Even though he continues to distinguish himself as a member of the brain trust at John Force Racing Inc., contributing his mechanical expertise to a team that has won 15 Funny Car Championships in the last 18 seasons, John Medlen has become so much more since that tragic day last March when his son, Eric, succumbed to injuries suffered in a testing accident at Gainesville, Fla.
Specifically, the 58-year-old has assumed primary responsibility for making Eric's life count for more than just the six NHRA tour victories he earned in an all-too-brief driving career.
As manager of The Eric Medlen Project, Medlen has worked the last year with the NHRA, Ford, SFI, chassis builder Murf McKinney and John Force himself to re-design the Funny Car chassis in an effort to create both a safer race car and a safer competitive environment.
In fact, changes made to the JFR Ford Mustangs immediately following Eric's crash were credited with minimizing the major physical injuries Force suffered when he crashed last September at Texas. Although he fractured bones in his hands and feet, the 14-time series champion suffered no traumatic injuries to the head, neck or torso that might have prevented his return to competition this year in a heavier, but safer car.
Although the current chassis represents the first major design change in 25 years, it is not the Funny Car of the Future to which Force often has alluded. According to Medlen, such a concept car still is several years away.
In addition to his managerial responsibilities with the Eric Medlen Project, the elder Medlen is liaison to Fadal, the company whose machine tools churn out all the proprietary parts that keep the JFR Mustangs operating at a steady, 330 mile-an-hour pace. Furthermore, he was instrumental in the development of the engine that this year has returned Ford power to the Funny Car and Top Fuel divisions.
Last, but certainly not least, he is back this year as crew chief to rookie driver Mike Neff, with whom he shares both a mechanical and a religious bond. Without his faith in God, Medlen said, he simply could not have dealt with the loss of his son.
A self-taught engineer, Medlen has earned the respect of the most talented mechanics in the sport, especially those with whom he works at JFR: Austin Coil, Bernie Fedderly, Jimmy Prock and Dean Antonelli.
Medlen's mechanical aptitude first was recognized by Bill Dyer, a high school shop teacher in Lodi, Calif. At Dyer's suggestion, Medlen read everything he could about motors, engineering and machinery and, by the time he graduated from high school, he could disassemble and reassemble virtually anything with moving parts.
By the time he was 20, he owned his own machine shop and, by the time he turned 26, he had transformed a thriving automobile repair business into a custom parts fabrication facility that served his racing interests and those of his closest friends.
Eventually, his expertise caught the attention of drag racers like Kenny Bernstein and Don Prudhomme, for whom he began building custom clutch systems.
After stints as crew chief for Prudhomme and others, Medlen briefly left the sport to serve as General Manager at Callies Crankshafts Inc., in Fostoria, Ohio, but returned in 1996 to oversee the build-up of a research-and-development team for JFR.
He responded by putting current NHRA champion Tony Pedregon in the winners' circle in just their fifth race together. They would go on to win 27 races culminating in a series championship in 2003. Eric took wheel of the ride in ‘04.
A product of the California speed culture, Medlen for years ran a machine shop in Oakdale, Calif., while he raced boats, stock cars, go-karts and Top Alcohol dragsters. When he and Eric's mother Mimi split up, he moved his entire operation to Russellville, Ark., where he met and married his current wife, Martha, with whom he now resides near JFR's Midwest shop facility in Brownsburg, Ind.
