Monster Energy driver Brittany Force looks for Gatornationals repeat

Monster Energy driver Brittany Force looks for Gatornationals repeat
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 18) – Monster Energy Top Fuel dragster driver Brittany Force begins her defense of Sunday’s NHRA Gatornationals title from the No. 4 spot.

Force, who scored her first NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series victory here in 2016, made a top pass of 3.719 seconds at 326.79 mph during qualifying this weekend.

“We ended up No. 4 and we won here last year,” Force said. “There is just so much going into this race track because we won here and we want to do it again. We want to reclaim our title tomorrow.”

Force qualified No. 5 in 2016 and beat Morgan Lucas, Tripp Tatum, Dave Connolly and Terry McMillen to earn her initial professional victory in her fourth professional season. She went on to win three races and finish sixth in the Top Fuel standings last year.

Last year, Force went to the final round in Phoenix and followed that up with the Gainesville victory. She made the final in Phoenix again in 2017 and would love to repeat with another Gatornationals win.

Force has been consistent with her John Force Racing dragster here. She started with a run of 3.775 seconds at 324.12 mph, then made her best run in the second qualifying session before another solid pass of 3.785 seconds at 325.45 mph in Q3.

“We have had a great car all weekend and pretty consistent and overall it’s been a good weekend,” Force said. “We made a lot of changes to the race car coming in, so to go out there and go right down the race track was good news. That is what we wanted to do, and we made it happen. We made a lot of changes and the car went right down the race track, so we are happy with that.”

Force will face Larry Dixon in the first round of eliminations after he qualified No. 13 with a pass of 3.988 seconds at 239.31 mph. Force earned her first career victory in six attempts against Dixon in last year’s race in Reading, Pa.