JOHN FORCE EXPECTS FOUR-WIDE NATIONALS TO THRILL FANS
CHARLOTTE, NC (April 20, 2016) — The winningest driver in NHRA history knows that the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals presented by Lowes Foods is a completely different “animal.” Even with 143 Funny Car wins to his credit John Force’s lone win at the Four-Wide coming at the inaugural event in 2010 still sticks in his head.
“I was so confused at that first Four-Wide Nationals. I went up to the starting line on my scooter every chance I got to just watch how the Christmas Tree worked. I was up there for Pro Stock Motorcycle and Pro Stock just to get a feel for how that whole deal worked. I raced in the exhibition race the year before but until you make that first pass with three other Funny Cars all around you, you don’t know what to expect,” said Force.
Fans can expect to see Force along with the three other John Force Racing race cars continue to have early season success as the fifth stop of the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series gets started on Friday with Nitro qualifying at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. at zMAX Dragway. Force is currently second in the Funny Car point standings trailing only his teammate and recent Gatornationals winner Robert Hight, driver of the Auto Club Chevrolet Camaro Funny Car.
“We have seen all our Chevrolet Camaro Funny Cars start the season running pretty well. I made it to the final in Phoenix for PEAK and Brittany has a win and runner-up for Monster Energy. Courtney has the Traxxas Funny Car running really fast with crew chiefs Danny Hood and Ronnie Thompson leading the charge on that team. I am really happy with how the brain-trust is working together with Mike Neff leading the Funny Cars and Alan Johnson and Brian Husen over on the Top Fuel dragster,” complimented Force.
Force has raced to the final quad at the Four-Wide Nationals three times in six appearances. He won the inaugural Four-Wide race from the No. 6 qualifying spot and narrowly edged out daughter Ashley Force Hood for the win. That was the first of two John Force Racing 1-2 finishes at the unique race. In 2014 Hight outran Force for the victory. With three wins for the JFR in six races the Four-Wide has been a positive experience for Force and the rest of the team.
“This is the heart of NASCAR country. We are using Rick Hendrick City Chevrolet cars to drive around town for media events and to go to dinner. I love racing at Bruton and Marcus Smith built race tracks. Everything is first class and you get so many fans. I can’t wait to get into my PEAK Camaro this weekend and go some rounds. I still have to go up on the starting line and watch that tree but I am learning,” said Force.
The quick start to the season has Force as motivated as ever to pursue his unprecedented 17th NHRA Funny Car championship. The off-season work the teams put in to build on the end of season momentum has paid off and Force continues to dedicate himself to a work-out routine and constant motion in the boardrooms and even at race tracks on off weekends.
“Last weekend I was at the Long Beach Grand Prix. My last off weekend before the season really heats up and I spent a full day chasing around sponsors like Traxxas, Chevrolet, and Auto Club. It was awesome. I was in my PEAK uniform shirt talking to the media and legends like Chip Ganassi and Mario Andretti. The whole time I am thinking I can’t wait to get into my race car in Charlotte. I am not a good spectator,” summed up Force.
BRITTANY FORCE READY TO PUT MONSTER ENERGY DRAGSTER BACK IN WINNERS CIRCLE
CHARLOTTE, NC (April 20, 2016) — Heading into the 7th annual NHRA Four-Wide Nationals presented by Lowes Foods Brittany Force and the Monster Energy team are focused and excited. Racing at zMAX Dragway in front of a huge crowd has the recent Gatornationals winner ready to pick up her second win and maintain her points lead in the Top Fuel class.
“I go into (the Four-Wide Nationals) with a whole different mindset, just because it is different. I enjoy the race because it is a challenge, and the nice thing about it is it’s not just a challenge for me but it’s a challenge for all the drivers because we haven’t been doing it that long. For me, I can’t speak for all drivers out there, but pulling up to that starting line looking at that tree with all those bulbs and knowing that you have that many people in the lane next to you, it’s a little overwhelming,” said Force on a recent national media teleconference.
“I have to go up there, I’ve done it the last few years, you’ll see me up there on the starting line before we run, and I’ll just be practicing. If I know I’m going up in lane two, I’ll be standing up in lane two before I go out there and just mentally practicing with the car in front of me because for me, I need to do that. I don’t want to get lost up there. I don’t want to screw up, and I want to know where I’m at on the racetrack and make sure I’m doing my job right. So for me, it’s just — yeah, my routine will change a little bit, and you’ll see me up there,” continued Force.
This season has seen wholesale changes for the fourth year Top Fuel driver. This is the first full season with Monster Energy on board and the 2013 NHRA Rookie of the Year is also learning every day from a new crew chief tandem led by Alan Johnson and Brian Husen. For Johnson, a surefire Hall of Fame tuner, working with Force has been a pleasant and positively challenging experience.
“Brittany of all my drivers that I’ve had in the past is probably near the top as far as her passion to want to do this, so she’s fully committed to driving a dragster and winning. So that part makes it easy. There’s certainly things that she’s going to have to do and adapt to and buy into, but as long as she has that passion, which it appears that she does, it’s going to be — she’s going to end up being a great driver,” said Johnson recently.
Force enjoys the challenges of racing Top Fuel and has excelled every year she has been behind the wheel. The second youngest daughter of NHRA legend John Force raced to eight final rounds to get her breakthrough win in Gainesville and to many people’s surprise that win was Force’s first Wally at any level of NHRA competition. That focus and drive have been Force’s constant companions since she first sat in a Super Comp dragster.
“You know, there’s still going to be challenges. That’s not going to change. Really my focus is the same thing it always is: Doing my job as a driver, making sure I’m listening to the advice that Alan gives me, that Brian gives me, focusing on what we need to do together as a whole to get the car down the racetrack and turn those win lights on Sunday,” said Force. “You know, I’ve learned so much over the years from so many different teachers, so many different crew chiefs I’ve been involved with, so many other drivers, and I kind of just keep all of that. That’s stuff I’ll never forget, and I believe it got me — it’s definitely gotten me where I am today. But every round, every run you make down the racetrack, you learn something new.”
HIGHT HAS STRATEGY FOR THIRD FOUR-WIDE WIN IN CHARLOTTE
CHARLOTTE, NC (April 20, 2016) — Robert Hight and the Auto Club Chevrolet Camaro Funny Car team have a strategy for winning an unprecedented third NHRA Four-Wide Nationals presented by Lowes Foods. At every NHRA race there is a lot going on at the starting line and now at zMAX Dragway this weekend that activity will be doubled. The 34-time Funny Car winner is not reluctant to share his plan because it is simple in its execution.
“The only strategy is to not let the Four-Wide affect you. You are paying attention to two other cars you normally don’t have to deal with. To me I don’t want to know who is in the other lanes. I don’t want to think about their tendencies whether they are usually slow and they are in lane three. I don’t want to think about that. You really want to eliminate thinking. I just want to roll up there and be ready to do my own thing,” explained Hight, who recently won the Gatornationals this season.
For the crewman turned driver turned world champion the head games get turned into technical equations. Years ago Hight was not rattled by the high pressure of working on John Force’s race car as Hall of Fame tuners Austin Coil and Bernie Fedderly directed Force to championship after championship. Hight has taken those steely nerves and that attention to detail with him into the cockpit.
“You can’t overthink it. It is really no different if there are ten lanes or two lanes. You can only control what is in your lane. That is all you can ever do,” claims Hight, who currently sits in the No. 1 points position for Funny Car. “The outside lanes are probably the easiest to stage because you are looking at the outside bulbs on the tree. Lane two is the lane that is the most confusing.”
Hight picked up wins at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in 2012 and 2014. In both instances he was joined by 16-time Funny Car champion John Force in the final quad. Hight’s first Four-Wide win came over a Who’s Who of drivers as he outran Force, Cruz Pedregon and Ron Capps to get the win. The unforgiving nature of drag racing is lessened slightly at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals and Hight is ready to use that to his advantage if necessary.
“The Four-Wide gives you two second chances. Normally in drag racing you never get a second chance. You lose and you are eliminated. You are going home. It is over. At the Four-Wide in the first and second round on Sunday you get a second chance,” explained Hight. “You just need to be the first or second car to the finish line in either the first or second round. If you can do that twice then you are in the last quad racing for the win. I look at the odds and if you can go up there and not get distracted, race your own race with a car that is running well you ought to be able to get to the final quad. I like the odds of that.”
The high energy racing environment of Charlotte also has Hight and the Auto Club team ready to perform at the highest level. Each year the crowds get bigger and both old and new fans come from around the East Coast to watch a once a season racing spectacle.
“The interest in Charlotte for this race is definitely growing every year. It is deceiving at the Charlotte race track because that track holds way more fans than any other track we go to. We have had great crowds there and that track is so huge,” said Hight. “The truth is the Four-Wide race draws the biggest crowd that we see at either Charlotte race. To me that tells me that the fans love it. There are a lot of local people that come out for the race plus I think there are people that fly from the west coast to see the four-wide at least once because Charlotte is the only place to see it.”
COURTNEY FORCE ENTERS 100TH CAREER FUNNY CAR RACE WITH TRAXXAS BY HER SIDE
CHARLOTTE, NC (April 20, 2016) – The 7th Annual NHRA Four-Wide Nationals presented by Lowes Foods at zMAX Dragway not only marks the fifth race of the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello season, but a huge career milestone for Courtney Force and Traxxas, her primary sponsor and The Fastest Name in Radio Control. The youngest daughter of 16-time Champion John Force transitioned into the Funny Car category in 2012 after competing in Super Comp and Top Alcohol Dragster. She quickly gained notoriety by racing to her first Funny Car victory in only her 15th race. She posted two No. 1 qualifying positions during that year with her first coming at the prestigious Chevrolet Performance U. S. Nationals at Indianapolis and was named the Auto Club Road to the Future award winner which recognized her as the 2012 NHRA Rookie of the Year.
“The Four-Wide Nationals is a very unique race that we get to run only once a year. It’s a very different experience for the drivers and especially for the fans to be part of 40,000 horsepower on the track at once. You can’t see a race like this anywhere else.”
“It’s amazing to think this is my 100th event. I’ve learned so much along the way from the start in my Traxxas Funny Car to now and I hope we can make a great performance this weekend for our 100th race! I’m so thankful for all the support of my sponsors to have been able to make it to 100 events and especially Traxxas for being with me from the very beginning of my Funny Car career. It’s so awesome to think they were with me for race number one and now we are going into 100! Really hoping to put this Traxxas team in the Winner’s Circle this weekend to show them our appreciation through all these years,” said Force.
Last year Force qualified No. 1 at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals with a 4.011 second pass at 312.35 mph. Force has since posted a career-best ET of 3.893 seconds (Gainesville 2016) and a career-best speed of 329.34 mph (Pomona1 2016).
“It’s controlled chaos,” said Force. “The challenge of the whole race and pressure it puts on the teams and the drivers to change things up; that’s why this is a race I would love to win. We qualified No. 1 here last year, but I feel like my car is performing at its best right now. We are really hunting that first 2016 win,” said Force.
“As a driver it is a challenge because your weekly race routine is completely switched up. We have a different Christmas Tree to adjust to and depending on the lane, you have to train your eyes to pre-stage your car while looking across the tree. It’s also a challenge for crew chiefs because like a normal event, you get four qualifying runs, so you’re only getting one pass in each lane to get it figured out on race day.
The 27-year-old newlywed has come a long way since first stepping in her 10,000 horsepower Traxxas Camaro. She raced to four victories in 2014 alone and became the first female Funny Car driver to record four wins in a season. She also won the 100th race by a female driver in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series at Topeka and passed sister Ashley Force Hood as the winningest female Funny Car driver.
“Some of my favorite highlights throughout my first 100 races would be the 3-second passes and the speed records we’ve had, but mostly the wins I’ve shared with my team and Traxxas. On the top of that list was becoming the winningest female in Funny Car with seven wins and getting that 100th win for women in Topeka while qualifying No. 1 the same weekend as my sister Brittany,” said Force.
Now that the teams and drivers have enjoyed two weekends off since the last event in Las Vegas, Force says she’s ready to be back in her fire suit this weekend.
“It was a great couple of weeks off. I kept myself busy with a commercial filming for Sunoco in Charlotte then (husband) Graham (Rahal’s) Indy Car race in Long Beach. It was great to be able to attend the race and awesome to see the participation with some of our sponsors. We also got to see the Stadium Super Trucks and Traxxas driver Sheldon Creed win it all at the Long Beach Grand Prix! It was like watching the Traxxas Radio Control Cars come to life at such a historic event which was amazing,” said Force.