COURTNEY FORCE CONTINUES TO HAVE FAST START AT ATLANTA

COMMERCE, GA – Courtney Force broke the Funny Car points lead tie and took over the lead today after picking up four bonus points and grabbing the provisional No. 3 spot on the first day of qualifying. She opened up with an impressive 3.971 ET at 305.01 mph in the first session. It was the first official three-second run at Atlanta Dragway and was a track record for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals.

“We’re racing on a hot track out here in Atlanta this weekend. Our Traxxas Chevrolet Camaro team laid down two great passes on the first day of qualifying today. The first run actually didn’t go as well as we had planned, even though we were the quickest car of that session. We picked up three points running a 3.97. We were looking to run a 3.94, but we had a problem with the blower belt right before the finish line. It slowed our speed down to only 305 mph, but we still picked up three bonus points so we were happy,” said Force.

In the second qualifying session, Force posted the third-quickest pass with a 3.946 ET at 324.67 mph and added one more bonus point to her lead.

“We were looking to push the car harder on the second pass when the sun was setting, but still ran in the 3.0s. We ran a 3.94 and did improve, but not enough to hold onto that top spot so we’ll be going into qualifying tomorrow in the No. 3 spot.”

“I’m really excited and proud of my team for giving me a good race car today. So far we’ve been pretty consistent and have been pushing forward and improving on our times so I’m looking forward to tomorrow and hopefully adding to the four bonus points we picked up today,” said Force.

If Force’s No. 3 qualifying position holds through Saturday’s additional sessions, this will be the highest starting spot for the Traxxas Chevy Camaro team at this race track. In 2014 Force went to the final round at this track after qualifying No. 8. It was her ninth career final round in Funny Car.

The Auto Club Chevrolet Camaro SS team and Robert Hight bounced back in the second qualifying session at Atlanta Dragway with a 3.980 second run at 323.58 mph. Hight’s speed was a track record until it was eclipsed in the next pair but the three-time Southern Nationals winner was thrilled with his team’s performance. The 2009 Funny Car champ will go into Saturday’s final day of qualifying as the provisional No. 5 qualifier.

“That was a good run to get us solidly at the top of the qualifying order. We will get aggressive tomorrow and I think we can move up. We are still figuring this new Camaro out but I think the whole team is encouraged to see progress. The good thing is everyone at JFR is working together to get all the Funny Cars running as quick as we can,” said Hight.

John Force powered his Advance Auto/PEAK Chevy Camaro into the provisional No. 8 spot on Friday with a 4.019 second run at 321.73 mph. The seven-time winner at Atlanta Dragway posted a 4.037 second elapsed time in the first session and improved to close out the first day of qualifying.

“We aren’t where we want to be. My racecars are all fast but I am not where I need to be. I didn’t put it into the threes. I am getting a lot of work done so I can start focusing on my racecar and get more involved with these kids,” said Force. “This is where I am supposed to be and where I want to be. I love where we are going with this Advance Auto PEAK Camaro. We are going to get fast tomorrow.”

In the first Top Fuel qualifying session the Monster Energy dragster uncharacteristically smoked the tires and was relegated to an early run time in the second session. Brittany Force and her Brian Husen tuned dragster took full advantage of a cooling track posting the quickest time of the day on their second run. Force tripped the timing lights with a 3.777 second pass at 320.51 mph. Unfortunately while the run was impressive it showed the dragsters behind the two-time 2016 winner that the track was in great shape.

At the end of the day Force’s time slipped to No. 5 but that did not dampen the positive vibe from Force.

“That run felt fast. Usually as a driver you can tell when you are on a killer run or a sluggish one. That run I knew was going to be in the high 3.70s. I could just feel it. When I hit the chutes it was like I got punched in the chest from the way they blossomed,” explained Force.

“It was like ‘Boom’ I felt it right in my chest. It almost took my breath away. I knew before I climbed out of this Monster Energy Top Fuel dragster it was going to be a good run. I didn’t know it was good enough for No. 1 at the time. That felt good when they told me that. We’ll get two more runs tomorrow and that gives you confidence going in that we are No. 5 and we can hang onto that run if we need to.”