The off-season – so longed-for by many in exhausted moments during the frenzied crush of a year winding down – has left a typically hyper-enthused Jack Beckman with a little too much time to ponder the year behind and the season ahead. Beckman logged one of his best performances ever in the Aaron's Valvoline Charger Funny Car and came remarkably close to winning his first Pro championship, and now, rest and relaxation is perhaps getting a bit old.
 
"Prior to this, I've always had a job," said Beckman, who taught at Frank Hawley's School of Drag Racing at Auto Club Raceway Pomona for the first three years of his career. "I've worked since I was 10 years old – I started throwing newspapers and mowing lawns, hustling to get money that would go into the bicycles that I raced. This is an odd feeling; I'm pacing around on the floors and getting projects done around the house, and I can't wait to get back to work. I'm married now and I have two kids, and I enjoy the family time, but I really, really want to get back in the racecar."
 
The desire to jump right back in is totally reasonable when Beckman's momentum is taken into consideration. His awesomeness in 2011 wasn't a sudden surge of greatness; for the past five seasons he has finished in the top 5 in the Full Throttle Series standings, and although from one perspective his most recent effort appeared to be his best year yet in a Funny Car, Beckman's round-win total in 2010 surpassed his 2011 collection by two. Each of those two seasons produced five final rounds – this past year he won three event titles, and in 2010 he was once victorious – and in both of those series tours he approached the Countdown to the Championship from the No. 2 spot.
 
"This year we were a little bit better in the Countdown, but the intangible is always, 'How will the other nine cars in the Countdown do,' " explained Beckman, who currently ranks second in the nation. "You'll be a firm believer in that if you go look at how the Army car [the Tony Schumacher-driven U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster] did this year. Before anybody throws in the towel on that team, you have to realize that they are just as tough as they've ever been; they just barely got beat a whole bunch of times in races that would have gone in their favor in the past. You can do every single thing right, but what the person in the other lane does is out of your control."
 
While one of Beckman's DSR counterparts, 7-time world champion Schumacher, ended the year without a trip to the winner's circle for the first time since 2001, another teammate turned out to be "that guy in the other lane." Matt Hagan, who so heartbreakingly saw his championship hopes fade in the opening round of the final event in 2010, got his second wind just as the Countdown launched and somewhat amicably wrestled the Funny Car championship right out of Beckman's hands.
 
Flashing back to Phoenix, though – the third-to-last race of the year – the outcome was still very much uncertain. Beckman, who won the Super Comp championship in 2003, took over the points lead for the first time as a Funny Car driver by winning the event, and victories at the spring race at Charlotte's zMax Dragway and Atlanta Raceway preceded the Arizona Nationals win, while final rounds in Bristol and Seattle kept him rallying for the big trophy throughout the year. It was an intense battle with multiple opportunities for the power to shift hands.
 
"I've been through these pressure situations, so I was ready," said Beckman. "The year that I won the Super Comp championship, I won the Winternationals and started the season leading the points. I lost the lead in the summertime and didn't get it back until the last race of the year.
 
"In many ways, pressures in Sportsman racing are magnified over Pro racing – yes, the big difference in Professional racing is that you need to perform for sponsors, team owners and multiple teammates – but in the Sportsman classes, every single car can run the number, and every single car can cut a reaction time, so it really puts focus more intently on the driver. The year I won the championship was a fantastic preparation to get back into that Funny Car chase at the end of the year.
 
"But the realization is that the only time having the points lead ever matters is Sunday evening when the Finals are over at Pomona."
 
Beckman held the lead for one event; Hagan took over the top spot in Las Vegas and, as they say, never looked back. He was officially crowned the champ after defeating Beckman in the quarterfinals and then Cruz Pedregon in the semis at the Auto Club of Southern California NHRA Finals.
 
Ultimately, he won 34 rounds of racing – one more than Hagan – but Beckman says that qualifying is what really hurt them, and where they will need to improve next season if they want to win the series title. The team qualified in the top half at all but seven events and was never lower than 10th heading into raceday, but those valuable bonus qualifying points were not rolling in their favor.
 
"We have never been a great Friday and Saturday team, but we're a stellar Sunday team," he said. "If we can start maximizing our qualifying effort, we can get a few of those additional points and maybe, just as importantly, keep some of those other teams from taking them.
 
"You always want more," he continued. "When I got to Pomona for the last race of the year, I wanted to win. Finishing second was a bit of a letdown – actually, it was a big letdown because we were so thick in the hunt. But when I step away from it, I realize that ever since I was 7 years old and went to my first drag race, this is something that I've dreamed of. I didn't know I could make a living doing this, and I didn't know I would get to have two healthy kids and a beautiful wife who supports my racing. I know it sounds kind of cliché, but it's really not. I think I ought to go out and buy lottery tickets, because I'm probably the luckiest man in the world. It was an awesome year. There were disappointments, but I'm still pinching myself – not just over the last year, but over the last five. I can't wait to get back to work."