After coming back from a crash he probably shouldn't have survived, John Force knows in his heart,
even at age 60, that he still can win on drag racing's biggest stage. All the 14-time NHRA Funny
Car champion has to do now is prove it to everyone else.
He gets another chance this week when the NHRA Full Throttle tour returns him to Memphis
Motorsports Park for the 22nd annual O'Reilly Auto Parts Mid-South Nationals, the halfway point in
the sport's Countdown to One playoffs.
A 14-time Auto Racing All-America selection and the only driver, pro or amateur, to have won
as many as 100 NHRA races at the national event level (126), Force hasn't put his Castrol GTXR High
MileageT Ford Mustang in the winners' circle in more than a full calendar year.
For anyone else, that wouldn't be cause for concern. But Force isn't anyone else. In fact,
that 35-race drought is the longest he's gone in 32 professional seasons without at least one final
round appearance.
Even though he was winless in 65 races to start his career, the sport's most dynamic
personality never, ever went more than 22 races without at least once racing for an event title.
During the current streak, which began following his emotional June 1 2008 victory at Topeka, Kan.,
his first since the crash at Dallas, Texas that almost took his life, Force has gone to the
semifinals 10 times but no further.
Even though he is seventh in Countdown points and already is assured of his 25th straight Top
10 finish, he is the only Funny Car driver in the playoffs who hasn't been to a final round this
year and the only member of his own four-car team who hasn't started at least one race from No. 1.
"I know I can still drive," Force said, "and I know I can still win but, at the end of the
day, the proof is in the pudding."
However, if that proof doesn't begin to manifest itself this weekend, Force's hopes of
reclaiming the title that last was his in 2006 are all but over.
On a track on which he crashed heavily in 1992, an accident that led to his now famous "I saw
Elvis at 1,000 feet" remark, Force will start the race 110 points behind son-in-law Robert "Top
Gun" Hight, the current leader. That's not an insurmountable deficit, but it is a formidable one,
the equivalent of little less than six racing rounds.
Nevertheless, there is more at stake this week for Force than the championship. There also
are the records that one day will be a major part of his competitive legacy.
If he can put everything together in one of the season's final four races, he can extend
career drag racing records for most consecutive seasons with at least one final round appearance
(24), most successive season with at least one victory (22) and most consecutive seasons with a
winning record (24).
Despite an un-Force like season, the first drag racer to earn Driver of the Year recognition
(1996), has rung up an individual record of 20-20 this season, winning 20 rounds or more for the
23rd straight year. That, in itself, would be a career-maker for almost anyone else. Force,
though, still wants to win races.
He's shown this year that he still has the fire. The question is does he have the firepower?
Did You Know?
- Last year, John was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in Novi, Mich.
- This is the furthest John ever has gone into a season without at least reaching one final round
20 races.
- 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 70 races, the longest such streak of his pro career.
- In 21 appearances at Memphis Motorsports Park, John never has qualified worse than No. 8.
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 appeared in
a final.
- John hasn't been eliminated in the first round at Memphis since losing to Chuck Etchells in 1994.
Force and Coil:
- In 25 seasons together, John and crew chief Austin Coil have contested 492 NHRA tour events,
DNQed at only seven and compiled a record of 1000-359 en route to a record 126 victories.
- Of drag racing's "what have you done for me lately" mentality, Coil said: "the only round that
makes any difference is the last one. If you won the last one, 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."
http://www.johnforceracing.com
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