CONCORD, N.C., March 29, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --
- Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) driver Jack Beckman drives 2015 Mopar Dodge Charger to title win at unique NHRA Four-Wide Nationals
- Beckman earns first win since 2012 and extends DSR and the new 2015 Mopar Dodge Charger R/T win streak to four
- Beckman posts a 3.983-second lap at zMAX Dragway to earn his 16th career win
- Allen Johnson posts record-setting career best run in Magneti Marelli Dodge Dart in failed effort to advance past first elimination round
Fast Jack Beckman lived up to his moniker by winning the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Drag Racing Series' Four-Wide Nationals and posting the event's first sub-four second run aboard his Infinite Hero sponsored 2015 Dodge Charger R/T to give the new Mopar and Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) a fourth consecutive title win this season.
It is Beckman's second Four-Wide Nationals title since the format was introduced in 2010 and the 16th of his Funny Car career. It is also the fifth time in his career that he has run a sub-four second lap, raising the performance bar by posting his career-best elapsed time run at 3.983 seconds (308.78 mile per hour) with the race winning effort. Beckman's three-second pass is also the 15th posted by a Dodge Charger, the most by any manufacturer.
With the win, Beckman finally saw a 54-race winless streak (St. Louis 2012) come to an end and jumps from 14th to seventh in the points standings. He adds his Wally to those won by his DSR teammates Matt Hagan, earned with back-to-back titles in Pomona and Phoenix, and Ron Capps at the Gatornationals in the new Mopar body.
"If there was a track and a format where the new 2015 Mopar Dodge Charger was perfect for us this was it," said Beckman who has been very pleased with the increased visibility and performance of his new race car. "This new cockpit configuration was perfect for the Four-Wide format where it is difficult to stage. I'm just so elated. Every nitro win I have ever had has been in a Dodge Charger and this is my first in the new Mopar and I don't think it will be the last this year."
The one-of-a-kind Four-Wide Nationals, held at the purpose-built zMAX Dragway, splits 16 qualifiers into four waves with competitors battling across all four lanes simultaneously. Only the top-two finishers of each wave advance to the next round of eliminations, and with only three heats necessary, the final elimination quad determines the winner, runner-up and two semi-finalists.
DSR teammate Tommy Johnson Jr. was among the competitors in that final quad, finishing fourth after hazing the tires, but with the result moves up into fourth place in the Funny Car standings behind Hagan and Capps, second and third respectively.
With the unusual format also comes an extra set of challenges, namely a staging process with four staging lights to watch instead of the usual two. During this process in the first round of eliminations, Hagan surpassed the seven second limit provided to cross the final beam on the starting line to properly stage his Mopar Express Lane Dodge and was penalized with a red-light foul.
"I wish I knew what happened out there," said a disappointed Hagan. "I thought I was staged. I watched my first bulb come on to pre-stage and I thought I moved up to turn on the second bulb. I thought I got it in there. Cruz (Pedregon) turned the top bulb off beside me and I guess it caught my attention and I just didn't realize I wasn't staged. I just never thought for a second that I wasn't staged. I just couldn't believe it when I saw the red light come on.
"There are no excuses," he added. "We had a great racecar, we were the first to the finish line. (Crew Chief) Dickie (Venables) and the guys did a great job. I was just the weak link this weekend. It's a big lesson learned."
DSR's top qualifier Capps, third on the eliminations ladder, had his own memorable experience in the first round as he relived his days of racing on dirt track ovals when his Mopar fishtailed its way to the finish line for a second place finish and barely dusted the wall along the way, an infraction that lead to his disqualification from competition.
"Then those instincts kick in and the dirt track experience like at Eldora (Speedway) really helps," Capps said. "I knew it was close the second or third time I pedaled it, but I didn't feel anything. I thought we had second place and they said it just scraped and it did ever so slightly just scrape the right rear. It's just one of those things, just a couple inches from the win light. It's just the craziness this Four Wide brings."
The first round of Pro Stock elimination rounds also proved to be noteworthy.
The good news was that Allen Johnson drove his "Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar" Dodge Dart to not only career best numbers and a track record elapsed time run of 6.464 seconds at 214.42 miles per hour, but it was also the quickest pass in class history. The record time also gave the Mopar driver the coveted National record as it backed up his run in qualifying.
The not-so-good news is that Johnson's record run was all for naught as two hole-shots by competitors Greg Anderson (6.467/215.13) and Jonathan Gray (6.465/214.11) ended any chance to advance to the next round. To add insult to injury, just moments later Jason Line took away Johnson's record pass by setting his own at 6.455/214.48, which also backed up a record run on Saturday to steal away the National record as well.
"We had the record for about one run but I just didn't do my job as a driver on the line," said Johnson whose .065-second reaction time wasn't enough against .033 (Anderson) and 0.024 (Gray). "We're making very big strides with the Dodge Dart right now and that run right there, setting the record, proves it. Still fighting the fuel a little and unfortunately it bit Buddy (Perkinson) but having a second car helped us this weekend. We tried a few things and seemed to overcome most of the issues we've been having. We'll just keep after it."
The second team car Johnson referenced was that of driver Buddy Perkinson II aboard the Johnson & Johnson Racing team's 2012 championship-winning Dodge Avenger for this weekend's event. Perkinson was second off the startline but crossed the finish last after encountering fuel issues.
The Dodge Dart of V. Gaines made it straight down the track but finished fourth in his first round elimination quad with a 6.626/209.17.
Mopar drivers and teams will return to racing in two weeks when the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series will compete at the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway scheduled for April 10-12.
Mopar Brand
Mopar (a simple contraction of the words Motor and PARts) was trademarked in 1937 with the launch of an antifreeze product but 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 more than 130 markets, integrating 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 unique in that they are engineered with the same teams that create factory-authorized vehicle specifications for FCA vehicles – 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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SOURCE FCA US LLC