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Home / John Force 9x Champion Castro Gtx 2000 Mustang Funny Car

John Force 9x Champion Castro Gtx 2000 Mustang Funny Car

American NHRA drag racer

John Forcefulness
John Force 2019.jpg

Strength in 2019
Nationality American
Born (1949-05-04) May iv, 1949 (age 73)
Bell Gardens, California, USA
Related to
  • Laurie Force (wife)
  • Adria Hight (daughter)
  • Ashley Strength Hood (daughter)
  • Daniel Hood (son-in-constabulary)
  • Brittany Force (daughter)
  • Courtney Strength (daughter)
  • Robert Hight (son-in-law)
  • Graham Rahal (son-in-police force)
  • Harlan Rahal (granddaughter)
  • Fall Hight (granddaughter)
NHRA Funny Car career
Current squad John Force Racing
PEAK Chevrolet Camaro SS
Years active 1978–present
Motorcar number 723 [one]
Crew chief Danny Hood[ii]
Championships 17 (sixteen in NHRA, i in AHRA)[3]
Wins 155 (NHRA)
Fastest laps
  • All-time ET
  • three.832 seconds[4]
  • 3/17/2017 at Gainesville, FL
  • Best Speed
  • 337.16 mph (542.61 km/h)[5]
  • 7/29/2017 at Sonoma, CA
Title titles
1990, 1991,
1993, 1994,
1995, 1996,
1997, 1998,
1999, 2000,
2001, 2002,
2004, 2006,
2010, 2013		 16 NHRA Championships (see left)
ane AHRA Championship (1984)[iii]
Last updated on: September 4, 2019.

John Harold Force (born May 4, 1949 in Bell Gardens, California) is an American NHRA drag racer. He is a sixteen-fourth dimension NHRA and 1 fourth dimension AHRA Funny Auto champion driver and a 21-time champion automobile owner. Force owns and drives for John Forcefulness Racing (JFR). He is 1 of the well-nigh dominant drag racers in the sport with 155 career victories.[6] He graduated from Bell Gardens High School and briefly attended Cerritos Inferior College to play football.[7] He is the male parent of elevate racers Ashley Force Hood, Brittany Force, and Courtney Force. His oldest daughter Adria Hight is the CFO of JFR.

Current drivers racing for his team are son-in-law Robert Hight, and girl Brittany. Mike Neff was coiffure master for John 2 separate times. Constructive July 2013 Jimmy Prock replaced Mike Neff every bit crew principal,[viii] and Mike Neff became crew chief for Robert Hight. Neff, who was once the crew chief for rival driver Gary Scelzi, raced in a quaternary Funny Car for JFR from October 26, 2007, post-obit the decease of Eric Medlen, until the terminate of the 2009 flavor. Nevertheless, in 2010, after a 2009 flavour in which Force did non win a single race, Forcefulness parked his fourth machine, and named Neff as his new coiffure chief instead. This decision resulted in Strength winning his 15th NHRA Championship. His nickname among several of the drivers, too as several announcers inside the sport of drag racing is "Brute Force", a nickname he earned by his dominating wins during his run of x straight NHRA championships. Force, his daughters, Courtney, Ashley, and Brittany, and son-in-police force Robert Hight are collectively known as "The Start Family of Drag Racing".

Early life [edit]

Force was born to Harold and Betty Ruth Force in the Los Angeles suburb of Bell Gardens, California. As a kid he lived in logging camps, Indian reservations, migrant farms, and trailer parks. He survived babyhood polio with therapy and perseverance of his mother and family unit.[nine] He played football in high school and attended Cerritos Higher.[10] John is one of vi children. John has five siblings- Walker, Louie, Tom (at present deceased), and Cindy Hem (married to Skip Hem) were all older than John. Dana (Baby Force) Marino is ten years younger than John. Walker and Cindy nonetheless alive near John in Southern California. Walker Strength and Louie Forcefulness accept worked with John over the years, just Walker Forcefulness is the just sibling now working at JFR. Younger sister Dana (Marino) did not grow up in the same firm or spend any time with the family in the early years of the Force Family unit Racing activities. Dana at present attends some of the NHRA events every bit she is a part-time Intern-Journalist with "The Motorsports Report" based in Las Vegas, Nevada, and resides an hour southward in Kingman, AZ. She is a realtor by trade, simply is Aunt Dana to Adria, Ashley, Courtney and Brittany. Much of the family nevertheless attends NHRA National events to cheer on John, Robert Hight (Adria'southward husband), Brittany and Austin Prock (JFR Crew Principal Jimmy Prock's son) when the events are closer to their homes in Pomona, Las Vegas, Sonoma, and Phoenix.[11]

1978–2004 [edit]

In 1971, Force drove the Jack Chrisman-congenital Dark Stalker Mustang, his starting time funny machine.[12] Early in his career, he collection a Corvette, a Monza so in the 1980s switched to an Oldsmobile Cutlass through the terminate of the 1993 flavour. He drove a Chevrolet for 1994, apace changing to a Pontiac in 1995 and 1996. Strength was a Ford commuter and team owner from 1997 until 2014, when he returned to Chevrolet.

Between 1987 and 1996, Strength won lx-seven of 203 NHRA national events, four of nine Big Bud Shootouts, and half dozen World Championships.[thirteen] In 1996, with Austin Roll tuning, Force went to the final round in sixteen of nineteen national events, taking thirteen wins, one of the all-time records ever in Funny Car history.[14] His domination would continue, with ten NHRA FC World Championship wins from 1993 to 2002, including six straight 1997-2002; his success was and then astonishing, he was accused of cheating (and was willing to strip off his firesuit to show he was not).[15] Betwixt 1997 and 2006, Force went to the final in 105 of 228 events and took lx-one tour wins.[16] On top of that, he had ten of the quickest or fastest passes in Funny Car.[16]

In 1992, the laurels of putting Forcefulness on the trailer would go to Cruz Pedregon, driving the Larry Small McDonald's-sponsored Olds to the championship.[17]

Force's points finishes were 23rd, 8th, 26th, 16th, 20th, fourth, 13th, and 5th from 1978-1985. Forcefulness then had Castrol Motor Oil leap on as his principal sponsor, and was even more successful. From 1986-1995, he finished 4th, fourth, 6th, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 1st, 1st, and 1st. He then had fellow driver and arch-rival Cruz Pedregon'due south younger brother, Tony, come aboard to drive John'southward 2nd motorcar. From 1996-2000, John finished 1st all 5 years. In 2001, John had longtime friend and fellow drag racer Gary Densham drive a 3rd machine. In that same year, John one time again finished as the champion, which he followed up with an astronomical 10th direct globe championship in 2002. In 2003, for the 1st time since 1992, John didn't win the title. It was not all lost however, considering teammate Tony Pedregon won his 1st world title. At the finish of the flavor, Tony Pedregon went on to join brother Cruz in their own racing organization, and Gary Densham went on to race independently. John institute quick and personal talent in two young-guns. Eric Medlen, son of long-fourth dimension JFR crewmember John Medlen, came on to race. John'south other driver, Robert Hight, was his son-in-law and crewmember. Both had a lot of success in their season, but John topped both in 2004 with a 13th world title.

In 2000, Force was sponsored by BP'due south Castrol brand, standing the relationship betwixt Force and Castrol that began in 1985 and lasted through 2014. After winning his fourth Funny Motorcar title in 1994, Force earned the nickname of "Brute Force" from drivers, and fifty-fifty announcers such as Steve Evans. This nickname hearkens dorsum to his early days on the track, when he drove his own unsponsored auto, named "Animate being Force". Strength had a cameo in a 2004 episode of King of the Hill ("Dale Exist Not Proud"), in which Dale Gribble donates a kidney to Strength, after which information technology appears he does not demand it.

2005 [edit]

In 2005, Force won v events, just but finished 3rd in the championship standings, 32 points behind champion Gary Scelzi, and 24 points backside Ron Capps, both of Don Schumacher Racing [DSR].

2006 [edit]

In 2006, Strength won his 14th NHRA World Funny Machine Title, defeating Capps in the quarter-finals of the Machine Club of Southern California NHRA Finals which mathematically eliminated Capps and teammate Robert Hight from the championship. Force went on to win the event, his third of the season and 122nd of his career.

2007 [edit]

Later the death of Eric Medlen, and John Force's crash in Ennis, Texas at the 2007 O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals, Force started 2007 poorly, suffering a DNQ ending a twenty+ year sequent qualifying streak. He rebounded, winning the O'Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tennessee, so proceeded on to three more than last rounds, winning another race in Sonoma, California, putting him quaternary in points and allowing him to make the showtime cut in NHRA's new point organisation, the Countdown to the Championship aka the "Countdown to Eight". He stumbled again in the next two races simply, over again, rebounded until his crash.

On September 23, 2007, Strength was injured in a crash at the O'Reilly Motorcar Parts Fall Nationals in Ennis, Texas as he crossed the finish line confronting Kenny Bernstein. Bernstein'south Funny Car drifted into Force'south lane, clipping the concluding timing cone and a cream block which shot into Force'south lane. Initially, information technology was thought that the block ruptured Force's left rear tire, causing it to come up autonomously, violently shaking the chassis until it broke apart. Even so, it was determined past NHRA later a thorough review, that the block went backside Force's tire and was not the cause of the wreck.[18] Injuries sustained were a cleaved ankle, abrasion of his right knee joint, a dislocated left wrist, and badly mangled fingers and toes, and Force had to be airlifted to Baylor Academy Medical Center in Dallas. Phil Burkart Jr. was added as Force's replacement for the remainder of the 2007 flavor, starting at Las Vegas.

2008 [edit]

2008 was a subpar season for Strength who finished 7th, out of the height five for the kickoff time since early in his career. Nevertheless, after the death of driver Scott Kalitta, he was instrumental in the development of some of the prophylactic precautions that were implemented throughout the rest of the season, and forth with retired half dozen-time world champion Kenny Bernstein [4 Funny Car titles, 2 Peak Fuel titles] and seven-fourth dimension Height Fuel champion Tony Schumacher, with bankroll from NHRA's Track Rubber Committee, assisted in developing a sensor that monitors the engines of Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars. Should the engine backfire at any time during a race, the fuel pump is automatically close downward, and the parachutes are deployed. The idea was to either minimize or eliminate the circumstances that led to Kalitta's death. This condom device became mandatory and was put into place at the starting time of the 2009 season. Also, a brake handle that, instead of needing to be pulled back toward the driver, was set up to be pushed away from the driver was made an optional setting for the Funny Car division. This change happened because when the 2008 season began, Force'south right arm was still in a bandage, due to broken fingers, and he needed a different way of using the brakes on the motorcar, rather than the traditional handbrake that needed to exist brought back toward the commuter; as well, in the 2007 accident in Texas, Force had lost some grip in his correct mitt, and had some problems putting enough pressure level on the handbrake to unlock information technology from position to apply the brakes. This led to the development of the forrad application handbrake, which has given several drivers in the Funny Motorcar class quicker access to the brakes. Though Force only finished 7th in the points in 2008, he became influential within the NHRA for innovations in commuter prophylactic.

2009 [edit]

2009 once more saw Forcefulness finish outside of the top five. John finished 9th, daughter Ashley finished 2d, and Mike Neff placing 10th. However, he would win his 16th overall championship as a car possessor, with teammate Robert Hight'southward championship, placing Force as the winningest car owner in NHRA history.

2010 [edit]

The start of the 2010 season saw Force celebrate 25 years with the same sponsor, as well as 34 years in the NHRA. On February xiv, Forcefulness won the flavour opener at Auto Guild Raceway at Pomona in the 50th Winternationals in California defeating Ron Capps. After 13 events, Force had 4 wins, and lead the Funny Car points standings with 933, 58 ahead of teammate Robert Hight.

Going into the Auto Club of Southern California Finals in Pomona, CA on November xiv, 2010, Force needed some help to win the championship. He started the day 38 points behind 28-year-old Matt Hagan, who ran for team rival Don Shumacher and his team. In order to capture the title he needed to finish two rounds ahead of Hagan. With Bob Tasca Iii taking Hagan out in the offset round, Strength won his offset round over Gary Densham and second-round win over Bob Bode, securing the championship. He then went on to victory beating Melanie Troxel in the semi-finals and in the final, defeated Jeff Arend. John Force now has the stardom of existence the oldest NHRA champion in history. Long-time crew chief Austin Coil resigned from John Force Racing on Nov 16, 2010.

2011 [edit]

Equally of February 7, 2011, JFR has already flip-flopped cars between John, Robert, Ashley, and Mike. Ashley Force Hood announced that she was expecting her 1st child, and would sit out the 2011 Full Throttle Elevate Racing Season. John Force would drive Force Hood'southward new Ford Mustang with Dean Antonelli and Ron Douglas tuning, sponsored by Castrol Motor Oil. Robert Hight will remain in the Car Gild of Southern California Ford Mustang. Mike Neff, after co-crew chiefing John Force's car with Austin Scroll, will drive Strength'southward car from John'south 2010 championship season. Neff's Ford Mustang will be sponsored by Castrol Oil. Every bit of February 7, 2011, JFR started testing for the 2011 season. Out of the 11 testers and then far, Forcefulness is 1st, Hight was 5th, and Neff was 6th. As of July 31, Force is 7th in the points standings, while teammate Mike Neff is leading, and Robert Hight is in second.

2012 [edit]

2012 saw John welcome a quaternary commuter to his stable, former Top Booze Dragster champion, and daughter Courtney, who was in the running for the Car Club Rookie of the Year Award, she will be driving the Traxxas Ford Mustang in her rookie season, and she has washed something that only sister Ashley has washed, shell her male parent in the first meeting between the two, taking John out of the Arizona Nationals in Phoenix in only the first round. Although Forcefulness was unable to retain the championship, finishing in fifth, he saw Courtney win something he never did, the NHRA Road to the Future Rookie of the Year award, and Courtney'due south 2nd-place finish in the flavour helped cement John Force Racing's legacy for several years to come.

2013 [edit]

During the start of the 2013 flavor, Ashley appear her retirement from full-time competition, this left the Force team short a driver. Rather than find another commuter to take Ashley's place within the Castrol GTX Funny Motorcar, John did something he had never washed before, field a Top Fuel car, with girl Brittany behind the wheel. On July 26, 2013 it was announced that later the 2014 racing flavor Ford Motor Visitor would no longer exist a part of John Strength Racing.[nineteen] It was likewise appear that later on the 2014 racing season, primary sponsor Castrol would exist leaving JFR after a 29-year business relationship[20]

During the penultimate race of the 2013 season, Force beat out his daughter Courtney in the concluding circular to win the race and his 16th NHRA Funny Car Championship.

2014 [edit]

He won at the season opener in Pomona California as well wins in Norwalk Ohio & Seattle Washington as he would cease 2nd points.

2015 [edit]

John Force Pinnacle Chevrolet Funny Machine

In 2015 John appear a partnership with Chevrolet. He competed in the 2015 racing season with a new sponsorship deal from Meridian Antifreeze.

2016 [edit]

2017 [edit]

John'southward girl Brittany & Robert Hight both won the title in Top Fuel & Funny Auto respectively. Advance Car Parts joined squad, sponsoring Courtney Forcefulness and residue of JFR teams.

2018 [edit]

Won at the Denver consequence for his only win of the flavor.

2019 [edit]

On Baronial 4, 2019, John Force won his 150th race at the Magic Dry Organic Absorbent NHRA Northwest Nationals in Seattle, Washington, edging out Ron Capps and breaking a 25 race winless streak, having last won in Colorado the twelvemonth prior, also against Capps.[21] John expressed extreme relief later on winning, his first words to the photographic camera being obscenities (which NHRA had to censor, as the broadcast was on network television). Strength was not present in the winners' circle, having ridden his pitbike to the stands to spotter Austin Prock, a commuter on his Top Fuel squad and son of a Force Racing mechanic, win his first race and was still jubilant with fans while Prock was being interviewed.[21]

Force further historic the 2019 flavour by winning the U. S. Nationals.

Daughter Courtney Strength retired from driving.

2020 [edit]

He was the runner-up at the season opener in Pomona California but after 2 events he & his teams didn't run once more in the 2020 season due to the COVID-xix pandemic merely would in the following year.

2021 [edit]

In his return afterward missing most of the previous year because of the COVID-nineteen pandemic he won 3 events. He won at the Charlotte 4 Wide, Epping, & Topeka events. At Dallas for the first time since 2018 John Force was assail burn down in a crash that echoed his win in 1996 where his Castrol car caught fire at this track.[22]

2022 [edit]

He gained his outset win of the season at the 4-Broad Nationals in Charlotte, NC.

Achievements and awards [edit]

Championships [edit]

  • 1984 AHRA Funny Machine Champion
  • 1990 NHRA Funny Motorcar Champion
  • 1991 NHRA Funny Car Champion
  • 1993 NHRA Funny Car Champion
  • 1994 NHRA Funny Car Champion
  • 1995 NHRA Funny Auto Champion
  • 1996 NHRA Funny Car Champion
  • 1997 NHRA Funny Automobile Champion
  • 1998 NHRA Funny Automobile Champion
  • 1999 NHRA Funny Car Champion
  • 2000 NHRA Funny Auto Champion
  • 2001 NHRA Funny Car Champion
  • 2002 NHRA Funny Machine Champion
  • 2003 NHRA Champion Owner (Tony Pedregon, Funny Car)
  • 2004 NHRA Funny Car Champion
  • 2006 NHRA Funny Car Champion
  • 2009 NHRA Champion Owner (Robert Hight, Funny Car)
  • 2010 NHRA Funny Machine Champion
  • 2013 NHRA Funny Car Champion
  • 2017 NHRA Champion Owner (Brittany Strength, Summit Fuel)
  • 2017 NHRA Champion Owner (Robert Hight, Funny Car)
  • 2019 NHRA Champion Owner (Robert Hight, Funny Car)

Achievements [edit]

  • Selected equally "Driver of the Year" for all of American motor racing in 1996 by a national panel of motorsports journalists, the first drag racer ever then honored.
  • 153 wins in 259 final rounds equally of June 13, 2021[21] (commencement driver with 100 wins)
  • Outset NHRA drag racer to reach 1,000 career emptying round wins (i,000th win: first round, 2008 NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Broad Engineering science Raceway at Gateway near St. Louis, Missouri), where he defeated Ron Capps for the i,000th circular win.
  • First driver to set an official NHRA Funny Car elapsed time under five seconds in the quarter mile (October 16, 1993, Texas Motorplex, 4.996).[23]
  • xvi-time NHRA champion driver, and 21-time champion owner.
  • Ranked #ii on the NHRA Top 50 Drivers, 1951–2000, behind Don Garlits
  • With daughter Ashley, first male parent/daughter pair to compete against each other, during the showtime round of the NHRA Southern Nationals in Atlanta in 2008, which saw Ashley win.
  • Simply commuter to have won more than ten championships in his division, beating the record once held by retired NHRA Pro Stock Champion Bob Glidden, who had 10 championships
  • Well-nigh event #i qualifications in NHRA history, with 161 (as of May 15, 2021)
  • Strength received the Lee Iacocca Award at Bristol Dragway on June 19, 2012
  • Nigh consecutive championship seasons - x (1993-2002)

Awards [edit]

He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2008.[24]

Driving Force [edit]

John was featured on A&E's reality show Driving Forcefulness with his wife (Laurie) and three of his daughters (Ashley, Courtney, and Brittany).

See as well [edit]

  • Ford Racing

References [edit]

  1. ^ McKenna, Kevin. "Sunday news and notes from the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals". NHRA.com. National Hot Rod Clan. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
  2. ^ National Hot Rod Clan - John Force, Retrieved Aug, 6, 2018.
  3. ^ a b BangShift.com, Dead Strip Walking: Watch John Force Run At Usa thirty Drag Strip In 1984 – Gone Forever Months Later by Brian Lohnes, May 29, 2018, Retrieved Sep. 4, 2019.
  4. ^ "CAPPS DISAPPOINTED AFTER Sharp MOVE LEADS TO LOSS IN GATORNATIONALS Subsequently NAPA Machine PARTS Dodge CHARGER R/T CROSSES THE CENTERLINE". Don Schumacher Racing. March 19, 2017. Retrieved August half-dozen, 2018.
  5. ^ "NHRA Arizona Nationals Saturday Qualifying Results, Lord's day Elimination pairings". Auto Week. February 24, 2018. Retrieved August 6, 2018.
  6. ^ "John Force earns 149th win; Pritchett, Anderson, Arana Jr. Snag Denver victories".
  7. ^ "John Forcefulness: Commuter". John Force Racing. Retrieved July 9, 2012.
  8. ^ "Changing things upward, and I ain't dead yet". Autoweek. July 21, 2013. Retrieved September vii, 2015.
  9. ^ "John Force not slowing downwardly and his competitors know information technology". Motorsport.com . Retrieved February 29, 2016.
  10. ^ Geiger, Rob (November 25, 2013). "Means of the Forcefulness". Autoweek. 63 (23): 61.
  11. ^ personal family interviews and Dana Marino, The Motorsports Report.
  12. ^ Taylor, p.42.
  13. ^ Burk, Jeff. "l Years of Funny Cars: Part iii" in Drag Racer, Nov 2016, p.53.
  14. ^ Burk, p.54.
  15. ^ Burk, p.sixty.
  16. ^ a b Burk, p.60.
  17. ^ Burk, Jeff. "50 Years of Funny Cars: Part 3" in Drag Racer, Nov 2016, p.56.
  18. ^ NHRA driver Force can't recall crash, https://spider web.archive.org/web/20090309133648/http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/092507dnspoforceupdate.105ff9951.html. Archived from the original on March ix, 2009. Retrieved June one, 2016.
  19. ^ "Archived re-create". Archived from the original on July 31, 2013. Retrieved July 28, 2013. {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy every bit title (link)
  20. ^ "Castrol ending 29-year partnership with NHRA's John Force Racing". autoweek.com. August nineteen, 2013. Retrieved September 7, 2015.
  21. ^ a b c Burgess, Phil; Editor, NHRA National Dragster. "John Force drives Peak Chevy to his milestone 150th Funny Motorcar career victory". NHRA . Retrieved August 5, 2019.
  22. ^ staff, Posted by NHRA com. "John Force emerges unscathed after wild qualifying fire at Texas Fallnationals". NHRA . Retrieved April 14, 2022.
  23. ^ [ane] Although Chuck Etchells had beaten Strength to the five-second barrier October 1, 1993, with a iv.987 at Topeka, Etchells failed to make a subsequent pass within one percent of that fourth dimension at the event, which is required to fix an official record. Force ran a subsequent pass within 1 per centum.
  24. ^ John Force at the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America

Sources [edit]

  • Taylor, Thom. "Beauty Beyond the Twilight Zone" in Hot Rod, Apr 2017, pp. 30–43.

External links [edit]

  • Official website Edit this at Wikidata
  • Interview with John Forcefulness
  • The Truth nigh Force's crash and oestrus-treated funny automobile chassis
  • Thinking Back To An Eye-Opening Twenty-four hour period With John Force
  • Pro file on NHRA.com
  • Driving Strength website
  • Driving Force profile
  • John Force at IMDb
  • Even at 65, he'south all the same NHRA drag racing'due south driving Forcefulness - NBC Sports, Jerry Bonkowski, October iii, 2014

fairleysismight.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Force