Photography: John Force Racing / Auto Imagery / Gary Nastase
Winternationals Dominance Powers PEAK into Mission Foods Point Lead
POMONA, Calif. (March 30, 2025) – 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 a 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
3.60’s 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.”