COURTNEY FORCE READY TO CELEBRATE OWN WIN AT RICHMOND
DINWIDDIE, Va. (June 7, 2018) — Mello Yello points leader Courtney Force never before has raced at Virginia Motorsports Park, the Richmond-area track that will host this week’s NHRA Virginia Nationals, the second race of four-in-a-row for NHRA’s touring pros — but she has been in the winners’ circle.
“Richmond is where I celebrated my 7th birthday,” the driver of the Advance Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro SS. “I was in the winners’ circle with my dad (16-time NHRA series champion and four-time Richmond winner John Force) so I have a lot of great memories from the track even though we haven’t raced there in a while (since 2009).”
A three-time winner this season and the winningest woman in Funny Car drag racing history with 11 NHRA career victories, the statuesque blonde is excited about finally making a competitive appearance at VMP.
“I’m looking forward to racing on a new track,” she said. “We were able to win the first time we raced at Epping (New Hampshire in the 2013 NHRA New England Nationals) so hopefully our Advance Auto Parts team can do that again at Richmond.”
After winning consecutive events at Atlanta, Ga., and Topeka, Kan., and putting up the quickest time in five of the previous seven races, Courtney was beaten in the second round of last week’s Route 66 Nationals at Chicago by John Force Racing teammate Robert Hight.
“It was not the race day we wanted,” she admitted, “but we’re still learning about running on these hot race tracks. We will take what we learned at Chicago and apply it to the next three races. We are going to see hot conditions again and that’s when these cars seem to drop cylinders like we did in Chicago.”
Coming off a season in which she started seven races from the No. 1 qualifying position without once reaching the winners’ circle, she has turned things around this year thanks in no small measure to the synergy between co-crew chiefs Dan Hood and Brian Corradi.
Former crewmates on the Mike Ashley Funny Car that won the U.S. Nationals in 2007, Hood and Corradi complement one another and the payoff has been huge, putting Courtney on the path to breaking through the glass ceiling in the only category in which a woman has yet to win an NHRA World Championship.
Corradi, who after leaving the Ashley operation tuned Antron Brown to a trio of Top Fuel championships, once aspired to be a driver himself but the opportunity never presented itself. Now, he is a big fan of all those who, like Courtney, are able to maneuver 10,000 horsepower vehicles down a narrow groove of concrete and asphalt.
“I stand behind a lot of fast cars and I shake my head,” he recently told CompetitionPlus.com, “and I bite my tongue until I see the chutes come out because I know how violent they are and what can happen on a run.
“I give a lot of credit to anyone who steps on the loud pedal on one of these cars, especially Courtney. She’s doing an awesome job. My goal for her was just to give her a consistent car so she can get even better.”
Consistency has been the byword for the Advance Auto Parts Camaro over the last two seasons, even before Corradi came on board. Over her last 32 starts, Courtney has qualified No. 1 12 times and been a Top 4 starter on 29 occasions. This season, the wife of second generation IndyCar driver Graham Rahal has qualified No. 1 five times and has not started worse than No. 4.
That’s a streak she she’ll try to extend in qualifying for the Virginia Nationals that begins with 3:30 and 6 p.m. sessions on Friday and concludes with rounds at 1:30 and 4 on Saturday. Single elimination finals begin at noon Sunday.