MORRISON — Funny car driver “Fast” Jack Beckman is among the NHRA nitromethane drivers who pack their own parachutes, which are made to deploy after a 1,000-foot drag-race run at more than 300 mph. He trusts himself, and doesn’t want to blame anyone else if they don’t slow him down before the road ends.
But Beckman had two young fans perform the finishing touches on packing his parachutes Friday at Bandimere Speedway, host of the 36th Mopar Mile-High Nationals, after a sizzling first-round qualifying run that followed a two-hour rain delay on a cool night. Beckman, always the entertainer, held a parachute-packing demonstration in front of his Don Schumacher Racing pits before the boys stuffed what he had into a square box-like soft container.
Beckman is counting on perfection with the parachutes, because the way he’s running, there is no room for error. His first-round pass of 4.035 seconds at 313.73 mph was second-best among funny cars behind Tim Wilkerson (4.026, 317.27). Both elapsed times exceeded the previous track record.
“Ideal conditions,” Beckman said while preparing for the delayed second qualifying round. “We ran a track record. We were just eight minutes too late. Tim Wilkerson got to it first and ran better.
“But anytime you have a session where a pro stock car breaks a track record and a funny car breaks a track record, everything is obviously lined up. The weather is good; the track conditions were good.”
Records were shattered in all four classes, including both ends (ET and top speed) in top fuel, pro stock and pro stock motorcycle.
Top fuel’s Brittany Force ripped off the top speed in Colorado history (323.74 mph) while division foe Steve Torrence made the state’s quickest pass (3.822 seconds).
Shane Gray made the first 200 mph run in pro stock history at Bandimere, at 201.01 mph, shortly before the division’s defending event champion, Allen Johnson, rewrote the track ET record, at 6.883 seconds (200.74 mph).
In pro stock motorcycle, Eddie Krawiec is the new ET record holder (7.169) and Hector Arana Jr. has the top-ever speed (187.03 mph). Krawiec, Johnson, John Force in funny car and Larry Dixon in top fuel were the provisional No. 1 qualifiers after Friday’s late-night second run. Force went 4.015 seconds at 318.04 mph to climb past Wilkerson and Beckman, and Dixon unleashed the quickest pass in track history — 3.791 seconds — in the waning stages of the top fuel runs.
The rain delay began just minutes after the first qualifying round began at its scheduled 5 p.m. start. It resumed after 7 p.m.
“To me the most gratifying thing was, after this weather delay the stands were packed. Nobody left. And that makes me feel good,” Beckman said. “A quick time is what we’re out there for, but to do it in front of a packed grandstand makes it pretty special.”
Saturday’s two rounds of qualifying are at 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Sunday’s eliminations begin at 11 a.m.
Mike Chambers: mchambers@ or
