Ashley Force Advances to Another Semi Final Finish

COMMERCE, Ga. - Ashley Force, driver of the Castrol/Hot Wheels A/Fuel dragster, advanced to her fourth semi final round in just eight races at last weekend's Summit Racing Equipment Nationals.

After qualifying 10th for the event held at Atlanta Dragway, Force, a second generation racer, was defeated by fellow female racer Karen Benkovich.

"It was a weird round," stated Ashley. "We had to shut off on the starting line after doing our burn outs because the timing clocks weren't working. After that we had to return to our pit to re-fuel and windmill the engine (the process of turning over the engine to remove any fuel still in the cylinders). We also tried to cool down the clutch as much as possible."

Force and Benkovich returned to the starting line and began again. Ashley was first off the line and recorded her best reaction time of her career, a .005 (a perfect reaction time being .000), but soon fell victim to tire shake. Ashley pedaled her 3,000 horsepower nitro-injected dragster twice and began to catch up to Benkovich, but fell short. Benkovich won with a 5.692 second elapsed time.

"The car felt like it went backwards before moving forwards," said Ashley. Her crew chief, Jerry Darien, explained that they should have cooled off the clutch more before returning to run the race. "There was too much heat still in it," Darien said.

"We were really looking for a win at this race," exclaimed the twenty-two year. "This was my first final round last year, but I am excited for Karen."

"The entire weekend was a learning experience for me," Ashley continued. "Everyone said I'd be a great funny car driver because I've been pedaling my car and blowing up parts."

During the first round of competition the California girl was paired against Jared Dreher. Force had to pedal the car once and was able to hold on to get the win light but kicked the rods as a conscience. Darien determined there was a parts failure which caused a cylinder to fill with fuel which caused the connecting rod to disintegrate, a.k.a., kicking the rods. "I felt a jolt and then the car didn't feel right or sound right," Ashley told Darien after the run.

In the second round Ashley again experienced tire shake but this time the Castrol/Hot Wheels sponsored dragster was able to drive through it and she took the win over Jeff Bohr with a 5.479 second elapsed time at over 254 mph.

Though Ashley was not proclaimed the champion of the Summit Racing Nationals, her father, 13-time NHRA POWERade Funny Car Champion, John Force, was named the King of the funny cars when he defeated his son-in-law and team driver, Robert Hight. Hight is the newest driver added to the Force clan and is married to Force's eldest daughter, Adria.

Earlier in the week Ashley attended the Coca Cola Press Conference held at Coca Cola's headquarters in downtown Atlanta. At that press conference the NHRA and Coca Cola's POWERade brand made the announcement that POWERade will continue to be the series sponsor of the NHRA until 2011, a seven year extension. The partnership began in 2002.

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER final: Rich McPhillips (5.80 e.t.) defeated Karen Benkovich (broke).

Benkovich was defeated by Rich McPhillips in the finals when she was unable to get her alcohol dragster into reverse after the burn out. McPhillips covered the quarter mile in 5.80 seconds.

Ashley Force Advances to Another Semi Final Finish - Atlanta