Jack Beckman gave John Force Racing its 300th Funny Car victory Sunday, driving his PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet SS past the Ford of Dan Wilkerson in the final round of the 65th annual Lucas Oil Winternationals at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.
Racing on his home track, the one on which he was the Winternationals Super Comp winner 27 years ago, “Fast Jack” drove the PEAK Chevy to a signature victory, one that propelled him into the Mission Foods point lead three races into the season.
In winning for the third time since sliding into the seat formerly occupied by Hall of Fame driver and team owner John Force, the U.S. Air Force veteran extended his number of consecutive round wins to 18 on the track originally cut out of a parking lot at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds.
That streak started during his employment at Don Schumacher Racing. After winning the 2019 Auto Club Finals and the 2020 Winternationals for DSR, he was out of racing until last August when he was tabbed to fill in after Force was injured in a high-speed crash in Richmond, Va. In his first race at Pomona since 2020, he won last November’s In-N-Out Finals, then extended the streak by winning Saturday’s two-round 2Fast/2Tasty Challenge and Sunday’s Winternationals.
Beckman beat Jeff Diehl, Chad Green and Matt Hagan in convincing fashion Sunday, stopping the timers in 3.847, 3.859 and 3.860 seconds. In the final, his 12,000-horsepower hot rod suffered its only hiccup of the entire weekend, briefly losing traction before he corralled it and got it to the line in 4.015 seconds, easily covering Wilkerson’s up-in-smoke 8.292.
Although he qualified only fourth behind teammate, reigning series champion and track record holder Austin Prock, Beckman’s Chevy, prepared by a “PEAK Squad” led by Dan Hood, Chris Cunningham and Tim Fabrisi, undeniably was the best car on the property, earning points in all four qualifying sessions and posting the quickest time in all four rounds of racing.
“The car was amazing all weekend,” said an elated Beckman. “We ran 3.80s every round of eliminations until the final. That’s when the flawless part fell off a couple of hundred feet out and the car shook the tires and knocked them loose. That’s where, as a driver, you’ve got to be ready to give one back to the team because they’d given me everything all weekend long.
“It felt good to be able to pedal the thing and take it down there and have the car not blow up,” said the cancer survivor and accomplished driving instructor.
“Before the final, the whole Cornwell Tools team was over helping us,” he said. “That’s what kind of organization JFR is. This was all about John Force. This is Funny Car win No. 300 for team John Force Racing. Nine of us got 143 wins, the boss man got 157. That’s 300. This is a big deal. This is a milestone in drag racing.”
While Beckman was streaking to his fourth win in his last four appearances at the In-N-Out Dragstrip, Prock continued to struggle with consistency in his always potent Cornwell Tools Chevy. After qualifying No. 1 with an event record 3.816 seconds, he had traction problems in the very first round that slowed him to 4.415 seconds, not quite enough to get past Blake Alexander.
“Let’s be honest, it hasn’t been phenomenal,” Prock said of his currently cantankerous Chevy. “We were working on it all weekend, and we thought we were heading in the right direction. We changed some more things this morning, and it just decided to throw up on us, but I’m a little disappointed in myself that I didn’t do the job.
“We win and lose as a team, but I felt like I could have done a better job pedaling it (feathering the throttle to regain traction),” said the man who last year set the single season record when he qualified No. 1 15 times in 20 events. “So, that’s aggravating, but we did make a really great run to get the No. 1 qualifier and there’s a lot left in this race car. It’s just not treating us quite right yet. So, we’re going to keep working on it, and we’ll go get ‘em in Las Vegas.”
As for Brittany Force, who qualified her Monster Energy Dragster No. 1 for the fifth time in her last six appearances in the Winternationals, it was her fourth straight semifinal exit, this time at the hands of eventual race winner Clay Millican.
“We’re leaving Pomona fourth in points and, overall, a pretty solid weekend for our Monster team,” said the 17-time tour winner. “We qualified No. 1, picked up bonus points, and ran consistently in the 3.60s during qualifying, which was outstanding.
“We made another semifinal appearance but, unfortunately, got beat. However, we found our error, and we know how to improve,” she said. “We’re anxious to get to Las Vegas in two weeks where we’ll have Graham Rahal Performance on the side of the car. Graham’s family to us and we want to make him and everyone at GRP proud. Looking forward to going after another four-wide win.”
This story was originally published on March 31, 2025. 
