "Down the track
in fifth gear, the car was just bouncing around giving him
(Anderson) the chance to drive around us. I was ahead of him at
half-track. All I had to do was keep the car straight right down
the groove and we would have won the race, but the groove here is
just so narrow so that there was really no margin for error.
"We made one good run all weekend on Friday and the rest was
just stupid stuff that happened," Johnson added. "We went left on
Friday night, Saturday we had clutch problems and today we
corrected for what happened Friday and went to the right. It's
frustrating because we finally have a good package. Everything just
has to come together and we'll be out front and start winning
races. We have the motor running really good, we have the fuel
issues handled, but it's just been bad flipping luck that's held us
back."
V. Gaines endured a similar fate in his first round match
against Larry Morgan when his
HEMI-powered Dodge Dart came too close to the centerline for
comfort and he pushed the clutch in to end his run.
In his fifth career Pro Stock start, Alan Prusinski's HEMI-powered Dodge Avenger
found himself with the upset of the day, when he advanced out of
the opening round against No.1 qualifier and defending title winner
Erica Enders-Stevens by taking
advantage of his opponent's sudden move towards the centerline. His
trip through eliminations was short lived with a (0.035 second
reaction time) 6.775/205.66 pass in a quarterfinal loss to
Drew Skillman's (0.020) 6.592/211.10
run. Skillman went on to a final elimination against
Greg Anderson who won a close battle
(0.022) 6.592/212.19 to (0.026) 6.594/211.43, and his first
title in two years to take over the Pro Stock points lead.
The next stop for Mopar teams and drivers will be near
Chicago, Illinois, for the Lucas
Oil Route 66 NHRA Nationals, the 13th of 24 events in the 2015 NHRA
Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season, on July 9-12.
About Mopar Brand
Mopar (a simple contraction of the words Motor and PARts) was
trademarked in 1937 with the launch of an antifreeze product, but
it truly made its mark in the 1960s during the muscle-car era. From
Mopar Performance Parts to enhance speed and handling for both road
and racing use, the brand soon expanded to include technical
service and customer support.
Today, Mopar is FCA's service, parts and customer-care brand and
distributes more than 500,000 parts and accessories in over 150
markets around the world. With more than 50 parts distribution
centers and 27 customer contact hubs globally, Mopar integrates
service, parts and customer-care operations in order to enhance
dealer and customer support worldwide. Mopar is the source for
genuine parts and accessories for FCA brands.
Mopar parts are engineered together with the same teams that
create factory-authorized specifications for FCA vehicles. This
offers a direct connection that no other aftermarket parts company
can provide. A complete list of Mopar accessories and performance
parts is available at: www.mopar.com.
Mopar-first Features
Mopar has introduced numerous industry-first features
including:
- Vehicle-information apps: first to introduce smartphone
vehicle-information applications, a new channel of communication
with customers
- Electronic owner manuals: first to introduce traditional owner
manuals in a DVD and brief user-guide format. First to offer
complete vehicle-information kits in Spanish
- Wi-Fi: first to offer customers the ability to make their
vehicle a wireless hot spot
- Wireless charging: first to introduce in-vehicle wireless
charging for portable devices
- Electronic Vehicle Tracking System (EVTS): first to market with
interactive vehicle tracking device that sends owner a text when
vehicle is driven too fast or too far based on pre-set
parameters
- wiADVISOR: first to provide factory-connected tablet technology
in the service lane for instant vehicle diagnosis
- wiTECH: first to support vehicle diagnosis and software updates
leveraging off-the-shelf personal computers and a dedicated
wireless tool network
- 2011 Mopar Challenger Drag Pak: first to introduce a 500-plus
cubic-inch V-10 drag-race package car
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