Beckman has had eyes on Bandimere NHRA for long time

It’s funny how the senses serve to help one distinctly remember a glimpse in time.

Funny Car driver Jack Beckman had one of those days more than 35 years ago and it inspired his future profession.

“I was 7 when I went to my first drag race and I was hooked like that,” the 43-year-old said as he snapped his fingers. “I remember that day more than I remember something that happened last week. It was the colorful paint jobs on the cars, the way the nitro fumes smelled, the way the grandstands shook when they went by.”

Beckman now races in the National Hot Rod Association Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, whose next stop is at the Bandimere Speedway in Morrison for the 30th annual Mopar Mile-High Nationals today through Sunday.

Bandimere has been a lucky spot for Beckman. He won the Funny Car event there in 2007 and finished second in 2008. While he will be vying for his third win of the season this weekend, it wasn’t long ago Beckman was trying not to lose his life.

In 2004, he was diagnosed with level 3B lymphoma, a cancer that spread from his hip to his neck.

Beckman underwent chemotherapy to try to cure the cancer. Despite the therapy, at moments, he still doubted his chances of living.

“I remember three nights pretty distinctly when I went to bed and I wasn’t sure if I was going to wake up the next day,” he said. “Some of it was physical, some of it was mental, but I just didn’t have the strength.”

Luckily, the chemo worked and his cancer was healed. Yet, Beckman still had uncertainties. The fact that his mother died of breast cancer in 1994 made him question how he got the disease in the first place.

“The good thing is the doctor said it wasn’t hereditary,” he said. “I was young, I took care of myself, I never smoked, I barely ever drank and I still got cancer. The doctor told me it was a dumb luck thing. That’s the bad thing. I always wonder whether I’ll get dumb luck in the future and it’ll come back.”

But the dumb luck never got the best of Beckman – it was just another obstacle he had to overcome on his way to the racing strip.

His perseverance has stuck with him and nowadays it goes a little too far sometimes.

“Jack’s a great guy, but he’s like my 8-year-old son,” said Ron Capps, Beckman’s teammate on Don Schumacher Racing. “If we’re out, he has to know why things are the way they are. We can be sitting down and out of nowhere, Jack will say, ‘You see that light pole? Why do they have that there?’ He never shuts up and I mean that in the best way possible.”

Beckman will take his childish persona to the Mile-High Nationals and be one of 16 competing in the Funny Car sequence (other three are Top Fuel, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle). He will return to Bandimere, a track which has its own place in his mind.

“I remember driving there from ’84-‘88 to see the races,” he said. “In ‘85, ‘86 and ’87, I was moved to New Mexico (while in the Air Force). I drove 500 miles each way to this race because I loved the venue. The feel there is unlike any other.

“That’s why I use the rock concert analogy when it comes to our sport. Watching it on TV doesn’t do it justice. Our sport is the rock concert of motor sports. You come out and every sense you got feels it.”