Insider Insights from the NHRA Museum with "Fast Jack” Beckman

Known as much for his big personality as his championship performances, "Fast Jack” Beckman is one of the top names on the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) circuit. Jack has spent decades lighting up NHRA racetracks, winning 39 national events and two world titles along the way. 

Jack is also a passionate motorsports historian, so when he rolls up to the NHRA Museum with a video camera in tow, you know you're in for a guided tour that combines high-octane insight with one-of-a-kind charm. That's exactly what Jack delivered in his 45-minute museum walkthrough, which makes must-see viewing for any motorsports fan.

Here are some of our favorite highlights:

Where did the name "funny car" come from?

"I'm a really good historian," Jack says, "and the thing is, I don't know the answer." As Jack explains, nobody really knows for sure where the name came from — or even who drove the first funny car in racing history.

Why? "Because it depends how you define 'funny car,'" Jack says. "Today, it would be a carbon-fiber body with a blown-fuel nitro engine…and the body would represent a production vehicle. That's what a modern funny car is."

But back in the mid-1960s, when funny cars were first becoming a thing, drivers were experimenting with all kinds of configurations. As Jack explains, "You'd have a stock steel-bodied coupe or sedan — a 409 Chevy, 406 Ford, 413 Chrysler — and these are cars that are going faster and faster and faster.

The racetrack stunk and the rear tires stunk, [because] they're spinning the rear tires a lot, so they did a lot of different things to try to get more traction. And one of the more extreme things they did is they took the rear axle and shoved it up three feet. They took the front axle and shoved it up until the tires were touching the bumper. They looked stupid, or ridiculous…or funny."

So, the name probably originated when somebody said, "That's a funny-looking car." 

Jack says the name "funny car" dates to about 1965, when around 10 different racing pros drove one of those weird-looking modified vehicles. "Dick Landy had a real successful one," Jack recalls, "but there's a bunch of people that had [that kind of car], so I don't know who [actually] drove the first funny car."

Rocket engines on hot rods

The relentless push for more speed and power has inspired decisions some would call daring. 

Jack uses a more colorful term. As he puts it:

"If you're really, really stupid, you would strap a rocket engine to a car. Now, a lot of people had tried jet engines. [They were] fast, but they were very, very big and bulky cars. A lot of people had bought these surplus jet engines after [the Korean War]...but a few hardy souls decided, 'What if I built a rocket car?'"

Well, you'd go really, really fast. As Jack explains, "383 miles an hour is the record from a rocket car. [That's] from a standing start in a quarter mile on a drag strip. Sammy Miller did it, in England, in a rocket-powered funny car. That guy's nuts." 

How did hot-rodding evolve into drag racing?

Hot-rodding began as a hobby, with drivers souping up old vehicles to make them slick, fast, and super powerful. As Jack explains, hobbyist hot-rodding laid the foundations for the popular modern motorsport of drag racing.

"We can't talk about the history of drag racing without the history of hot-rodding," Jack says. "In Southern California in the 1930s, there were a ton of board tracks — circle tracks with banking, for sprint cars." Local drivers would use these facilities for head-to-head speed races with their hot rods.

At first, hot-rodding was a purely amateur domain. As Jack tells it, "You'd be laying under a rusty car in your garage or your buddy's driveway, using junkyard parts and going and expressing yourself. Some people just wanted to cruise the boulevard, some got the itch to race, and really quickly on, they realized it wasn't worth the ticket. So, they went to the drag races."

It didn't take long for drag racing to evolve beyond its original community of amateur thrill-seekers. "The irony of drag racing is that the entire thrust of it initially was to get this unsafe street racing into a more controlled environment," Jack explains. "Well, as soon as you do that, it becomes more and more refined and professional and upgraded and streamlined, and it pushed out the people [who started it all] and they went back to the streets."

This pattern has repeated time and again. "Every 20 years, you'll see local municipalities start a street race program at the drag races," Jack says in reference to cities where amateur hot-rodding has spilled back onto public roads. "The hope is to get those people to evolve into more professional drag racing, but some of them don't want to. They just want to have a fast car on the street that they can take out to the drag strip once in a while."

How much does a single drag racing run cost?

Jack wrapped up his tour by answering one of the most common questions casual racing fans ask: How much does drag racing cost per run?

"It's easy," Jack quips. "The first run costs you $4 million, and the rest of them are free."

Jokes aside, Jack compared the cost of operating a pro drag racing team against a season of NASCAR. "An average season for us now is probably about 130 runs, unless you do extensive testing," Jack explains. "For a Cup team, it takes about $30 million to run for the championship. An F1 team takes about $120 million."

"Drag racing is more…primitive," he continues. "I don't think that's a pejorative term, because I love what our 'primitive' is. We don't need 47 engineers. We have seven [or eight] people that do everything. They tow [the car] to and from the races, they unload it, they set it up, and they service it."

Jack's tour also included many other fascinating stories and anecdotes about dozens of museum exhibits and the racing personalities behind them. You can get an up-close look at racing history by visiting the NHRA Museum if you're ever in the Los Angeles area — it's located in the L.A. suburb of Pomona.

PEAK proudly powers motorsports

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