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John Force
At an age when his peers are content to manipulate nothing more challenging than a TV remote, John Force is back behind the wheel of one of the world’s most powerful race cars trying to add yet another chapter to what already is one of the most compelling biographies in professional sports history.
Last year, the 59-year-old icon proved that he still could win races after suffering injuries that would have sent a lesser man straight to the rocking chair. Motivated by his receipt of 2008 Comeback of the Year awards presented by both the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association and Speed TV, this year he is focused on reclaiming the NHRA Funny Car championship that has been his 14 times in the last 19 seasons.
If he is able succeed, he will become the oldest professional champion in motor racing history, adding yet another page to a resume that already includes 1996 Driver of the Year honors and 2008 induction into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America.
Force makes no concessions to age. After two years of rehab from injuries suffered in a Sept. 23, 2007 crash at Ennis, Texas, the 14-time Auto Racing All-America selection has said he’s in “the best shape of my life.” Improved health, coupled with the improved performance of his new Castrol Edge Ford Mustang, sent him into the 2009 campaign with lofty goals.
Although he has little left to prove, through the rehab Force never considered taking a desk job after suffering injures that included broken bones in his hands and feet, tendon and ligament damage and a compound fracture of the left ankle. If he never won again, the veteran’s legacy would be secure. Nevertheless, he is anxious to prove once more that he has what it takes to win at the ultimate level. Although he has won at least one tour event for the last 22 years and even though he became the first drag racer to win 1,000 racing rounds, the statistical legacy that once seemed so important to him has lost some of its luster.
The 2007 death of Eric Medlen, the teammate portrayed as “the son I never had,” forever changed the veteran’s priorities. Now Force is determined to make the sport as safe as he believed it was before the testing accident that snuffed out one of the brightest lights in the series, before his own crash and before the accident last year that claimed the life of two-time series champion Scott Kalitta.
Working with Medlen’s father, John, the NHRA, SFI, Ford Motor Co. and McKinney Corporation, Force demonstrated his commitment to building a safer Funny Car through the creation of The Eric Medlen Project, which operates out of a permanent facility adjacent to the JFR shop in Brownsburg, Ind.
In recognition of those efforts, last December Force accepted the Motorsports Achievement Award for “outstanding leadership or contribution to motorsports” from the Society of Automotive Engineers at its annual convention in Charlotte, N.C.
A four-time winner of the Jerry Titus Award (as the driver receiving the most All-America team votes), Force is more determined than ever to remain in the cockpit as teammate to a spectacular assembly of young drivers that includes his 26-year-old daughter, Ashley Force Hood, son-in-law Robert Hight, 2008 Rookie of the Year Mike Neff and his two youngest daughters, Brittany, 22, and Courtney, 20.
Significantly, Force also remains the champion off the track where, long before
his crash, he had won the rabid support of millions of blue collar Americans captivated by his self-effacing charm, non-stop banter and unexpected accessibility. In his fourth decade behind the wheel, he still sells more souvenirs, conducts more interviews, signs more autographs and wins more often than anyone else in drag racing history. In fact, his expanding impact in the world market resulted in his 2005 acceptance of the John Bolton Award for motorsports achievement from AutoSport Magazine.
While he always has possessed the sport’s fastest mouth, it wasn’t until he hired Austin Coil as crew chief in 1985 that Force’s car began to keep pace. Their partnership has been the most productive in the history of motorsports. In fact, Coil has engineered every one of Force’s career wins, every NHRA series championship and each of his 10 special event victories.
Force’s dominance in straight-line racing belies his early years on the tour, years of on-track futility and off-track vaudeville. With no license, no sponsor and, really, no clue, Force used a tax refund check and the money gleaned from an organ his mother-in-law won on a television game show appearance to buy a Vega Funny Car from his late uncle, Gene Beaver. He then hustled a winter booking in Australia—even though he didn’t have a license—and, by pure accident, became the first to break the 200 mile an hour barrier there.
Once back in the states, Force wanted nothing more than to compete. In his first 65 pro starts, he reached the final round nine times—but never made it to the winners’ circle. His fortunes turned in June, 1987, when he earned a breakthrough victory at Montreal, Canada. He’s been virtually unstoppable ever since.
TEAM BIOGRAPHY
With the power of Force—John Force, that is—behind them, it’s no wonder that NHRA’s strongest Funny Car driver has enlisted some of the strongest young drivers to play for the same team. Robert Hight, Ashley Force, Mike Neff and Force himself make up the John Force Racing roster.
Twelve times in 15 seasons (13 overall), Force has been the NHRA's unchallenged champion both on and off the track. The title losses came in 1992 when Cruz Pedregon overtook Force by winning five of the season's last six races and then in 2004 when Force’s driver Tony Pedregon won the title.
Force is the only drag racer ever named Driver of the Year for all of American motor racing, the result of an incredible 1996 season in which he put his 6,000 horsepower hybrid in the final round 16 times in 19 races, won 13 event titles and posted a 65-6 record in individual competition.
He's the only drag racer ever considered for one of ESPN's Espy Awards, earning runner-up honors as both the Driver of the Year (1999) and Driver of the Decade.
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