Given how hot his overall race team has been thus far in the 2014 NHRA season, there couldn’t be a better place for John Force Racing to compete at next than Hotlanta.
Ok, so it’s actually Commerce, Ga., about 70 miles northeast of Atlanta, Ga., but close enough as JFR prepares for this weekend’s (May 16-18) Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals.
The chairman of the board, 16-time NHRA Funny Car champion John Force, has had a longtime love affair with Atlanta Dragway, earning a record seven wins there, more than any other driver at that particular track in NHRA history.
But there’s a downside to that story, as well: As much as he’s dominated at Atlanta Dragway, Force has not reached victory lane there for nearly a decade – eight years to be exact.
He hopes to change that this weekend, while also extending the overall hot streak that all JFR drivers have been on thus far this season, particularly Force’s son-in-law and JFR president Robert Hight, who has reached the final round in each of the last five races, coming away with three wins.
Hight, who is still riding the momentum of his win two weeks ago at Houston, is also atop the NHRA Funny Car points standings, as a result.
Force, meanwhile, has reached the final round in eight of his last 11 races, dating back to last season, with wins in four of those. He also set both ends of the NHRA elapsed time (3.966 seconds) and speed (324.12 mph) records for a Funny Car earlier this year in this year’s season-opening Winternationals at Pomona, Calif.
“We have been on a tear, and our other cars (Courtney Force in Funny Car and Brittany Force in Top Fuel) are coming around,” Force said. “I feel as a whole team we have come together, and the brain trust will keep us alive and winning.
“We have been to every final going back to Indy last year, which is 13 finals in a row. Winning is where the focus is, and we won’t forget safety.”
Force last won at Atlanta Dragway in 2005, a lengthy drought that he hopes to snap this weekend.
“Atlanta can be tricky because of the heat,” Force said. “We have adapted and with (crew chief) Jimmy Prock, that seems like one of the places where he does well.
“But Jimmy and I have never run this track together, and I am excited about that. I also love the people because they are really into their racing.”
Not only will he be battling Hight, Force will also take on two-time Atlanta winner and 2012 world champ Jack Beckman, Tommy Johnson Jr., Alexis DeJoria, Ron Capps, Matt Hagan, Del Worsham, and Cruz Pedregon for top honors in Funny Car this weekend.
“I need to do well, and it is not just because we are up there in the points,” said Force, who turned 65 on May 4. “It’s a matter of you have to learn how to run by the time you get to the Countdown [to the Championship]. We say it every race at the team meetings, ‘This is the race you have to start winning.'”
Also of note this weekend, an NHRA milestone could be achieved by one of several female racers, as the next win will be the 100th career win by a woman driver or rider in the sanctioning body’s history.
Among those hoping to put their name in the NHRA record books: Pro Stock points leader Erica Enders-Stevens, DeJoria and Courtney Force in Funny Car, Brittany Force in Top Fuel, and Katie Sullivan and Angie Smith in Pro Stock Motorcycle.
But of course, as a proud papa, John Force hopes one of his daughters sets that historic mark.
“I was thinking about Ashley (daughter Ashley Force Hood, now retired from competition) and how no woman had ever won a Funny Car race until she beat me in 2008 in Atlanta,” Force said. “That will go down in history, but to also be the 100th female winner will be huge.
“What is really cool is Brittany and Courtney are overdue. To win that 100th race is a landmark, and I hope one of them gets it.”
Qualifying begins Friday with sessions at 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. ET. The final two qualifying sessions take place Saturday at 12:30 and 3 p.m.
Final eliminations begin at 11 a.m. Sunday.
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