C.FORCE HANGS ONTO TOP TEN GOING INTO E-TOWN
ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. (May 29, 2012) – It’s been an interesting rookie season for Courtney Force and her Traxxas Ford Mustang in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series so far. From going up against her dad, 15-time Funny Car champion John Force, in the opening round of eliminations on Sunday of only the second race of her professional career in Phoenix, Ariz. to dueling it out with fellow female Funny Car driver in the running for Auto Club’s Road to the Future “Rookie of the Year” candidate Alexis DeJoria, the youngest of the Force family has demonstrated consistency, a composed nature and a strong sense of competitiveness which combined helped her to victory on both of those attempts and has kept her in the top ten in the points; the No. 9 spot.
“As a Rookie Driver this season, I’m continuing to learn everything I can to become a better driver. I’m happy with how our Traxxas Ford Mustang team is running this season and couldn’t ask for it to go any better. We are continuing to learn about the car and how to push it to its limits, while I’m learning how to drive it to its limits. I’m having so much fun this season in the seat and it has been fun to race with fellow Rookie of the Year contender, Alexis DeJoria, in the Funny Car category,” said Force on competing for the prestigious award given out at the end of the season to the top rookie in the NHRA. “It’s definitely going to be a tough season fighting for Rookie of the Year especially against such great drivers, but I will try to continue to do the best I can throughout this race season.
This week, Force will be turned on to a whole new realm of exciting challenges as she takes her Traxxas Ford Mustang to Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J. for the 43rd running of the Toyota NHRA SuperNationals, the ninth of 23 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.
“I’m looking forward to racing this weekend in Englishtown and am excited to be back at a familiar track where I grew up watching my dad compete. It’s also a familiar track to me as I raced in the Top Alcohol Dragster category with my sister, Brittany. Now that I’m racing for the first time in the Fuel Funny Car category at this track, I hope to get this Traxxas Ford Mustang qualified well, stay consistent and go some rounds on Sunday,” Force said.
Last weekend, Force qualified in the No. 8 spot and snagged a few bonus points along the way. The Traxxas Ford Mustang’s only downfall of the weekend was having to face the four-time race winner for 2012 thus far, Robert Hight and his Auto Club Ford Mustang.
“In Topeka we had one of the most consistent Funny Cars out there. We were qualified in the top half of the field in the No. 8 spot and earned a few bonus points throughout qualifying. I feel like our car is progressing and I’m progressing as a driver. Unfortunately we got beat in the first round of eliminations by my fellow teammate, Robert Hight who had a killer run of a 4.05 in his AAA Funny Car. We had a competitive number of a 4.12 on that run, but we couldn’t advance into the next round. We have a strong team and I am excited going into Englishtown. Having a consistent car with our Traxxas Ford Mustang, I feel confident going into the race and hope to continue to work hard to stay in the top 10 in points,” said Force.
Part of the Force crew, including Courtney, Brittany and mother, Laurie, are jumping into the Englishtown festivities early this week to do a little site-seeing and catching up with some old friends, then making their way to Bristol, Conn. to visit ESPN.
“I’m going in a few days early to explore Englishtown and see NYC with my mom and sister, Brittany. On Thursday I will be going on a tour of the ESPN campus in Bristol, Connecticut and doing interviews for TV, ESPN The Magazine and ESPN radio, as well as an online chat. I’m looking forward to visiting this campus which is the base of all major sports news. I’m hoping to expand their knowledge of NHRA drag racing as well as the products of the fastest name in radio control, Traxxas, and am excited to learn about the ESPN campus,” said Force.
Force seeks to reclaim ‘match race magic’
ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. – He wouldn’t say it’s been a long time since he won a race at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, site of this week’s 43rd annual Toyota SuperNationals, but the last time John Force did so, it was, quite literally, a different century, one in which he hadn’t yet qualified for the senior breakfast at Denny’s.
Inexplicably, since 1999, the Hall-of-Fame driver has won 53 Full Throttle tour events, but not one at Raceway Park. For Force, the frustration is compounded by the fact that the New Jersey track is one of those on which he first made a name for himself through the benevolence of the late track operator, Vinnie Napp.
“I used to run for Vinnie Napp back in the match race days,” Force said. “We’d run on Wednesday nights, Friday nights, Saturday, Sunday. They always had somethin’ going on. He was one of the first guys who gave me a chance. I wasn’t nobody but he saw something in me even back before I won a race.”
When Napp still was alive, Force won with regularity at Raceway Park – and usually in spectacular fashion. For example, when he won in 1998, he drove his Castrol GTX® Ford Mustang to an NHRA national Funny Car speed record of 323.89 miles per hour which, at the time, made his the fastest drag racing vehicle in the known universe, faster even than the Top Fuel dragster of Joe Amaro (323.50 mph).
That was an unprecedented distinction for a Funny Car, but one that the 15-time series champion maintained for six months before Gary Scelzi finally bumped the Top Fuel standard to 326.44 mph.
In his prime, how dominant was Force at Raceway Park? Well, in one nine-year stretch, he took a car to the final round six times and to the winners’ circle on four occasions.
However, since going back-to-back in 1998 and 1999, the 63-year-old icon has been shut out. He has gone only 15-12 in elimination heats, not bad for most of those in this week’s field, but not for someone who, in a 33-year pro career, has won 71 percent of the two-car races in which he has been involved (1,102-445).
That relative lack of production on one of his favorite racetracks is doubly troubling because the 134-time winner’s primary sponsor for the last 26 years maintains its headquarters in nearby Wayne.
Because of that proximity, there always is a large contingent of Castrol employees on hand to support not only his Castrol GTX HIGH MILEAGE™ Ford but also the Castrol GTX Mustang of defending event champion Mike Neff.
“You always want to do well in your sponsor’s backyard,” Force said. “Fortunately, we’ve got a four-car team that’s covered for me but, at the end of the day, you want to feel like you’re pulling your own weight and I still have that gut-ache to win.”
Although he has struggled since winning this year’s season-opening Kragen O’Reilly Winternationals at Pomona, Calif., Force believes the crew chief tandem of Dean “Guido” Antonelli and Danny DeGennaro is becoming more comfortable with a new engine-clutch combination that mimics those in the cars of Neff and points leader Robert “Top Gun” Hight.
“Now, we’re going down the track,” said the 15-time series champion. “We weren’t doing that before. We’re a little slow, but it’s consistent. Now we can focus on getting faster.”
neff defends title, hosts metro ministries kids
ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. – Mike Neff unquestionably is a champion. He has the hardware to prove it. However, the cause the 45-year-old former surfer is championing this week means more to him than a repeat victory in Sunday’s 43rd annual Toyota SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.
The native Californian, driver AND crew chief on the Castrol GTX® Ford Mustang, will take a little time from his pursuit of the NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car Championship to play host, along with his principal sponsor, to a group of kids from Brooklyn-based Metro Ministries.
The charity, which supports at-risk children in the inner city and elsewhere, has become one of Neff’s passions since first he met the group’s founder, Pastor Bill Wilson. “Pastor Bill’s” ministry and message resonated with the two-time world championship-winning crew chief.
Ever since the first meeting, Neff and his former crew chief, John Medlen, have been trying to raise public awareness of Metro Ministries and its work with homeless and abandoned children not just in the United States, but internationally.
Ironically “Pastor Bill,” himself abandoned by his mother as a child, won’t be able to watch Neff defend his title this week because he is dealing with ministry work outside the country. Instead, he has sent a group of 10 Metro Ministry kids to cheer Neff’s pursuit from the comfort of the Castrol suite.
“Obviously, since I have two kids of my own (Chase, 13, and Chloe, nine on June 15), I know how big a deal it is for these kids to have someone like Bill Wilson to be an advocate for them,” Neff said. “I’m just trying to help them out any way I can and the kids that come out this weekend, we’ll be doing our best to get them in the winners’ circle with us.”
If Neff can repeat as Funny Car champion, it would constitute a milestone in his brief driving career. Four round wins in Sunday’s eliminations would give him 100 round wins in just three-and-a-half seasons behind the wheel.
Last year’s regular season champion, Neff has endured an up-and-down 2012 campaign although much of the roller coaster ride has been self-induced, the result of a change in his racing philosophy.
In addition to a victory at Houston, Texas, and runner-up finishes at Pomona, Calif., and Phoenix, Ariz., Neff failed to make the 16-car starting lineup at Atlanta, his first such failure since 2008, and almost missed the field at Houston.
“My attitude changed some after how we finished last year,” Neff said,” a reference to the fact that he led the points for 13 of 16 regular season races but ultimately finished fifth.
“These early races are worth nothing at the end of the season,” he continued, “because they’re going to reshuffle the points after Indy (the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals) anyway. We’re trying some different stuff and some of it is working and some of it isn’t.”
Last year, Neff led by 215 points at the end of the regular season but, with a single computer keystroke, the NHRA reduced that margin to 30 points entering the Countdown to 1 playoffs where everything that went right for the seven-time winner in the first eight months, went terribly wrong.
Now, he’s just trying to learn as much as he can to give him the best chance of having the best car for the six-race showdown that determines the champion.
HIGHT WANTS TO ADD ANOTHER ‘MAJOR’ WIN IN ENGLISHTOWN
ENGLISHTOWN, NJ (May 29, 2012) — There are races that only need to be mentioned by their nicknames for race fans and historians to understand how important they are. Indy. The Gators. The World Finals. E-town. They don’t need sponsor pre-fixes or adjectives to translate their importance, just a strong memory of the historic moments drivers have recorded at each facility.
This weekend Full Throttle Funny Car points leader Robert Hight will be looking to add another “major” win to the stat sheet for his Auto Club Ford Mustang by winning his first Toyota SuperNationals title at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. Earlier this year Hight won the historic NHRA Tire Kingdom Gatornationals, outrunning Johnny Gray in the final to pick up his second win of the season. He went on to two more consecutive wins and near insurmountable points lead halfway through the NHRA regular season.
“There are races you want to win and have on your resume at the end of your career. The Gatornationals was one I hadn’t won until this season and the Supernationals in Englishtown is also on that list,” said Hight. “Englishtown has so much history you just want to be able to say you won there. I have won Indy a couple times and getting the championship in 2009 was my biggest achievement. I want another championship this season and getting big wins gives your whole team confidence.”
Confidence has been the key word for Hight and his Auto Club Ford Mustang team this season. After a surprising first round loss at the O’Reilly Auto Parts Winternationals Hight went on to win 17 consecutive rounds of racing including four races from coast to coast. He reached the semi-finals in Houston, then the finals in Atlanta before another semi-final exit in Topeka. If you drop out the season opening hiccup in the first round Hight has averaged three round wins per race every race of this season.
“I have so much confidence in my crew chief Jimmy Prock and the rest of my Auto Club crew guys. They are working so well together. Every time I get into that Funny Car I feel like we would run low ET. We are not going to let up. Our goal is to dominate all season and we want to get back into the winner’s circle starting this weekend in Englishtown,” said Hight.
In addition to winning half the races Hight has also been running well in qualifying. He has four No. 1 qualifying efforts this season and his lowest qualifying position this season was No. 9 in Topeka two weeks ago. His average starting position this season is 3.75 which is impressive when you consider how diverse the racing conditions have been over the first eight races.
“My Auto Club Ford Mustang has been so consistent. We have 22 round wins and have gotten down the track just about every time I have hit the throttle, whether it is qualifying or eliminations. Our goal coming into this year was to not beat ourselves. We want to qualify smart and race smart. We may not win every round, but we don’t want to give away round wins. I look at it as kind of a Moneyball idea where the Oakland A’s were trying to squeeze the best play out of small budget players by looking at statistical performances. We are looking at making the most runs as quick as possible without pressing too hard when we don’t need to,” said Hight, an avid baseball fan.
Hight’s biggest competition for his first win at Englishtown most likely will come from within the John Force Racing camp. Last year’s SuperNationals winner Mike Neff has to be one of the favorites as well as rookie of the year candidate Courtney Force who is looking to add her name to the Traxxas Shootout by getting her first win. It is also impossible to count out 15-time Funny Car champion and four-time SuperNationals winner John Force. With eight races in the books for the 2012 NHRA season six of the wins have been captured by JFR drivers.
“I can’t say enough about how well the entire JFR team has been running this season. John started the season winning the Winternationals and he was in the final round of the Four-Wide Nationals. Neff has been to three finals and won in Houston,” said Hight, JFR president. “Courtney has been to a semi-final and we have matched up the last two races when she had one of the strongest Funny Cars. It has just been some bad draws that have kept her from winning more rounds. There is no doubt that Traxxas Funny Car is one of the toughest cars out here along with those two Castrol Funny Cars.”
TOUGH MATCH-UPS AWAIT JFR IN TOPEKA ELIMS
TOUGH MATCH-UPS AWAIT JFR IN TOPEKA ELIMS
TOPEKA, KS — When you have four Funny Cars competing for sixteen qualifying spots the odds are against you sometimes. The goal is to get all four Funny Cars qualified and then get as many round wins as possible.
As tough as the Funny Car category is this season in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series John Force Racing has faced more than its fair share of tough match-ups. Tomorrow another intra-team battle will unfold between points leader Robert Hight and Rookie of the Year top contender Courtney Force. This will be the third time this season Hight and Courtney have squared off. Hight has won four national events already this season and is looking for the elusive three-peat at Heartland Park Topeka while the youngest Force is looking for her first win of her career.
For Hight the match-up will be especially tough considering he had a hold of lane choice going into the final qualifying session only to see his teammate race around him by one thousandth of a second. Force’s run of 4.109 seconds was the quickest pass of the final qualifying session.
“It is always a tough deal to race a teammate in an early round. This Auto Club Mustang will be ready. We have had a couple little things bite us but we are right on the edge,” said Hight a five time finalist in 2012 and the run-away points leader. “Jimmy and Eric have a really good tune up and I have a lot of confidence in them. I want to with this race three times in a row. It will be tough but every race is tough. Cruz ran good yesterday and Courtney ran good today. We are right in the thick of things. We have won from the middle of the pack already this year.”
Hight has good reason to be confident in his crew. They have a 20-3 round win record this season and are 8-0 the last two years at the NHRA Dollar General Summer Nationals. He has only dropped one race in the first round this season and that was in the season-opening NHRA Winternationals.
As the Top Rookie of the Year candidate for Auto Club’s road to the Future award, Courtney Force, made a couple strong passes today for the third and fourth qualifying sessions of the weekend. She was able to qualify her Traxxas Ford Mustang in the No. 9 spot going into Saturday and make a 4.135 ET at 304.67 mph in the heat for her first pass of the day. They posted a 4.135 ET and were second quickest of the round, gaining the team two useful bonus points.
“Today we got to qualify earlier in the day than yesterday. Q3 and Q4 were pretty much in the hottest part of the day, but I think they were good conditions to learn from to get the car ready for race day. It’s always tough trying to get a car down a race track that’s hot, but we managed it and I think we ran pretty well,” said the rookie driver. “We ran a 4.135 elapsed time in the first session and were second quickest of that round of qualifying so we got two bonus points.”
Force, the youngest daughter of fifteen-time champion and legend of the sport of drag racing John Force, ran a 4.109 ET at 310.13 mph in her second session and ultimately switched qualifying positions with teammate and brother-in-law Robert Hight. She will go into Sunday’s eliminations in the top half of the field, the No. 8 spot.
“The second run out we were kind of learning some new things with me as the driver. I was trying to take in all of the information that my dad and my crew chief Ron Douglas were telling me. Ron had me placed in a little bit towards the centerline when we went up for Q4 and told me to launch and then ease back over and keep the car straight down the middle after that,” said the Cal State-Fullerton graduate. “There were apparently some issues with some spots in the track that we wanted to avoid so that’s why we were trying to do that.”
“It was a big accomplishment because you want to be subtle about those kinds of things or else you can cause the car to smoke the tires if you’re too aggressive. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but when you’re in that car and just inches in or out of the groove can cost you a run and you know, it’s a lot of money for a run, it’s important.”
Unfortunately for the John Force Racing clan, neither Force not Hight could get out of having each other for a first round match-up on Sunday. The spokesperson for Ford Racing’s Driving Skills for Life initiative will have lane choice over Robert Hight in the first round of eliminations on Sunday.
“I did manage to get around him (Hight) so we have lane choice, which is good for our Traxxas Ford Mustang. Robert is going to be a tough competitor, obviously, with four wins under his belt already this season. They have Jimmy Prock over there and a tough team, but you know what, I have a tough team too. I think Ron Douglas knows how to tune this race car and getting our car down the track today in the dead heat shows us that we should be good for tomorrow,” said Force.
While Hight will be looking for his fifth win teammate Mike Neff will be looking for his second win of the year and redemption at Heartland Park Topeka. As a finalist last year the driver and tuner of the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang is looking forward to getting back on track after a tough outing in Atlanta two weeks ago when he narrowly missed making the field. He did not suffer in the point standings but the misstep helped focus Neff.
In the killer conditions of Friday night Neff posted the No. 3 time of 4.063 seconds and today when the conditions warmed up he made a solid run to start the day – 4.150 seconds – and then he went for it in the final session.
“The positives so far have been that we made a good run last night when the conditions were good. There is a good chance we’ll get weather like that tomorrow morning. We made a nice run today when it was warm,” said Neff. “Today in the last session we tried to be aggressive and find out where the limit was. It didn’t go but we learned from that. So far it has been a pretty good weekend. This Castrol GTX Mustang is tunable. I feel like I have a good handle on it and I am going to go up there tomorrow morning and be aggressive. You have to be if you want to win in the class. There are too many good Funny Cars out there. I am excited to get to the track tomorrow.”
John Force has done more winning at Heartland Park Topeka than anyone else in the Funny Car class. In fact he has won the event nine times in the previous twenty-three events. His Castrol GTX HIGH MILEAGE Ford Mustang was consistent this weekend running ETs of 4.215, 4.135, 4.187 and 4.190. For the winningest driver in NHRA history consistency is OK but he knows he will have to step up tomorrow against veteran Johnny Gray.
“You can’t complain when you are all qualified and all your Mustangs are in the Top Ten in points. We have to do some damage tomorrow. I don’t like two cars racing each other but they will both race for the win. We’ll go on from there,” said Force. “We are spread out over the ladder which is good. I have had a lot of wins here for Castrol and we’ll try and get another one tomorrow. I am honored to be representing Carroll Shelby on all our Fords from my team to Tasca to Wilkerson. He was a great man and we will go out tomorrow and make him proud.”
Force holds a 10-6 career win record over Johnny Gray going into tomorrow’s eliminations.
* * * *
THE DRIVERS
JOHN FORCE, 63, Castrol GTX HIGH MILEAGE Ford Mustang
Qualifying: 12th quickest at 4.136 seconds, 306.60 mph
Bonus Qualifying Points: 0
First round opponent (W-L): Johnny Gray (10-6)
MIKE NEFF, 45, Castrol GTX Ford Mustang
Qualifying: 3rd quickest at 4.063 seconds, 311.05 mph
Bonus Qualifying Points: +2 (3rd quickest of Q2 and Q3)
First round opponent (W-L): Tony Pedregon (10-7)
ROBERT HIGHT, 42, Auto Club of Southern California Ford Mustang
Qualifying: 9th at 4.110 seconds, 306.88 mph
Bonus Qualifying Points: +1 (3rd quickest of Q1)
First round opponent (W-L): Courtney Force (2-0)
COURTNEY FORCE, 23, Traxxas Ford Mustang
Qualifying: 8th at 4.109 seconds, 310.13 mph
Bonus Qualifying Points: +5 (2nd quickest of Q3 and quickest of Q4)
First round opponent (W-L): Robert Hight (0-2)
* * * *
RACE SCHEDULE:
Sunday, May 20
Final Eliminations 11 a.m.
****
FOLLOW JOHN FORCE RACING AT www.twitter.com/jfr_racing
****
Contacts:
Dave Densmore Elon Werner Sarah Adams
Denswood Sports John Force Racing, Inc. John Force Racing Inc.
214-244-0008 214-244-1184 812-249-9823
denswood@aol.com Elon@johnforceracing.com sarah@johnforceracing.com
NEFF TOPS FOR JFR ON FRIDAY AT TOPEKA
NEFF TOPS FOR JFR ON FRIDAY AT TOPEKA
TOPEKA, KS — Mike Neff is well on his way to redeeming himself from his tough weekend in Atlanta where he missed the qualifying field. Tonight at Heartland Park Topeka under ideal conditions he tuned and drove his Castrol GTX Ford Mustang to the No. 3 provisional spot with a strong 4.063 second pass at 311.05 mph. He led the quartet of John Force Racing Ford Mustangs but his teammates will all carry times over into the final day of qualifying.
“We have had a string of bad luck and that run was not surprising. We were on track to run 4.15 in the first session. We have just had some weird stuff happen,” said Neff, the No. 2 driver in the Funny Car Full Throttle point standings. “We know it is all there and we just need things to go our way. I am not talking about anything special we just need to have a couple normal runs. It was nice to get a good run. Tomorrow we are going to go out and run as hard as we can under the track conditions. I feel good about where we are going into tomorrow and into Sunday.”
Full Throttle points leader Robert Hight was third quickest of the first qualifying session and will go into Saturdays final day of qualifying spot as the No. 8 Funny Car. His Auto Club Ford Mustang covered the 1,000 ft race track in 4.110 seconds at 306.88 mph. Hight will be looking to pick up a three-peat victory at the Dollar General Summer Nationals. As the defending event champion Hight has a lot of confidence in his Jimmy Prock tuned Mustang.
“We got the Auto Club Ford definitely qualified. We were on the bump right there. Jim Head was out in front of me on that run and this thing didn’t sound very good. It was popping and banging on the starting line,” said Hight. “We’ll fix it and we might change engines. Jimmy has a really good handle on this Funny Car. I don’t think we could have run a 4.04 like Cruz (Pedregon) but we definitely could have been up there with Neff and (No. 2 qualifier Bob) Tasca (III).”
Rookie of the Year candidate Courtney Force powered her Traxxas Funny Car to the provisional No. 9 spot on Friday night. Her time of 4.116 seconds at 308.64 mph improved over her first session time and gave the daughter of 15-time Funny Car champ a comfortable feeling going into tomorrow’s final day of qualifying.
In addition to her driving duties this weekend Courtney will be penning a daily diary for the Topeka Capital Journal. Fans will be able to check it out in the paper edition each day as well as online at www.cjonline.com.
John Force and his Castrol GTX HIGH MILEAGE Ford Mustang blazed the path for the Force Funny Cars in the second session. They went out and posted a 4.136 second time in his side by side run with Alexis DeJoria. For Force the seven-time Summer Nationals champion getting back on track is an important key to his success going into the summer months.
“Guido and Danny (co-crew chiefs Dean Antonelli and Danny DeGennaro) are really pulling together and getting my hotrod turned around. We are making some changes and it takes some time but we are running more consistently and we are making progress,” said Force. “Our goal for all our sponsors from Castrol, Ford, Auto Club, BrandSource, Traxxas, Mac Tools, and Freightliner is to get all our Funny Cars qualified and we are in good shape right now.”
* * * *
THE DRIVERS
JOHN FORCE, 63, Castrol GTX HIGH MILEAGE Ford Mustang
Qualifying: 11th quickest at 4.136 seconds, 306.60 mph
Bonus Qualifying Points: 0
MIKE NEFF, 45, Castrol GTX Ford Mustang
Qualifying: 3rd quickest at 4.063 seconds, 311.05 mph
Bonus Qualifying Points: +1 (3rd quickest of Q2)
ROBERT HIGHT, 42, Auto Club of Southern California Ford Mustang
Qualifying: 8th at 4.110 seconds, 306.88 mph
Bonus Qualifying Points: +1 (3rd quickest of Q1)
COURTNEY FORCE, 23, Traxxas Ford Mustang
Qualifying: 9th at 4.116 seconds, 308.64 mph
Bonus Qualifying Points: 0
* * * *
RACE SCHEDULE:
Saturday, May 19
3rd round qualifying 12:30 p.m.
4th round qualifying 3:00 p.m.
Sunday, May 20
Final Eliminations 11 a.m.
****
HIGHT -NEFF
HIGHT LOOKING FOR TRIPLE PLAY IN TOPEKA
TOPEKA, KS (May 14, 2012) — Last year in Topeka Robert Hight was attempting to set a couple of personal records and one giant team record when his Auto Club Ford Mustang rolled up to the starting line beside teammate Mike Neff in the NHRA Dollar General Summer Nationals final round. On the line for Hight was the possibility of defending his 2010 Summer Nationals win and he was also gunning for his first three-race win streak. The big prize for Hight or Neff was winning the 200th NHRA Funny Car race for John Force Racing. Hight got the win 4.284 to Neff’s 4.562 and kept his winning streak alive.
“Getting that win in Topeka last year was pretty amazing. We came in early for the press conference and Don Garlits was there. We got to talk for a few minutes and that really got me fired up for the weekend. I love talking with legends like Garlits, Prudhomme, and Bernstein. I wanted to repeat at Topeka and also keep that winning streak going. I had never won three races in a row so that was really a big deal for me,” said Hight.
“We also knew that there was the chance to win the 200th Funny Car race for John Force Racing. I really wanted to that honor. I had seen John win so many big races that to be the driver to get the 200th I thought that would be pretty cool. It worked out great because it was me and Neff in the final so there was no pressure. You knew one of us was going to get the win and we just let it all hang out in the final.”
After that win Hight raced to his fourth consecutive final before falling to Matt Hagan in the final round at Chicago. Hight won an impressive fifteen consecutive rounds during his winning streak. Hight used some of that experience this season when he got on a roll winning four races in a row including the tough Four-Wide Nationals. Ironically, Hight won four races in a row, but only equaled his personal-best round win record at 15 due to the three round Four-Wide race. Hight set his latest round win record at 17 consecutive rounds when he continued winning and raced to the semi-finals at Houston.
“Last year we got three wins in a row and this year we have won four in a row. I want to get three in a row at Topeka. There are just a handful of Funny Car drivers that have won the same event three years in a row and I would love to join that club,” said Hight.
If Hight wins this weekend he will become the third Funny Car driver to win the Dollar General Summer Nationals three consecutive years. The first to get the three-peat was Funny Car world champion turned Top Fuel crew chief Marc Oswald who won from 1989-91. A decade later Tony Pedregon took three Wally’s in a row at Topeka from 2001-03. Only five drivers – Don Prudhomme, Kenny Bernstein, Oswald, Pedregon and John Force – have won three consecutive Funny Car titles or more at the same event in NHRA history. The longest event winning streak is held by John Force who won the historic Gatornationals five consecutive years from 1992-96.
Hight has a commanding lead – 203 points over No. 2 drivers Mike Neff and Ron Capps – in the points racking up 702 points in just seven races. If his stumble – a first round loss to No. 16 qualifier Todd Lesenko – at the season opening Winternationals is subtracted he is averaging 110 points per race. This is 85% of all available points. As it stands, even with the Winternationals included Hight has garnered an astonishing 77% of all available points for Funny Cars over the first seven races.
“Having this points lead is a luxury. (Crew chief) Jimmy Prock and my guys have been giving me a great race car. We got to the final in Atlanta and gave Capps a run for his money. I think if we would not have dropped a cylinder versus Head in the semis we might have had lane choice and then who knows what the outcome could have been. Capps’ Funny Car has been running great lately and so has this Auto Club Ford Mustang,” said Hight.
Prior to the Dollar General Summer Nationals, Hight will be one of many NHRA drivers attending the Speedfest in downtown Topeka. The free event will give fans the chance to meet a number of drivers as well as participate in contests, racing simulators, music, food, prizes and race car displays. The free event is scheduled from 11:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m. on 8th Street and Kansas Avenue.
“I am really looking forward to the Speedfest in Topeka. I know Brittany Force’s BrandSource Top Fuel dragster will be on display. The fans in Kansas and the Midwest are great,” said Hight.
AFTER ATLANTA STUMBLE, NEFF BACK ON TRACK
TOPEKA, Kan. – Mike Neff’s qualifying failure at the most recent event in the NHRA Full Throttle drag racing series prompted the versatile 45-year-old to pay a grudging compliment to the Countdown to 1 playoff system that burned him so badly a year ago.
“Days like that are one thing that is positive about the Countdown,” he said of his stumble at the Summit Southern Nationals at Atlanta, Ga. “Fortunately, that’s not going to hurt us too bad.”
In fact, Neff didn’t even lose a position in the driver standings. He will begin his bid for a Funny Car victory in this week’s 24th annual Dollar General Summer Nationals at Heartland Park-Topeka trailing only teammate Robert “Top Gun” Hight in points.
That is not to say that the man who is both driver AND crew chief on the Castrol GTX® Ford Mustang is mellowing his stance on a system that last year transformed his virtually insurmountable 215-point regular season lead into a margin easily overcome by not one, not two, but four different drivers including eventual champion Matt Hagan.
“These early races are worth nothing at the end of the season,” Neff said of the 17 events leading up to the Countdown. “They’re going to reshuffle our points after Indy anyway. Sure, you want to qualify at every race – and you want to win, but you’re going to have good days and bad days. We’re trying some different stuff right now and some of it’s working and some of it isn’t.”
In fact, a mechanical issue was Neff’s undoing at Atlanta.
“On the very first run, it was running down there and ‘pop,’ there goes the blower,” said the World Championship-winning crew chief to Gary Scelzi (2005) and John Force (2010). “We’re thinking ignition, so we replaced all that.
“Then, (on the last run) we were running good enough to qualify and the cap for the spool where the barrel valve slides in (came off),” he explained. “Basically, it unplugged the barrel valve while the fuel was in it. That made it run lean and it popped the blower.
“It wasn’t going to be anything earthshattering,” he admitted, “(but) it was going to qualify. That’s just drag racing. I guess we used up all our luck to get the win in Houston. We’ll be fine.”
Except for Atlanta, where he DNQed for just the third time in his driving career, Neff has been one of the top two or three contenders at every race this season. Runner-up at Pomona, Calif., and Phoenix, Ariz., he finally won at Houston despite the erratic performance of his usually flawless Ford.
Trying to become the first Funny Car racer in 38 years to win the series championship while serving in the dual role of driver/crew chief, the former motocross racer and off-road truck mechanic knows that whatever success he enjoys right now is inconsequential in his pursuit of the ultimate goal.
“It’s all about timing,” he said. “These early races are about finding the limits and getting ready for the Countdown. It’s all about who has the best car in those last six races. You could win all the other races and it still wouldn’t matter. It comes down to a six-race season.”
That said, the seven-time tour winner still is committed to winning as many of the remaining “preliminary” races as possible, a quest that begins Friday in an event in which he was runner-up to teammate Hight just a year ago.
FORCE IS STILL WITH US – GOING STRONG AT 63
TOPEKA, Kan. – The word itself is a bit oxymoron-ish, but there’s little doubt that John Force is one of the nation’s most prolific sexagenarians.
A world champion at 61 and an NHRA national event winner at 62, the now 63-year-old driver of the Castrol GTX® HIGH MILEAGE™ Ford Mustang tries to add to his already bulging resume this week when he returns to Heartland Park-Topeka, site of one of the most memorable and emotional of his 134 career victories.
It was four years ago that Force beat Tim Wilkerson in the final round of the Dollar General Summer Nationals, a Full Throttle tour event contested this week for the 24th time at Heartland Park. It was his only win of the 2008 season, significant not because it was particularly lucrative (the standard NHRA purse applied), nor because it was a milestone like, say, his 100th career win six years earlier in Houston, Texas.
It simply was his first victory since almost losing his life in a 2007 crash at the Texas Motorplex in Dallas. It was a win that doctors, quite frankly, told him would never come after they put him back together in six hours of surgery following a 315 mile-an-hour collision that left him with broken bones in every appendage.
As a result of that single win, the Summer Nationals forever will be special to the former truck driver even though he had enjoyed considerable previous success at Heartland Park and at the old Kansas City International Raceway.
In fact, other than his home track at Pomona, Calif., and the track Brainerd International Raceway in Minnesota, nowhere has Force won more tour events than he has at Heartland-Park. Nine times he has put a Castrol GTX Funny Car in the winners’ circle. Two times he has set the NHRA national record.
This time, he’s hoping to work his Kansas magic to put his 2012 Full Throttle title bid back on track.
Since winning the season-opening Kragen O’Reilly Winternationals at Pomona, Calif., Force admittedly has struggled to keep pace with his John Force Racing teammates, particularly son-in-law Robert Hight, who has won four of seven races this season and is the two-time defending Summer Nationals champ.
Currently eighth in points, Force’s sense of urgency is somewhat diminished because of the 2007 implementation of the current playoff system. Under the rules in place when he won his first 14 titles, being 348 points down to the leader after seven races would be cause for panic. Now, though, Force knows that all he has to do is maintain a Top 10 berth and anything can happen in the six-race Countdown.
“We’ve been struggling,” he said. “This (entire set-up) is new not just to ‘Guido’ (crew chief Dean Antonelli), but also to Danny DeGennaro (the assistant crew chief who came over this year from Cruz Pedregon’s team). Jimmy Prock (Hight’s crew chief) and Mike Neff are trying to teach them. They’ll get it. We’ll be fine.”
Force’s biggest concern is that people will think that his recent induction into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame at Talladega, Ala., is an indication that his racing career is at an end. Nothing could be further from the truth.
“I always thought they put you in the Hall of Fame when you were done racing or dead,” said the 1996 Driver of the Year for all American moto racing. “Well, I’m not done racing and I promise you, I ain’t dead. I still love it and I’m going to keep on racing until someone tells me I can’t do it anymore.”
Even then, there obviously is no guarantee that he’ll listen.
A TOP ROOKIE GOING INTO TOPEKA
TOPEKA, Kan. (May 15, 2012) – Coming out of a successful weekend for John Force Racing as a whole, Courtney Force looks to boost her top ten position in the points and go some rounds at Heartland Park Topeka for the 24th annual Dollar General NHRA Summernationals, May 18-20.
“I’m so excited going into the Topeka race this week and I’m confident in my Traxxas Ford Mustang and my team that we can perform well. My car has been pretty consistent this entire season and coming off of a good weekend in Atlanta, I think we will have a competitive race car going into this weekend,” said Force.
Force qualified in the no. 9 spot in Atlanta for the 32nd annual NHRA Summit Racing Southern Nationals. She upset veteran Jack Beckman in the first round match-up and then gave teammate Robert Hight a run for his money in second round. Force was quickest off the line by .020 of a second over the 2009 champion. Although she lost, Courtney was pleased with her effort against her brother-in-law, who won by just .013 of a second.
Force, the youngest daughter of 15-time Funny Car champion John Force, is currently in 10th place in the Full Throttle Funny Car standings. She is the highest positioned in front of Alexis DeJoria (15th in Funny Car) and Khalid AlBalooshi (13th in Top Fuel), her two main competitors for Auto Club’s Road to the Future award for “Rookie of the Year,” a prestigious award that recognizes the most accomplished rookie driver of the season.
“It’s definitely an amazing feeling to be in the top ten in points so far this season and I’m really hoping we can stay in it. There are so many tough competitors in the Funny Car category, so we are just going to have to be consistent and earn those points. I’m so proud of my team and obviously couldn’t be in the top ten without their dedication and hard work,” said Force.
Force has the most round wins, five, compared to DeJoria, one, and alBalooshi, zero. She also defeated DeJoria in their only head to head race this season, the first round of the O’Reilly Spring Nationals in Houston two weeks ago.
This weekend, Force will be partaking in several media opportunities to advance the race at Heartland Park Topeka. A main focus for her, aside from racing, will be to give fans inside information as to what she is experiencing during the weekend. Force will be writing a daily column for the Topeka Capital Journal that can be found in the newspaper Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
“I’m looking forward to sharing my experience at the Topeka race with a behind the scenes article for the Topeka Capital Journal. I’m excited to share with fans a look into my life and our team throughout the entire race weekend, while sharing about our progress throughout the race with a personal twist. On top of that, who knows what will happen with dad around,” Force said.
JFR WIN STREAK ENDS IN SOUTHERN NATIONALS FINAL
TOP FUEL – Steve Torrence, Kilgore, Texas, Capco Contractors dragster, 3.893, 320.66 mph, def. Tony Schumacher, Long Grove, Ill., U.S. Army dragster, 4.913, 169.44 mph.
PRO STOCK – Greg Anderson, Mooresville, N.C., Summit Racing Pontiac GXP, 6.649, 208.26 mph, def. Jason Line, Troutman, N.C., Summit Racing Pontiac GXP, 6.618, 209.04 mph.
PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE – Eddie Krawiec, Englishtown, N.Y., Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson V-Rod, 6.905, 195.53 mph, def. Michael Ray, New Braunfels, Texas, St. Jude Children’s Ranch Buell, 7.036, 187.94 mph.
JOHN FORCE, 63, Castrol GTX HIGH MILEAGE Ford Mustang
Qualifying: 13th at 4.190 seconds, 297.55 mph.
Bonus Qualifying Points: 0
Race results: Lost to Cruz Pedregon.
Qualifying: 17th at 4.357 seconds, 240.55 mph (DNQ)
Bonus Qualifying Points: 0
Race results: Not applicable.
Qualifying: 1st at 4.104 seconds, 308.35 mph
Bonus Qualifying Points: 7 (No. 3 in session 1; No. 1 in sessions 2 and 4)
Race results: Beat Bob Bode, Courtney Force, Jim Head; lost to Ron Capps.
Qualifying: 9th at 4.156 seconds, 305.98 mph
Bonus Qualifying Points: 0
Race results: Beat Jack Beckman; lost to Robert Hight.
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