JFR ALL IN AFTER FINAL QUAL AT SOUTHERN NATIONALS
COMMERCE, GA (May 10, 2013) – With only one day to get down the track and get qualified for the rescheduled 33rd annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals John Force Racing met their first goal. Led by Courtney Force, the No. 6 qualifier in Funny Car, John Force Racing is set up to possibly advance three Funny Cars to the semi-finals.
Courtney’s Traxxas Ford Mustang set the pace in the first session making the quickest run of the Funny Car category. For the second year driver it was a welcome feeling to be at the top of the field even if it was just for one session. She was followed by her brother-in-law Robert Hight and father John Force.
“It is tough when you come out knowing you are only going to get two chances to get qualified. It really puts a lot of pressure on the driver and the crew. Our Traxxas Ford Mustang team went out strong and ran a 4.10 and put us in the No. 1 spot,” said Force, the No. 1 qualifier for the season opening NHRA Winternationals. “It was great to see Robert Hight and my dad, John Force, in the standings two and three after the first session. To have all the JFR Fords 1-2-3 and then Wilkerson at No. 4 was pretty cool for Ford Racing. We picked up some points for those runs.”
In the last session of the day Force was running beside Hight and her Traxxas Mustang stayed hooked up posting a solid 4.118 second run giving her one of the most consistent ET averages of the class, 4.100 and 4.118.
“The second pass was pretty good. We didn’t improve but it was a solid run. That is great for us going into tomorrow. We have some confidence and we will be ready for Del Worsham in the first round. We’ll have lane choice and hopefully that will give us a little bit of an advantage,” said Force.
John Force will race his 135th different opponent when he squares off against one of his former crewman Chad Head in the first round. Force, No. 9 qualifier, will give up lane choice to the rookie.
“It will be exciting. His dad (former driver and current crew-chief Jim Head) is a veteran and he knows these tracks when they are loose. They can put up big numbers. They ran that 4.01 in Charlotte so we will give them a race and they are a great family,” said Force.
In the first session Force had the third quickest ET and in the second and final session today crew chief Mike Neff was looking for an aggressive race day tune-up. The Castrol GTX Ford Mustang will try and find the winner’s circle 8th time tomorrow. His last win at Atlanta Dragway was 2005 when he beat teammate Robert Hight then a rookie himself by .002 seconds.
“We ran good out of the box and it helped with the Funny Cars because we knew we would be in. We are still in the learning process with the Castrol EDGE Top Fuel dragster. It is a new team with a rookie driver but in that second session they got it in there. She recovered and came back and got into the show in No. 9 and she’ll race Clay Millican, a good racer,” said Force when he was asked to evaluate the team’s performance today.
Robert Hight and the Auto Club Mustang continue to look for the consistency that will continue to move them up the Mello Yello point standings. They produced on the first run and then in the final session they took a shot at a race day set-up.
“The number one goal today was to get into the show for tomorrow. You never know on these rescheduled races what can happen so we came out in the first session and (crew chief) Jimmy (Prock) put up a good number. That got us in and then in the second session you start thinking about race day. We knew we were going to be in the top half so we would have lane choice. It looks like we have Johnny Gray again in the first round. We lost to him in Houston so we’ll try and get after him tomorrow with this Auto Club Ford Mustang,” said Hight , a finalist at last year’s Southern Nationals.
Coming off a weekend of disappointment in Houston Brittany Force and the Castrol EDGE Top Fuel dragster team were behind the eight ball with only two shots at getting in the show. The team has qualified for five of the previous six races but as a new team in a new category qualifying runs are just as valuable as elimination rounds sometimes. Losing sessions robs the team of experience and data.
“It does get stressful especially with my dad and he is right there every second giving me tips and advice. Right before my last run he had his head in my cockpit telling me a hundred things at once but I know he is only trying to be helpful. These short days are difficult for our teams and for me as a driver,” said Force. “When you lose those other two runs, that is experience and data that we don’t get. We would have liked to have had those two runs for down the road. That is the way the game works out some time. Everybody out here only got two runs.”
Today in the final session the Castol EDGE Top Fueler slipped out of the field for a few minutes as Bob Vandergriff Jr improved on his first session time and went around the rookie driver from Yorba Linda, California. The Force kept her composure and drove her dragster right down the track and into the top half of the field eventually winding up 9th in the field.
“I was right behind Bob Vandergriff Jr so I knew depending on his run whether I would be in the show or not. I tried not to let it get to me or bother me. I was focusing on whatever happened still doing my same routine. He got in and bumped us out for a few minutes but then when we ran we jumped in at the No. 8 spot. I was really happy about that and this Castrol EDGE team is great. I am looking forward to running Clay Millican tomorrow,” concluded Force.