Funny Cars Gets
Serious in Tucson

Results and photos by Suzanne St. Pierre
5/7/03

The California Independent Funny Car Association held its 19th annual season opener on May 3 under the lights at Southwestern Int'l Raceway in Tucson, Arizona. And we mean under the lights -- the finals went down around 3:15am.

Winner of this event was "Fast Jack" Beckman who holds licenses in seven NHRA classes and is chief instructor at Frank Hawley's NHRA Drag Racing School in California. Beckman is the driver of Dennis Murphy's "Ground Zero" car. This is the first win for Beckman out of his fifth race with CIFCA.

The CIFCA teams qualify against an index of 7.50. Beckman took out Jim Maroney in the first round and Jeff Seraphine in the second. Dennis La Charite's 7.548 fell to Beckman's 7.536 in the semis. In the final, last year's points winner, Jim Maher, broke out with a 7.492 and Beckman took the win, running a 7.554.