Poised to become just the 26th professional to win as many as 500 competitive rounds in drag racing’s premier series, “Fast Jack” Beckman hopes to celebrate that milestone this weekend with the crew of his PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet SS and fans attending the 36th NHRA Northwest Nationals.
“The entire PEAK Squad took the two-week break to overprepare (for this week’s race) and we’re looking forward to putting our Chevrolet SS back in the winners’ circle,” said the 59-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran, who is back in competition at Pacific Raceways for the first time in six years.
“I’m not sure what I’m most looking forward to,” said the cancer survivor and 2012 Funny Car World Champion, “making our first qualifying run Friday at close to 10 p.m. when the conditions are going to be spectacular, getting to make THREE more qualifying hits on Saturday, or seeing all the great Northwest fans for the first time since 2019.”
Regardless, the 37-time pro tour winner whose lone Seattle win came in his first appearance in 2007 obviously is excited about his chances of again winning an event in which John Force, from whom he took the reins of the PEAK Chevy after last year’s crash at Richmond, Va., won a record nine times.
An accomplished driving instructor and former World Champion in the NHRA Sportsman division (Super Comp in 2003), Beckman has won 498 racing rounds since turning pro in 2005, all but four of them at the wheel of a Funny Car, first for Don Schumacher Racing and, since last August, for John Force Racing.
That he has the opportunity to reach 500 is a bit surreal insomuch as he had resigned himself to the fact that his driving career was over when sponsorship issues compelled Schumacher to park two of his Funny Cars at the end of the 2020 season.
Without a ride, Beckman returned to his job as an elevator repair technician and, frankly, never expected to leave it.
However, that all changed following the accident that left Force with a Traumatic Brain Injury for which he continues to receive treatment on an outpatient basis.
Over the last eight races of 2024, Beckman won twice (both times in the Countdown to the Championship) and, after starting sixth in Mission Foods points, wound up second behind only JFR teammate Austin Prock, who is the only driver ahead of him in the current standings.
In a PEAK Chevy tuned to 335 mile-an-hour perfection by Daniel Hood, Chris Cunningham and Tim Fabrisi, he has won two more races this season, one of them at In-N-Out Pomona Dragstrip in California, a track on which he has won his last four Funny Car starts.
This story was originally published on July 16, 2025. 
