FORCE WINS SECOND ANNUAL COMPETITIONPLUS.COM WAR STORIES SHOWDOWN

SPARTANBURG, S.C. January 28, 2009: Twenty-nine stories, tens of thousands of votes cast and four rounds of competition narrowed down to just one champion on Monday. The readers of CompetitionPlus.com voted fourteen-time NHRA World Champion John Force as the best storyteller in the electronic magazine's second annual War Stories Showdown. Force edged veteran doorslammer racer Pat Musi for the crown by a slim 5.78% margin to win the trophy.

"Anything I do I put my heart into," said Force on Tuesday evening. "I love telling stories and people know me for that. When you are talking about people like Shirley Muldowney and Gary Scelzi those are special people to me and then you add in my brother Louie and that takes it to a whole new level for me personally. As I was thinking and talking about these stories I was also reflecting on my life and what it would take to win. Winning is what I do best."

Force entered the competition as the No. 1 seed and worked his way through eliminations scoring key victories over drag racing photographer Don Gillespie, four-time Top Fuel champion Shirley Muldowney, four-time nitro champion Gary Scelzi and edging multi-time Pro Street champion Pat Musi. Force saved his best for last with a lengthy tale of antics with his brother Louie.

"I want to thank Bobby Bennett for holding this contest," Force said. "It kept the fans interested over the winter months and Christmas and hopefully it brought some smiles to their faces. It is really all about the fans and I really appreciate so many of them voting for me and my stories. The fans are the people that made this happen and I can't thank them enough. I know my stories got kind of long and I apologize for that. As I was going along and thinking about my past and all the people that have been a part of my life it became fun for me. I got motivated just thinking about where I had been. Those memories started motivating me and they are going to motivate me to go after this Full Throttle Championship this year."This unique competition features sixteen entities in drag racing, either as past or present drivers, track promoters, sanctioning body officials or journalists, telling stories of past experiences in the sport, some flattering and some not-so-flattering."

Readers vote to seed the field based on which of the sixteen entrants they felt could tell the best "war story". The seeded field is then paired on an NHRA professional eliminations ladder where they battle head to head until a winner is determined. This event is deemed by the readers of the popular e-zine as one of the greatest off-season drag races ever contested.

To read all the stories in this year's competition, visit Competition Plus.