JOHN FORCE RACES TO SEMIS AGAIN AT NEW ENGLAND NATIONALS
EPPING, NH — John Force continued his dominance at New England Dragway even if he did not reach his third final in four years of the NHRA New England Nationals. Force raced to his fourth consecutive semifinal finish and moved up into the No. 8 position in Funny Car points with his solid performance today at the rain delayed NHRA national event.
The semifinal race was another tough race for Force and the PEAK/Blue DEF Funny Car as they gave up lane choice against eventual race winner Ron Capps. This race was the second time the pair have raced each other in the semifinals at the New England Nationals. In 2013 Force defeated Capps before losing to daughter Courtney Force in the final. Today the defending New England Nationals winner came up a few thousandths of a second short.
“Capps is a tough competitor but he is also a friend. He is a good straight-up, hard-nosed racer. I really respect him. I go after him with all I’ve got. He is that good and I have to keep working to keep up with him. He makes me better,” said Force in his pits after a disappointing loss.
With the race running on a Monday the fan turnout was impressive and fueled Force’s competitive spirit almost as much as the improved performance of his new Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Cars.
“Just to see the turnout of fans today is great. I am excited for all my Chevrolets that they are performing. We still have work to do but we have room to run. I had a good day but I am still not in that Traxxas Shootout,” said Force. “(Crew chief) Jon Schaffer and this team worked really hard for a number of weeks to just get it back together after I crashed it in Topeka. I want to keep reminding myself of that so I don’t do it again. It is a long way to the championship but I feel good.”
In first round John Force outran Bob Tasca III by four thousandths of a second in a close race. Force’s 3.933 second run was enough to hold off a charging 3.958 second run by Tasca at the finish line.
In the second round Force ran up against No. 5 qualifier Tim Wilkerson. Force was giving up lane choice to Wilkerson’s 3.901 second first round winning time compared to Force’s 3.933. This was the third time the pair have faced each other in 2016. In the season opening race Force outran Wilkerson and then in Phoenix Force came up on the losing end in the final round to the veteran driver from Springfield, Illinois.
The race was over quickly however when Wilkerson’s Funny Car went into immediate tire-smoke as Force raced away with a 3.976 second run. The defending event winner advanced to the semifinals for the third time in four years. Force also extended the JFR streak of advancing at least one racecar to the semifinals every race this season when we have raced side-by-side.
Courtney Force qualified in the No. 8 position this weekend in Epping and matched-up with Robert Hight in the first round. She turned on the win light next to Hight with a 3.933 second run and moved on to the second round of eliminations. Force is 7-10 to Hight in eliminations. This was the third time they have raced this season, but the first time they have raced at the New England Nationals. She is now 2-1 to him in 2016.
In the second round, Force squared off with Ron Capps. Force had won their last three meetings coming into today. The pair were 7-11 in previous match-ups, but today Capps picked up the win with a 3.956 second pass at 323.12 mph to her 3.999 elapsed time at 323.04 mph. This was only the second time Force has matched up with the veteran driver in 2016.
“We made two solid runs today on race day. We were able to get the win in the first round. We actually got kind of lucky to get that win. We were spinning the tires from half track down, I just held onto it and hoped for the best. We were able to turn on the win light in that round, but lost lane choice going into the second match-up against Ron Capps. I definitely think for being in that right lane we gave him a great race in the 3.0s. We ran 3.99, he just outran us a little bit,” said Force.
“After talking with my crew chiefs we were all a little bummed. We obviously wish we could have pushed the car a little bit more and made some different adjustments, but being unsure of the hot track we didn’t want to push it too hard and throw a race away. It’s one of those things where you learn from it and we’re just going to go into the next race like business as usual. We are still hanging on to the points lead even after going out in the second round so it wasn’t a bad weekend for our Traxxas Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car team and especially not for John Force Racing. We got to cheer on my dad in his new 2016 Chevy Camaro SS body all the way to the semi-finals for PEAK Antifreeze. I’m really proud of our teams out here.”
Force won the inaugural New England Nationals at New England Dragway in 2013 by dismissing her father John Force in a thrilling final round match-up. It was the 2012 Auto Club Rookie of the Year’s seventh final round of her Funny Car career and third victory of her career. The Traxxas Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car driver has eight wins as well as nine No. 1 qualifiers and seven runner-up finishes. She raced to her eighth win in Funny Car at Houston this season and is the winningest female Funny Car driver.
In a tough intra-squad race between teammates Robert Hight and Courtney Force, Hight hit the throttle .052 seconds early recording a red-light DQ and handing the win to Force. This was the third year in a row Hight and his AAA Insurance Funny Car were ousted from the New England Nationals by a JFR teammate. Last year Courtney defeated him in the second round and in 2014 John Force bested Hight in the second round.
“It was definitely a tough first round loss. We got the brand new Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car this weekend and on Saturday we made some good runs. We are still figuring some things out. You never want to race your teammates early and our Camaros were evenly matched in qualifying,” said Hight. “I was doing my usual routine and it didn’t work out for us today. The good news is we will be back on track in a couple days for the SummerNationals.”
Brittany Force and the Monster Energy Top Fuel dragster team were upset in the first round by journeyman Todd Paton. On a green race track after over 24 hours of rain there were a number of Top Fuel dragsters battling new race track conditions. Force’s dragster launched hard and was pulling away from Paton when it lost traction for the briefest moment and even though Force did a masterful job of pedaling her Monster Energy dragster there was enough momentum lost for Paton to get the win light.
“Unfortunately the Monster Energy team went out in the first round. It was a tough weekend with all the different weather conditions. We had a lot of rain yesterday and now we are racing on Monday with more heat on the track. It was just tough for everyone to have to come out on Monday and get a read on the track,” said Force. “We went down about 500 feet and went up in smoke. I had to pedal it and it hooked back up but I couldn’t catch up to the dragster in the other lane. We’ll go right into Englishtown and we are still in a strong position in the points. That is a good place to be.”
Force made consistently quick runs on Friday and Saturday to earn the No. 3 qualifying position but her 3.729 second qualifying time did not translate to race day. She will head to the 47th annual NHRA SummerNationals in Englishtown, New Jersey in the No. 4 position in Top Fuel points.