The late Vinnie Napp, who as a promoter made Raceway Park the most active and successful track in the country by not being afraid to book taxi races, bus races, jets, jumpers and wheelstanders to augment a traditional drag racing program, saw in a raw, unproven John Force the charismatic personality who ultimately would become the sport's biggest winner.

"Vinnie gave me my start on the old match race circuit," Force recalled. "I'd never been out of California. In fact, Raceway Park was the first East Coast track I ever raced on. Vinnie was a throwback. He did it all. He was hard, but he was fair and I used to run here all the time. I still miss him."

Despite Force's familiarity with Raceway Park, the track hasn't exactly been kind to him in 27 previous appearances in the SuperNationals. While he never has failed to make the starting lineup and even though he went to the final round in his first ever SuperNationals appearance (1979), Force has won the race just four times and hasn't been in the winners circle since the turn of the century.

Granted, that was just 10 years ago, but in the Force world, that's an eon. In fact, outside of new events at Norwalk, Ohio, and Charlotte, N.C., the SuperNationals is the only race in the NHRA Full Throttle Series the Hall-of-Famer (2008 inductee into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in Novi, Mich.) hasn't won in the 21st Century.

To put that record in perspective, the 14-time NHRA champion has reached the winners' circle just 14.7 per cent of the time at Raceway Park, but 23.8 per cent of the time overall. That's right: he's won 23.8 per cent of all the races he's run in a 32-year career (127 of 529 including the 17 for which he didn't even qualify).

So, the just-turned-60-year-old icon knows he has work to do this week in a Castrol Mustang that has yet to realize its potential. The challenge is not just mechanical. Force and every other driver in the field will have to deal personally with returning for the first time to the track on which two-time former World Champion Scott Kalitta lost his life in a 2008 crash.

Nevertheless, because of safety improvements made since the Kalitta tragedy and his own team's slow improvement, he is optimistic.

"I've fought with my guys off and on this year," Force said of the frustration that has mounted during the longest stretch of his career in which he has failed to reach an NHRA final round (24 straight events).

"I'm so used to winning that I tend to get kind of panicked (when we're struggling)," he said. "We've won 15 championships (as a team) and it wasn't all me, trust me. They're the best and that's what I told them when I apologized for the way I've been acting.

"They really dug into their hot rods and they're finding stuff (that needed to be addressed) from body tin to chassis flex to clutches everything you can imagine. We've had seasons where we were off two or three months, even six months, but not this far off. We're better than we were last year, but we're not where we need to be yet."

Did You Know?
- 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. He currently shares that record with Warren Johnson.
- John hasn't qualified No. 1 since Sept. 1, 2006. That's 62 races, the longest drought of his career.

Force and Coil:
- Over the 25 years they have been together, John Force and Austin Coil have gone to the final round in 42 per cent of ALL the races they've run (198 of 475) in the NHRA series.
- Force and Coil were winless in their first 31 races together, finally earning a breakthrough win on June 28, 1987 at Montreal, Canada.
- En route to 14 NHRA championships and 126 tour victories, there have been three constants - Force, Coil and Castrol.

At Raceway Park:
- John won four times in seven years in the 1990s (1993, 1996, 1998 and 1999), but those represent his only victories in 27 national event appearances.
- Last year, John took his Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford to the semifinals before losing to teammate Mike Neff.
- En route to his 1998 victory, John raised the NHRA national speed record to 323.89 mph, which for five-and-a-half months (until Nov. 1, 1998) was the fastest any vehicle, dragster or Funny Car, had accelerated through the standard quarter mile.
- In his very first NHRA tour appearance in 1979, John reached the finals where he dropped a narrow decision to the man who would become the 1979 champion, Raymond Beadle.

JOHN FORCE By the Numbers
1 Driver of the Year award (1996, the first drag racer ever so honored)
2 daughters racing this week in the Top Alcohol Dragster class
3 screws securing ankle bones from compound fracture suffered in Sept. 23, 2007 crash at Dallas, Texas.
4 wins at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park (1993, 1996, 1998, 1999)
5 seasons with 10 or more tour victories (1993-94, 1996, 1999-2000).
6 DNQs in the last three seasons after setting a drag racing record by qualifying for 395 consecutive events from 1988 through April, 2007.
7 position in which he has finished each of the last two seasons, worst showing since being 13th in 1984.
8 races left to lock up starting spot in the NHRA Countdown to the Championship
9 runner-up finishes before winning for the first time at Montreal, Canada, on June, 28, 1987, beating Ed "the Ace" McCulloch in the final round.
10 straight Funny Car titles (1993-2002).
13 drivers among the 122 against whom he has raced who enjoy a winning record
14 times named to AARWBA Auto Racing All-America Team.
22 consecutive seasons with at least one NHRA tour victory
. 25 consecutive Top 10 finishes.
1023 competitive rounds won

JOHN FORCE as Team Owner
8 different drivers
6 different winners
15 series championships
18 consecutive years with at least one tour victory
185 NHRA national event victories
214 No. 1 starts
316 final rounds
1814 national event rounds won

http://www.johnforceracing.com For more information about Castrol-branded products and services, please visit us at Castrol.com/US

Courtesy of Dave Densmore