TEAM CASTROL/JOHN AND ASHLEY PRE-RACE PACKAGE FOR
CHARLOTTE
For Immediate Release
FORCE EYES REDEMPTION
AT CAROLINA NATIONALS
14-Time Series Champ Seeks 1,000 Win with Coil
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – On an all-concrete zMax Dragway track on which neither
has yet won a single racing round, John Force and crew chief Austin Coil try
this week to apply an exclamation point to their 25-year collaboration
and, at the same time, take a first tentative step toward securing their 15th
joint Funny Car Championship.
. After taking a one-race medical leave, Coil returns to work at this
week's second annual Carolina Nationals with an opportunity to earn his
1,000th round win with Force as his driver.
How good is that? Well, do the math. Divide 1,000 rounds by 25
years and what you get is 40 – as in 40 rounds won every year for a full
quarter of a century.
Unfortunately, it's a statistic that will mean nothing this week when
Force and Coil begin their latest championship quest 80 points behind
pacesetting Tony Pedregon in the Full Throttle standings that were adjusted
following the Labor Day Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, Ind.
"The only round that makes any difference," Coil has said, "is the
last one. If you won the last won, then there's the chance you can win the
next one and if you happen to be lucky enough to win four-in-a-row, well,
you're back in the winners' circle."
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Although the three principals responsible for the performance of the
Castrol GTX® High Mileage™ Ford Mustang are now sexagenarians, getting back
in the winners' circle remains the goal every time Coil and co-crew chief
Bernie Fedderly send Force to the starting line.
That said, it's been an awfully long time since the sport's biggest
winners' have celebrated an NHRA tour victory. In fact, it's been 34 races
since Force has even had a chance to win a race, the longest final round
drought of his pro career.
Confronted with that futility and considering the fact that he didn't
even qualify for last year's inaugural Carolina Nationals, few expect
Force to be a factor either in Sunday's race or the Countdown.
It's a mind set from which the 14-time Auto Racing All-America
selection derives motivation.
"Coil can still tune a race car and I can still drive one," said the
126-time tour winner. "I didn't like the Countdown (when the NHRA created
it in 2007) because we dominated all those years without it. But now, in a
year where we've struggled, with the Countdown, we still have a chance.
"I haven't given up (on winning a race or two before season's end),"
said the first drag racer ever to earn Driver of the Year honors (1996).
"I still think we can. We finally have a consistent car. We keep going to
the semifinals and if you keep going to the semifinals, eventually you're
going to the finals.
"I think we've got as good a chance as anyone else," Force said.
"Just look at what Cruz (Pedregon) did last year. He got hot in the
Countdown, won a couple of races in a row (three) and got the ring.
"This year, there's 10 good cars in the Countdown and any one of them
can win it. Our job is to make sure it's one of these Fords."
* * * *
Did You Know?
– Last year, John was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of
America in Novi, Mich. He was joined this year by Kenny Bernstein.
– This is the furthest John ever has gone into a season without at least
reaching the final round. It's been 34 races since he last appeared in a
final, winning his record126th tour title at the O'Reilly Summer Nationals at
Topeka, Kan., on June 1, 2008.
– John has gone to the semifinals at each of the last three races, each tim
e with a different crew chief. He lost in the semis at Brainerd, Minn.,
to Ron Capps in a car prepared by Austin Coil; to Bob Tasca III at Reading,
Pa., in a car prepared by Jimmy Prock; and to teammate Robert Hight at
Indianapolis in a car prepared by committee after Coil was hospitalized with
intestinal problems
For the Record:
– John is trying to extend to a record-setting 23 the number of
consecutive seasons in which he has won at least one NHRA tour event and to 25 the
number of successive years in which he's reached the finals.
– John hasn't qualified No. 1 since Sept. 1, 2006 at the Mac Tools U.S.
Nationals in Indianapolis, Ind. That's a span of 68 races, the longest such
streak of his pro career.
– By earning one of the 10 starting spots in the NHRA's Countdown to One
playoffs, John secured his record 25th straight Top 10 finish.
– By reaching the semifinals at the last three events, John improve his
season record to 19-18, putting himself in position to post a winning record
for the 25th straight year.
– In 25 seasons together, John and crew chief Austin Coil have contested
490 NHRA tour events, DNQed at only seven and compiled a record of 999-357
en route to a record 126 victories
-www.johnforceracing.com-
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visit us at Castrol.com/US
Force/Carolina Nationals
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FORCE's Edge
Overall NHRA records (and Funny Car division records)
Most career victories (126)
Most series championships (14)
Most career final rounds (202)
Most career rounds won (1034)
Most consecutive series championships (10, 1993-2002)
Most consecutive seasons with one or more victories (22)*
Most consecutive seasons with at least one final round appearance (24)*
Most consecutive seasons with multiple tour victories (18, 1990-2007)
Most consecutive national events without a DNQ (395, 1988-2007)
Most consecutive Top 10 seasons (25)
Highest winning percentage, one season (91.5%, 65-6)
*tied with Warren Johnson, Pro Stock
Other NHRA Funny Car division records
Most final rounds, one season (16, 1996)
Most victories, one season (13, 1996)
Most rounds won, one season (65, 1996)
Most career No. 1 starts (131)
Most No. 1 starts, one season (11, 1996)
Most consecutive final round appearances, one event (nine, 1992-2000,
Atlanta, Ga.)
Career starts (520)
Awards
Driver of the Year (1996)
Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (2008 inductee)
AARWBA Auto Racing All-America Team (14 times, 1990, 1993-2002, 2004-2006)
Jerry Titus Memorial Award (most AARWBA votes, 4 times, 1996, 1999, 2000,
2002)
AARWBA Comeback Award (2008)
Speed TV Comeback Award (2008)
SAE Motorsports Achievement Award (2008)
AutoSport Magazine's John Bolster Award for lifetime achievement (2005)
Force/Carolina Nationals
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Milestones
First round win, over Tom McEwen, June 1, 1979, Cajun Nationals, Baton
Rouge, La.
First No. 1 qualifier, May 25, 1986, Cajun Nationals, Baton Rouge, La.
First tour victory, June 28, 1987, Le Grandnational Molson, Montreal,
Canada
First Funny Car driver to break 4.90 second barrier, July 6, 1996, Topeka,
Kan.
First drag racer to win Driver of the Year award for all of American motor
sports (1996)
First Funny Car driver to break 4.80 second barrier, Oct. 24, 1998,
Dallas, Texas
First (and only) drag racer to win 100 events, April 14, 2002, Houston,
Texas
First Funny Car driver to break 4.70 second barrier, Oct. 2, 2004, Joliet,
Ill.
No. 2 (behind Don Garlits) in balloting to determine Top 50 drivers in
NHRA's first 50
years (2001)
First (and only) drag racer to win 1,000 racing rounds, May 4, 2008,
Madison, Ill.
JOHN FORCE By the Numbers
1 Driver of the Year award (1996, the first drag racer ever so honored).
2 wins this season for JFR, both by Ashley Force Hood
3 screws securing ankle bones from compound fracture suffered in Sept.
23, 2007 crash at Dallas, Texas.
4 wins in the state of North Carolina, all in the now defunct Winston
Invitational at Rockingham Dragway (1990, 1995-97)
5 seasons with 10 or more tour victories (1993-94, 1996, 1999-2000).
6 semifinal appearances this year without advancing to a single final
round.
7 starting position in Countdown to One and position from which Eddie
Krawiec won the Pro Stock Motorcycle championship in 2008.
9 runner-up finishes before winning for the first time.
10 straight Funny Car titles (1993-2002).
14 times named to AARWBA Auto Racing All-America Team.
22 consecutive seasons with at least one NHRA tour victory.
24 consecutive Top 10 finishes.
126 tour events won
1034 competitive rounds won.
-www.johnforceracing.com-
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visit us at Castrol.com/US
For Immediate Release
FORCE HO0D COMES OF AGE
IN FULL THROTTLE FAST LANE
Champ's Daughter Rides Wave of Momentum into Countdown
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – It took just four rounds of racing at the 55th Mac
Tools U.S. Nationals only 16.604 seconds of actual work to transform
Ashley Force Hood from fresh-faced pretender to seasoned contender for what
may be the NHRA's most hotly-contested Funny Car championship.
In just her third professional appearance in the world's oldest,
largest, richest and most prestigious drag race, Force Hood sped to a
history-making victory that sends her Castrol GTX® Ford Mustang screaming into this
week's second annual Carolina Nationals on a wave of momentum.
Even before her Indy victory, the 26-year-old daughter of racing icon
John Force had demonstrated that she's more than just a racing novelty.
After all, in a breakout 2009 season, no one has gone to more Funny
Car finals than has the graduate of Cal State-Fullerton (seven) and no one
has started more races from the top of the qualifying order (five).
Nevertheless, what made her Indy victory so significant was that, in
it, she showed off the complete package. Her car performed flawlessly, as
it has for most of the season, her car control skills were typically
creditable and her reaction times, a rare source of criticism, were excellent.
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She left the starting line first in three of four rounds and, in a
semifinal victory over points leader Tony Pedregon, considered the best "leaver"
in the category, the reaction time difference was a scant .006 of a second.
The upshot is that the former high school cheerleader is at the very top
of her game as the tour moves onto the all-concrete surface at zMax Dragway
for the start the six-race series that will determine Full Throttle World
Champions in Funny Car and four other categories.
Furthermore, she said she couldn't be more comfortable entering the
Countdown to One, for which she credits her Castrol GTX crew and especially
crew chiefs Dean "Guido" Antonelli and Ron Douglas.
"I can always count on my guys to stay loose and tell me jokes on the
radio," she said. "They keep me relaxed and don't let me get too nervous.
Even when we had the explosion and fire (last month at Reading, Pa.),
they made a joke of it. Now they call me Fireball Force.'
"Now the yoga and meditation starts," she joked. "I was (talking)
earlier during an interview about the pressures of being in the Mac Tools
U.S. Nationals and I said this is the last fun race of the season.' (This
week) is when the stress begins. I love being a driver, but I'm jealous of
the fans getting to watch all this go down – because it's going to be
exciting."
The former NHRA Rookie-of-the-Year likes her chances.
"If you look at all the drivers in our category, there's not one
dominant person," she said, "(so) it could be anybody's championship. You
wouldn't think that going up against teams that have been racing longer than
I've been alive, we'd be thinking about a championship, but we know that in
this sport, anything can happen. I think we have a great shot at it."
* * * *
Did You Know?
– Ashley was named 2008 Female Athlete of the Year by the Jim Murray
Memorial Foundation.
– Ashley was the 2008 winner of the Automobile Club of Southern
California's Road to the Future Award as the NHRA Rookie-of-the-Year.
– Ashley is the only Funny Car driver to have led the points each of the
last two years and is the only JFR driver to have won a race this season.
– Ashley's Castrol GTX Mustang was the fastest Funny Car at the 1,000 foot
distance in 2008 (310.05 mph) and is the fastest again this year at 312.13
mph, a speed NHRA now recognizes as the official national record at 1,000
feet.
– Ashley is featured for the fourth straight year in Ford Motor Company's
Ford Mustang brochure.
Off the Track:
– Ashley was named 2008 Female Athlete of the Year by the Jim Murray
Memorial Foundation.
– In advance of the Countdown to 1, Ashley threw out the ceremonial first
pitch at a Sept. 8 Chicago White Sox game. Unknown to many, she’s a
southpaw.
– Ashley is one of four Full Throttle tour regulars whose likenesses were
reproduced on special collector's-edition cups distributed during the Mac
Tools U.S. Nationals at 155 participating McDonald's locations in the
Indianapolis area.
– Ashley was among a group of drivers and NHRA sponsors who participated
in the Opening Bell ceremony at the New York Stock Exchange on June 10. She
was joined by BP/Castrol executive Marci Brand, Regional Vice-President,
Automotive Americas, among others.
– Ashley and her cat, Simba, will be featured in a soon-to-be released
coffee table book on athletes and their pets created by award-winning
photographer David Woo.
-www.johnforceracing.com-
For more information about Castrol-branded products and services, please
visit us at
Castrol.com/US
