JFR EXPANDS
EFFORT WITH CASTROL EDGE TOP FUEL DRAGSTER
Rookie
Brittany Force Gets Historic Opportunity in NHRA Mello Yello Series
YORBA LINDA, Calif. – John Force
Racing, Inc., NHRA drag racing’s most successful Funny Car team, announced
Thursday an historic expansion that for the first time will give it a presence
in a professional racing category other than the one in which it has been
dominant for almost a quarter century.
While the team again will campaign
four fuel cars, one will be noticeably different from the others. After winning a record 217 NHRA Funny Car
races and 17
Winston,
Powerade and Full Throttle Funny Car championships, JFR this year for the first
time in its 35-year NHRA history will field a Top Fuel dragster.
Powered by the potent Ford BOSS 500
nitro engine developed by JFR in collaboration with Ford Racing, the Castrol
EDGE Top Fuel dragster will be driven by rookie Brittany Force and maintained
by crew chief Dean “Guido” Antonelli and assistant crew chief Eric Lane.
Antonelli, who guided Ashley Force
Hood to the Auto Club of Southern California’s Road to the Future Award
(Rookie-of-the-Year) in 2007 and tuned Force to victory in last year’s
inaugural Traxxas Nitro Shootout, gets his first assignment in Top Fuel as
mentor to another of Force’s racing daughters.
Lane, 39, moves to Top Fuel after 12
seasons with the Auto Club Ford Mustang Funny Car, the last four as assistant
crew chief to Jimmy Prock.
“I’m excited because I’ve only ever
worked on Funny Cars,” Antonelli said. “Just in the testing we’ve done so far,
it appears you can be quite a bit more aggressive with a dragster.
“It’s an exciting opportunity and
I’m honored that Brittany would want me to be her crew chief and that John
trusts me with her,” said the man who celebrated 10 series championships as the
Team Leader on Force’s crew from 1995 through 2006.
Meanwhile, Force is looking forward
to the new season for multiple reasons, the least of which is not the fact that
Mike Neff will be back calling the shots on his Castrol GTX Mustang, just as he
did when Force won his last championship in 2010.
The 134-time tour winner also
believes that reducing the Funny Car inventory will make his team better
overall.
“With four cars, you’re always
running into each other,” said the 134-time tour winner. “I think we’ll be a better with three
cars. Courtney and Neff ran great last
year and we’ve worked really hard to make sure we have three Fords that can run
for the Mello Yello championship this year.”
Indeed, JFR President Robert Hight,
driver of the Auto Club Ford, and 24-year-old Courtney Force, second year
driver of the Traxxas Ford, also are looking forward to the new season.
Hight, the 2009 series champion and
the biggest winner in the Funny Car category over his eight seasons (27 wins),
will try to keep alive a trio of streaks in a car on which his crew chief will
be assisted this year by veteran Danny DeGennaro.
A 43-year-old former world class
marksman, Hight has won at least two races in every one of his eight pro
season, has started No. 1 at least once every year and has led the Funny Car
points every year, an performance without precedent.
As for Courtney, she just hopes to
maintain the momentum generated in her Rookie-of-the-Year season in the Traxxas
Ford.
“I’m really looking forward to the
new season,” said the spokeswoman for Ford’s Driving Skills for Life
initiative. “Hopefully, we can just pick
up where we left off. We finished in the
fifth spot and I really couldn’t have asked for a better first year. I still plan to focus on the basics of
driving but, at the same time, I’m looking forward to pushing myself, learning
new things and improving my driving skills.
“Having my sister Brittany out there
racing in the Top Fuel category for the first time is just going to make the
2013 season that much more exciting. I
know she is really pumped up and ready to race.
I can’t wait to kick off the season at Pomona.”
Force also is excited, especially
about his return to Castrol GTX colors after several years promoting other
Castrol brands including Castrol GTX HIGH MILEAGE, Castrol EDGE, Castrol
SYNTEC, Castrol START UP and others.
“We started with the Castrol GTX
brand and after 26 years, they’re still with us,” said the 63-year-old racing
icon. “I’ve still got some racing in me
and this year is special because I have Robert and two of my girls racing with
me. When you’re a dad, you want your
kids to be involved in the things you do and to have all four of my girls
working in the business is really something that’s hard to believe.
“Ashley’s running John Force
entertainment and Adria, my oldest, who’s married to Robert, has always handled
the financials as CFO of John Force Racing, Inc.”
-www.johnforceracing.com-
Team Castrol Top Fuel summary (1987-1995)
Gary Ormsby, Castrol GTX
dragster, 1987-1991, 19 final rounds, 11 No. 1 qualifiers, 13 wins, last on
Sept. 16, 1990 over Gene Snow at Reading, Pa.
Pat Austin, Castrol GTX
dragster, 1991-1995, 8 final rounds, 3 No. 1 qualifiers, 5 wins, last on May
22, 1994 over Don Prudhomme at Englishtown, N.J.
Castrol Top
Fuel totals: 27 final rounds, 14 No. 1 qualifiers, 18 wins, one
championship
Team Castrol Top Fuel stats:
Last race: Oct. 29,
1995, Pat Austin, Castrol GTX dragster, at Pomona, Calif.
Last round
win:
Oct. 1, 1995, Pat Austin, Castrol GTX dragster, over Blaine Johnson at Topeka,
Kansas
Last
semifinal:
Oct. 1, 1995, Pat Austin, Castrol GTX dragster, lost to Mike Dunn at Topeka,
Kansas
Last final
round appearance: July 30, 1995, Pat Austin, Castrol GTX dragster, lost to
Mike Dunn at Sonoma, Calif.
Last NHRA tour
victory:
May 22, 1994, Pat Austin, Castrol GTX dragster, over Don Prudhomme at
Englishtown, N.J.
Last No. 1
qualifier:
August 9, 1992, Pat Austin, Castrol GTX dragster, at Seattle, Wash.
Last series
championship: 1989, Gary Ormsby, Castrol GTX dragster, over Joe Amato by
77 points.
Last national
ET record:
Jan. 31, 1992, Pat Austin, Castrol GTX dragster, at Pomona, Calif. (4.893)
Last national
speed record: April 25, 1993, Pat Austin, Castrol GTX dragster, at
Atlanta, Ga. (303.64 mph)
John Force Racing Team Stats:
Funny Car
races:
599
Funny Car
final rounds: 370
Funny Car
rounds won:
2,115
Funny Car
victories:
217
Funny Car No.
1 starts:
246
Funny Car
Championships: 17
Races in other
pro categories: 0