JFR LEADER WANTS TO HELP SEAL CHAMPIONSHIP FOR FORD

BY TEAM FORD RACING CORRESPONDENT

Las Vegas — In a perfect world, John Force would drive his Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang to victory this week in the ninth annual NHRA Las Vegas Nationals and thus extend to 23 the number of successive seasons in which he has won at least one NHRA tour event.

As a bonus, in the early elimination rounds, the 60-year-old drag racing icon would eliminate the primary challengers to son-in-law Robert Hight and daughter Ashley Force Hood, the front-runners in the Countdown to One playoffs, thereby insuring that at the conclusion of the Auto Club Finals two weeks hence, there will be a Ford atop the final Full Throttle Funny Car standings.

Of course, it’s not a perfect world, but, as unlikely as it might seem, Force hasn’t given up on extending one of the most remarkable streaks in the sport.

“We want to win the championship,” Force said. “That’s number one, but I want to win a race, too. People say ‘you want Robert to win’ or ‘you want Ashley to win.’ Well, what about me? I still want to win. I’m not out here to just go through the motions.

“I’m going to try my best. That’s why we brought John Medlen over [to help on the High Mileage Ford]. We needed a hands-on guy to make sure that the tuning decisions by Coil and Bernie [crew chiefs Austin Coil and Bernie Fedderly] get to the crew.”

Force’s bid to salvage the season, of course, is just a sub-plot in the drama that will unfold Friday, Saturday and Sunday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The real action is at the top. With a $500,000 bonus and Ford’s return to Funny Car prominence on the line, Hight carries a 13-point lead ahead of Force Hood into this week’s event. Lurking just 35 points further back is two-time series champion Tony Pedregon, the only driver among the top six who previously has won a championship.

“They’ve got a real good shot,” Force said of his two protégés, “and I’m hoping I can do some damage, too.”

Hight, who just barely made the playoffs, turned his season around with back-to-back victories in the first two races of the Countdown—at Charlotte, N.C., and Ennis, Texas. As a result, he is in position this year to benefit from the same system that for all intents cost his the championship in 2007.

“The first year [the Countdown was in place], it bit me,” Hight said. “I was number one in the points that year and would have ended up the champ. This year, with the way we were so bad all year and then we finally got our act together at the right time, it may just save us.”

“[This] is going to be a big weekend,” said the 11-time tour winner. “We don’t need to have all that extra pressure and have it come down to the last race. I’m very excited about [racing for the championship]. We’ve kind of gotten spoiled over here over the years.

“This team won 12 straight championships (1993-2004) with Tony and John. Then there was a year that we lost [2005] and now the last two, so we definitely want to get John Force Racing and these Ford Mustangs back on top where [they] belong.

“As long as it’s one of the two of us [him or Ashley], I’m excited,” Hight said. “It’s probably less pressure when you’re racing one of your own teammates than having to go out there and race another one of those cars.”

Hight said that despite the troubles he and his Auto Club teammates endured earlier in the season, he never gave up.

“The whole team never gave up,” said the former world class marksman. “It probably made it easier having Ashley doing so well. She was kind of carrying the load for the whole team. But the way this whole team works is we help each other, we work together, and we knew that if we got too lost and what we were doing wasn’t working that we could go over with Dean Antonelli and Ron Douglas’ help and probably get our car to run similar to theirs—and that’s actually what happened.”

“I think John changing drivers clear back in Reading, Pa., had something to do with (the team’s turnaround). You know, I’m a big baseball fan. I follow the Dodgers and I used to watch [former manager] Tommy Lasorda and he would go out there and he would coach third base. You know, the manager never does that. But I asked him about it last year and he said, ‘[sometimes] you’ve just got to shake things up. When that batter looks down there at third base and sees a regular batting coach, he’s not thinking. But, if he looks down there and sees the manager, his boss, he’s probably going to perform a little better, and it just shakes things up.’

“Jimmy looking in there at John and John looking out at Jimmy, I think, for whatever reason, it worked and my car turned around that weekend.”

As for Force Hood, her Castrol GTX Mustang has performed more consistently at a high level this season than any other, racing in seven final rounds, earning a category-best five No. 1 starts and winning two races, one of them the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Clermont, Ind.

“We’re really pumped,” Force Hood said of her enthusiasm for this week’s race. “We’ve had a really great season. We’re right where we want to be up there in the top couple of spots [although] a lot can change in these final two races.