Force Finishes First at Winternationals

February 12th, 2012 by Drag Illustrated

John Force bounced back from a dismal end to the 2011 NHRA Full Throttle season with his sixth win at the O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals today. It was the 134^th win of the 15-time champion’s career and also the four round wins today give the Yorba Linda, Calif., resident an even 1,100 round wins for his career.

Force has followed up his previous five O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals wins by also winning the NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car championship (’91, ’93, ’97, ’02 and ’10). In the final Force outran John Force Racing (JFR) teammate and championship-contending driver Mike Neff.

Force beat Alexis DeJoria, Tim Wilkerson and Gary Densham to get to his first final against Neff. The experience differential between Force and Neff was sizable when considering it was Force’s 588^th race to Neff’s 73^rd. Neff was the 38^th different driver to face Force in a final round. This was the 28^th season for Force to win at least one NHRA national event.

The win was a culmination of a busy off-season that saw Force add to his brain-trust by bringing back some talent that had slipped away.

“I dedicated the trophy to the brain trust, my crew chiefs Jimmy Prock, Mike Neff, Guido (Dean Antonelli), Ron Douglas, Bernie Fedderly, John Medlen, Dickie Venables, Danny from Indy (DeGennaro), and Scott Wible. We got a group back to the way we used to think and function. This was a good start,” said Force.

“The thing that really mattered to me was getting right. People left for reasons. I didn’t have a car for John Medlen. Dickie Venables left earlier with Tony because he wasn’t really in line for a car. I am getting them back and I am feeling a whole lot better. Two weeks ago Medlen walked into my shop and said I want to come home. I called (Roger) Burgess on it and he said yeah he needs to be with you John. Burgess (R2B2 team owner) is really a good guy.”

“It is amazing how we all pulled together before the final. All my brain trust was working on my Mustang and helping Neff. I knew Neff was going to spank me. His Castrol hot rod has been fast all day. We have teamwork and that is what will win us championships. I have done it before and maybe we’ll do it again.”

With the win Force clinched the first spot in the inaugural Traxxas Nitro Shootout. Force won the previous race within a race, the Bud Shootout, a record six times. When Force was told about adding another historic first to his ever-expanding resume he was thrilled with the prospect.

“(NHRA president Tom) Compton said if we won this race we would make the Traxxas Nitro Shootout. That is a big deal. I can’t wait to get to Indy. I want to thank Traxxas for giving the Funny Car and Top Fuel teams this extra money.”

While Force was concentrating on winning today he also was focused on the development of his youngest daughter, Courtney Force, making her professional debut in the Funny Car class. Courtney made her own history qualifying No. 12 (three spots higher in her first race than her sister Ashley Force Hood) and winning her inaugural first-round race–something only Gary Densham of eight other JFR drivers has done.

“I told Courtney there are five things she needs to keep in mind. Love your sponsors, love your team, love the media because they are your lifeline, love the competition, and love the fans. The rest will take care of itself. She works it hard,” Force said. “She told me she always wanted to be with me and racing me. I told her she was going to get that chance. We’ll see what happens.”

For Neff it was a tough race to drop. The six-time national event winner was looking for his first Winternationals title as a driver. He had been flawless all day posting three consecutive 4.07-second passes (4.077, 4.070 and 4.074) before stepping on his tune up to post the quickest run of the weekend and his career best in the final, a 4.036-second pass at 316.82 mph.

“I got distracted and it sounded to me like someone was revving their engine up and at first I thought, ‘Is John over there revving his engine up?’ And then I thought, ‘Am I revving the engine up?’ So I started to pull back off the throttle to make sure that I wasn’t revving the engine up when the tree came down and I was late.

“I’m not blaming it on John. I mean, he definitely used his John Force tactics on me out there, but that’s just something you have to be able to deal with,” said Neff.

“I’m happy for John. He hasn’t won in a while and to have two Castrol Mustangs in the finals at the Winternationals is just a win-win situation. We knew that going up there (to the final round) so the pressure was off. One of the Force cars were going to win and that was really cool.”