STRONG QUALIFYING EFFORT HAS JFR SET FOR FOUR-WIDE SUCCESS
CONCORD, NC – Heading into the elimination rounds of the 7th annual NHRA Four-Wide Nationals presented by Lowes Foods John Force Racing could not have asked for a better qualifying result. All three John Force Racing Chevrolet Camaros are in separate quads setting up the possibility of advancing three Camaros to the final quad. Led by John Force, No. 3 and Courtney Force, No. 4 and Robert Hight in the No. 9 spot, the trio of Funny Cars are positioned to go rounds on Sunday. The Monster Energy Top Fuel dragster and Brittany Force qualified No. 3 and are looking to pick up their first Four-Wide win at zMAX Dragway.
Brittany Force and her Monster Energy team continued their strong start by posting the quickest run of the first session today and picking up three qualifying bonus points. The 3.751 second run at was .001 quicker than Doug Kalitta and gave the team a secure feeling heading into race day.
In the final session the complexities of the Four-Wide race tripped up Force’s quad as technical alliance teammate Steve Torrence misread the tree and was timed out for not staging in time. Force was also second guessing herself and did not make a quality run. The fourth year pro was philosophical about the outcome to wrap up qualifying.
“My head is kind of a mess right now because my last round of qualifying. Someone timed out, and just when you are up there trying to focus on where you are at and then you think the tree malfunctioned, and I got lost. The tree came down and I didn’t leave until way later and we didn’t get anything from the run,” confessed Force outside her hauler. “So it’s definitely tough to leave on a note like that where the team didn’t learn anything and I didn’t learn anything as a driver, but I guess that it’s good that it happened today and not tomorrow. All I can say is that I will use that to pump me up tomorrow and tell myself that I am going to fix it.”
In the first quad Brittany Force’s Monster Energy team will be able to pick their lane racing against No. 6 qualifier Antron Brown, No. 11 qualifier Leah Pritchett and No. 14 qualifier Pat Dakin.
The JFR Funny Cars will be looking to continue their winning ways by racing to win their fourth Four-Wide title. John Force won the inaugural race in 2010 and Robert Hight picked up wins in 2012 and 2014. Courtney Force is looking for her first round win at the unique Four-Wide race.
John Force and the PEAK Antifreeze Chevrolet Camaro Funny Car team will start the day as the No. 3 qualifier and will race No. 6 qualifier Jack Beckman, No. 11 qualifier Tommy Johnson Jr. and No. 14 qualifier Bob Tasca III.
Force made two solid runs on Saturday wrapping up the day with a 4.036 second run at 313.22 mph on the heels of his opening run of the day at 4.002 seconds and 316.82 mph.
“I feel like I am going to win. I have got four cars in and we have a lot of work ahead of us. My car has a problem in that it’s not real fast early but (crew chief) Jon Schaffer is working on that. Courtney (Force) is flying, Robert (Hight) had a malfunction so he is okay, but with the dragster, something went wrong with the Christmas tree. Hell, it screwed me up,” explained Force.
The Traxxas Chevrolet Camaro SS team found their groove in the fourth qualifying session today and moved to the No. 4 position in the starting field for Sunday. The move left Courtney Force competing against No. 5 qualifier Del Worsham, No. 12 qualifier Cruz Pedregon and No. 13 qualifier John Hale in the first round of her 100th professional Funny Car race.
“We made a good pass today here at the Four Wide Nationals. On the first run today my car dropped a hole and slowed us down. We got it fixed up and running on all eight. We were able to come out in Q4 and push the car a little harder and run 3.96. That put us in the top half of the field in the No. 4 spot, so we’ll have first pick of the lanes in round one tomorrow,” said Force.
Last year Force qualified No. 1 at the 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 definitely going to be a tough quad for us. We’re going to try to make it a good day tomorrow for this Traxxas Chevrolet Camaro team. I think we figured some things out throughout qualifying today so hopefully we can use that to our advantage tomorrow and have a good race day,” said Force.
Two-time Four-Wide Nationals winner Robert Hight will go into race day as the No. 9 qualifier but with a feeling of confidence. Hight and the Auto Club Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car posted the third quickest time of the second session. It moved Hight from the very bottom of the pack to right in the middle of a very competitive field. His 3.974 second run would have handily placed him at the top of the field last year and in 2016 it doesn’t even get the 2009 Funny Car champion into the top half of the field.
In the final qualifying session Hight had a mechanical issue that blew the super charger and gave Hight a final run that included a quick fire at the top end and cost him five points from an oil down penalty.
“We’ll be ready for the first round tomorrow. That wasn’t the way we wanted to end qualifying but we have had a lot of success and with the Four-Wide program you have a seconds chance in the first and second rounds. We will be shooting to be the first to the finish line but if we stumble we can still get out of the first quad,” said Hight.