Courtney Force takes Advance Auto Parts Chevrolet
to provisional No. 1 – minus the explosion
Courtney Force (Photo credit: Gary Nastase and Auto Imagery)
ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. (June 9) – Same driver, same spot. But this one came without an explosion, thank you very much.
Last Friday at New England Dragway, Courtney Force claimed the provisional No. 1 spot in Funny Car. But it came with a price, as her Advance Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro SS was destroyed in an engine explosion just past the finish line.
This Friday at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park for the NHRA Summernationals, Force claimed the provisional No. 1 spot in Funny Car again – minus the engine explosion.
“Going to the top spot that time was a lot less exciting than last weekend, which I’m more than happy about,” Force said. “Pulling out a spare car, running it this weekend and getting the top spot, props to my guys, this Advance Auto Parts Chevy Camaro team – and especially our fab shop guys back in Brownsburg, Ind. They deserve a lot of credit. They had this car ready to go, and we were able to pull a spare car out and get it to run numbers like we have and get that top spot.
“We’ll see if we can hold on to it tomorrow. I’m really proud of my team. It was definitely a great run here in Englishtown, and hopefully we can hang on to it.”
Force’s pass of 3.862 seconds at 331.12 mph was a track record for elapsed time – and edged John Force Racing teammate Robert Hight for the No. 1 spot.
“It’s been a great race car,” Force said. “I don’t feel any need to change it right now, especially when we have the No. 1 qualifying spot.”
Hight, in the Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet, was No. 2 with a run of 3.880 seconds at a track-record 332.43 mph. Team owner John Force was No. 15 with a top run of 4.113 at 262.44 mph in the PEAK Coolant and Motor Oil Chevy.
All three Funny Cars will be back Saturday for the final two qualifying sessions at 1:45 p.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern.
“It’s going to be tough to run the same kind of numbers we did today in qualifying because it’s going to be so much hotter,” Courtney Force said. “It’ll be interesting to see what kind of numbers these cars are going to be running.
“Tomorrow’s going to be an important day for us. We might be in the No. 1 spot now and we might not be looking to make an improvement, but to get the car down there consistently during the heat (is important) because that’s the kind of conditions we’re going to have going into race day on Sunday.”
Courtney Force raced to the final in Epping, a race won by older sister Brittany Force in Top Fuel. Brittany Force ended up in the No. 6 spot here with a best pass of 3.780 seconds at 316.30 mph.
Fox Sports 1 plans to televise two hours of qualifying coverage Saturday at 2 p.m. and three hours of eliminations Sunday at 6 p.m.