PEAK Chevrolet Funny Car driver John Force
earns No. 8 qualifying position at Seattle
SEATTLE (Aug. 5) – John Force’s quest for a ninth NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Funny Car victory in the Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways will begin Sunday from the No. 8 qualifying position.
Force, driver of the PEAK Coolant & Motor Oil Chevrolet Camaro SS and team owner of John Force Racing, made his best of four qualifying passes Friday – a run of 3.973 seconds at 307.23 mph. That set the 16-time champion atop the charts after the first qualifying session.
Force will take on J.R. Todd in the first round. Todd, the most recent winner on the circuit at Sonoma Raceway, qualified No. 9 with a pass of 3.981 seconds at 325.22 mph.
Force’s other two cars, driven by teammates Robert Hight and daughter Courtney Force, qualified No. 1 and 4, respectively, both with strong passes on Saturday in the final session.
“We’re struggling,” Force said. “I don’t even think it’s the heat; I think we’re just struggling. But we’re addressing it. I want more performance. We’re leaving here (Saturday) with low E.T., but we need to leave here with a win (Sunday). Indy (the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals) is coming soon, and we want to be ready for the Countdown to the Championship.
“We’ll have some meetings with the crew chiefs and get all of this sorted out. Robert got a 3.80 and Courtney ran better today, and Brittany’s up there in Top Fuel. I’m the only run really struggling.”
Force most recently won at Seattle in 2014. Though he wanted to qualify better than No. 8, he knows the race can be won from any position.
“Some cars get hot at times, and for us, we’ve got to make some changes,” Force said. “We did bend the chassis in a wheelstand at Denver and we’re still running it. We didn’t think that was the issue, but we noticed on the last run the car was spinning the tires at the starting line, and it shouldn’t have. And it was really soft. We were just trying to make it go from A to B. So we’re going to check the chassis, and I don’t think it’s the chassis, but we’ve got a brand new one we can pull out if we need to.”
Elimination rounds for the Northwest Nationals begin at 11 a.m. Pacific on Sunday. Fox will televise three hours of live coverage beginning at 1 p.m. Pacific.
4-Second Reads:
Qualifying Round 1 (Right Lane): 3.973 seconds/307.23 mph; first three-second pass of qualifying and only one during this session (No. 1 of session and No. 1 overall; three bonus points)
Qualifying Round 2 (Left Lane): 4.456 seconds/191.27 mph; tires shake late in the run (No. 13 of session and No. 3 overall; no bonus points in session and three bonus points overall)
Qualifying Round 3 (Left Lane): 5.247 seconds/138.39 mph; hazes tires early (No. 12 of session and No. 5 overall; no bonus points in session and three bonus points overall)
Qualifying Round 4 (Right Lane): 4.748 seconds/169.08 mph; spun tires in first third of the track (No. 9 of session and No. 8 overall; no bonus points in session and three bonus points overall)
This is the first time this season and 33rd time in his career Force has qualified No. 8. He is looking for his sixth victory from the No. 8 position.
Force’s last victory from the No. 8 position came in April 2015 at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He holds a 41-27 record in 68 elimination rounds from the No. 8 position.
This is the second time Force has qualified No. 8 at Pacific Raceways. He was also No. 8 in 2010.
Force’s first-round matchup against J.R. Todd marks only the second time the two will compete against each other. The last matchup came last weekend at Sonoma Raceway in California, with Todd winning en route to the Funny Car race victory. This the first time the two will meet in the first round.