BRITTANY FORCE, MONSTER STAY NO. 1 IN TOP FUEL
TOPEKA, Kan. (May 21, 2016) – Brittany Force and the Monster Energy Top Fuel team held onto the No. 1 qualifier position at the Kansas Nationals after another competitive round of qualifying. It was Force’s second No. 1 qualifier at Heartland Park Topeka and the fourth of her career. Force’s quickest elapsed time of 3.676 seconds stands as the national record but won’t officially be recognized until the end of the event. Force will receive a bye run in the first round but the two-time 2016 winner is still focused heading into the first round.
“We are definitely very anxious for tomorrow. This track is always a good one for us and we seem to do pretty decent here. And then to put a number on the board like we did yesterday and come away as the number one qualifier with the National ET record is pretty exciting,” said Force. “So we are pumped up and ready for tomorrow. I am just proud of my Monster Energy team led by Brian Husen and Alan Johnson. I am really excited to see what we can do tomorrow.”
Prior to Force’s final run of qualifying the Christmas Tree timing system malfunctioned after she and Steve Torrence completed their burn outs. The pair went back to their respective pits for more fuel and then ran at the conclusion of the Funny Car session. It was about a 45 minutes delay and Force handled it like a veteran.
“You know, it’s definitely tough when something like that happens. You are up there ready to go, ready to step on the gas and get the car down the track. Then they come over and they tell you to shut the car off. It’s a little bit of a letdown but we needed that run. So we pulled the car back and let the Funny Cars run for a little bit and we pulled back up there,” explained Force. “We were hoping to run and make a better run than that since the conditions improved a little bit. We were really trying to push for something a little better and then we shook and didn’t make it down there. But we still have three awesome runs from Friday and earlier today and we will just go from there.”
Once Force took her final qualifying run she knew that there was only one driver who could potentially bump her back so her crew chief Brian Husen had her Monster Energy Top Fuel dragster set-up for an aggressive run. The 10,000 hp dragster lost traction at about 300 feet and did not improve but for the fourth year driver there was minimal disappointment.
“Yeah, you always want to end on a good note. It definitely feels good going in on a Sunday to have a strong run but we were already set up good enough with some awesome runs, so we were able to push a little bit and see what it could do. It didn’t hold, but we had three good runs behind us,” said Force.
While Brittany Force and her Monster Energy team were trying to hold off the rest of the Top Fuel category for the top spot the trio of John Force Racing Funny Cars was battling to move up in the quickest and fastest Funny Car field in NHRA history.
Courtney Force qualified her Traxxas Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car in the No. 4 position at Heartland Park Topeka with a qualifying best 3.871 ET at 331.12 mph. The 3.871 second run she made on Friday is a career-best for the fifth year Traxxas driver. She picked up a total of four additional bonus points for making the second-quickest pass of Q2 and third quickest of Q3 and Q4. Force will have lane choice in the opening round over Bob Tasca III.
“We were the third quickest in both sessions today. I’m really proud of my guys. They gave me a good race car. The conditions weren’t as good as yesterday, but we still had a fast car. We’ve been running consistently in the threes and I think that’s the best thing that we can do right now. It definitely makes us feel good going into race day. We have a lot of competitive Funny Cars in our class right now, but we picked up two bonus points today so a total of four for this weekend. We’re hoping that helps us maintain our points lead. It’s going to be a long day tomorrow and we’re going to have some tough rounds. We have Bob Tasca III in round one so hopefully we can make it a great race,” said Force.
Force is 11-2 to Tasca III in previous events. The last time the pair met in eliminations was during the 2014 Countdown to the Championship in St. Louis. Eight of their 13 match-ups have happened in the opening round on race day. This is their first time racing head-to-head at the Kansas Nationals.
The Auto Club Chevrolet Camaro team had a consistent racecar and will go into race day firmly positioned in the middle of a very tight field. Hight posted a nearly career quick elapsed time on Friday night, 3.907 seconds just .002 off his career quickest time. The 2009 Funny Car champion did post a career fastest speed of 332.84 mph on the way to the No. 9 qualifying spot. Even though Hight will give up lane choice to veteran Ron Capps the two-time Kansas Nationals winner is confident going into race day.
“We will have a tough opponent first round in Ron Capps. We are pretty evenly matched so it should be a good race. I made a just about a career best run on Friday night as far as ET and today in the first session we made another quick run,” said Hight. “This Auto Club Chevrolet Camaro is in the thick of this fight. The conditions here at Topeka are unbelievable and they should be good tomorrow. We will have to be at the top of our game and I have a lot of confidence in Mike Neff and this Auto Club team.”
In the first session today Hight blasted down the Heartland Park Topeka track with an elapsed time of 3.958 seconds at 326. 87 mph. In the final session of the day Hight was again making a strong run when his Goodyear slicks lost traction beside Capps. Hight is 1-1 versus Capps in 2016 with a lost in the semis at the season opening Winternationals and then a big win in the final round of the Gatornationals.
A tough two days of qualifying concluded today for six-time Kansas Nationals winner John Force. The winningest driver in NHRA history brushed the guardwall with his brand new 2016 Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car in the Friday night qualifying session and today he blew up his back-up car in the final qualifying session. In both instances Force escaped unscathed but the 16-timer Funny Car champion is motivated to turn around his luck on race day.
In the final qualifying session Force’s PEAK Chevrolet Camaro Funny Car started and completed the burnout when the scoreboard gremlins returned and forced his team to shut off his Funny Car. The team opted to restart the Funny Car and make the final run. Force launched hard and at the finish line his Funny Car depleted all the fuel in the tank and proceeded to blast the supercharger off the block. Force’s best elapsed time still lit up the scoreboard and he jumped form the No. 16 spot to the No. 11 position.
“This is a brand new racecar. I want to thank all my guys for putting this car back together and I have to thank all the fans for sticking around. Tomorrow will be a bigger day since the weather will be good. The racecars will be flying. I love being out here. My old hot rod ran out of gas at the other end. I should have refilled her sitting here. I am lucky it made it to the lights. We are OK. You have to run 3.85 just to get out of the cellar,” said Force.
Force is 1-1 this season against Del Worsham his first round opponent. He lost to him in the semifinals at Pomona and won in the first round of the Gatornationals in Gainesville.