Funny Car is a type of drag racing vehicle and a specific racing class in organized drag racing. Funny cars are characterized by having tilt-up fiberglass or carbon fiber automotive bodies over a custom-fabricated chassis, giving them an appearance vaguely approximating manufacturers' showroom models. They also have the engine placed in front of the driver, as opposed to dragsters, which place it behind the driver.
John Harold Force is an American NHRA drag racer. He is a 16-time NHRA and 1 time AHRA Funny Car champion driver and a 21-time champion car owner. Force owns and drives for John Force Racing (JFR). He is one of the most dominant drag racers in the sport with 155 career victories. He graduated from Bell Gardens High School and briefly attended Cerritos Junior College to play football. He is the father of drag racers Ashley Force Hood, Brittany Force, and Courtney Force. His oldest daughter Adria Hight is the CFO of JFR.
Ashley Force Hood is a former Top Fuel Funny Car (TF/FC) drag racer for John Force Racing. She is the daughter of 16-time NHRA Top Fuel Funny Car national champion John Force and Laurie Force. She is married to Daniel Hood, who works for John Force Racing. She was on hiatus from racing in 2011 as the couple expected their first child. Since their child's birth, Force Hood has announced her retirement from competitive racing.
Pro stock is a class of drag racing featuring "factory hot rods". The class is often described as "all motor", due to the cars not using any form of forced induction such as turbocharging or supercharging, or other enhancements, like nitrous oxide, along with regulations governing the modifications allowed to the engines and the types of bodies used.
Gary Scelzi is an American dragster racer and midget car owner who has won the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series Top Fuel championship on three occasions and the Funny Car title once. In 1997 he won the title in his first full year of competition, after replacing Blaine Johnson, who had been killed at the 1996 US Nationals, while leading the top fuel championship, in the Johnson family-owned car. He has not competed in NHRA competition since the 2008 season.
Angelle Sampey is an American Pro Stock Motorcycle racer. She won the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle championship three times (2000-2002). Since her debut in 1996, she has earned an all-time class record 45 top-qualifier awards and 42 event victories, the most wins for any female in both NHRA competition and professional motor sports as a whole. On June 23, 2007 at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey, she scored her 42nd career pole position and more importantly set the national Pro Stock Motorcycle elapsed time record with a 6.871 second run. Following her April 1, 2007 win in Houston, Texas, Sampey was just 5 wins away from setting the all-time Pro Stock Motorcycle wins record, currently held by Dave Schultz. Sampey also holds the active record of 182 consecutive races without a Did Not Qualify, dating all the way back to her professional debut. She also holds the mark of 364 round wins in 506 competitive rounds, which calculates to a 71.9% win-per-round ratio.
Erica Lee Enders is an American drag racing driver. Enders has won four championships in the Pro Stock class of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series and she continues to drive full-time in that class. She also currently races in the NHRA Pro Modified class.
The Texas Motorplex is a quarter mile drag racing facility located in Ennis, Texas, United States, 40 miles (64 km) south of downtown Dallas. Built in 1986 by former funny car driver Billy Meyer, the Motorplex was the first National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) "super track." It annually hosts the AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals each October, when hundreds of professional and amateur drag racers compete for over $2 million in prize money. Past winners have included John Force, Kenny Bernstein, and Tony Schumacher.
Cypress Springs High School, CSHS, or more commonly as Cy-Springs is located at 7909 Fry Road, in Cypress, an unincorporated community in Harris County, Texas.
Courtney Lee Enders is a former NHRA drag racer.
Driving Force is an American reality television program which premiered July 17, 2006, on A&E, and ended on May 15, 2007. It was centered on champion drag racer John Force and his daughters, also drag racers.
Jeg Coughlin Jr. is an American motorsports driver, competing in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Pro Stock Division. He is a six-time world champion, winning the Pro Stock title five times and the Super Gas championship. He currently drives the Magneti Marelli offered by Mopar/JEGS.com Dodge Dart for Elite Motorsports as a teammate to three-time Pro Stock champion Erica Enders. He is the son of Jeg Coughlin Sr., the founder of Jegs High Performance.
Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park is a 450-acre motorsport racing complex, located in Chandler, Arizona, about 18 miles southeast of downtown Phoenix, Arizona.
Houston Raceway Park, formerly known as Royal Purple Raceway, is a quarter-mile dragstrip in Baytown, Texas, just outside Houston. Built in 1988, the Park is situated on 500 acres on the eastern edge of the greater Houston metropolitan area and is Houston's only major multi-purpose motorsports venue. The dragstrip has a three-story tower building that incorporates 23 VIP suites, a media center, and race control facilities equipped with timing and scoring equipment. In 2000, Houston Raceway Park opened a new high banked 3/8 mile dirt oval at the facility.
Courtney Force-Rahal is a former drag racer who competed on the NHRA tour. She drove the Advance Auto Parts Chevy Camaro SS Funny Car for John Force Racing. She is the youngest daughter of 16-time NHRA World Funny Car Champion John Force and his wife Laurie. She is a graduate of Cal State Fullerton having majored in Communications. On July 19, 2009, Force-Rahal won her first national event in the Top Alcohol Dragster category at the 22nd annual NHRA Northwest Nationals in Kent, Washington. After her sister, Ashley, announced her retirement from competitive racing in 2011, Force-Rahal became the fourth driver for John Force Racing. On July 27, 2014, Force-Rahal passed her sister for the record of most Funny Car wins by a female driver in NHRA history.
Cruz Pedregon is a 2-time NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Funny Car Champion from Torrance, California. He is the brother of Tony Pedregon, also a two-time Funny Car Champion & Frank Pedregon Jr. who has won multiple NHRA National Events. He currently races for his own team, Cruz Pedregon Racing, Inc.
Del Worsham is an American NHRA Funny car driver who began his professional career as a driver in Pomona, California, in 1990. Worsham drives a Lucas Oil sponsored car Worsham Racing, a family team. Through the first five races of the 2011 season, he has amassed 33 career victories, eight in the Top Fuel Series and 25 in the Funny Car Series. In 1991, Worsham became the youngest driver to win a Funny Car event and went on to win the NHRA Rookie of the Year. His best finish in the Point Standings first came in 2011 when he won the NHRA Full Throttle Championship in Top Fuel. In 2015, Worsham won the NHRA Mello Yello Championship in Funny Car. He became the third driver to win championships in both Top Fuel and Funny Car, joining Kenny Bernstein and Gary Scelzi in this category.
Matt Hagan is a professional NHRA funny car driver for Tony Stewart Racing. Most notably, he was the 2011, 2014 and 2020 NHRA Funny Car World Champion. He has had a total of 40 Career Event titles, 73 Career Final Rounds, and 21 Career No.1 qualifying positions. He is driver of the 14 Dodge Power Brokers Funny Car team led by Dickie Venables.
Brittany Leighton Force is an NHRA drag racer and 2017 NHRA Drag Racing Series Top Fuel dragster champion. She is the daughter of drag racer John Force and the sister of fellow racers Courtney Force and Ashley Force Hood.
The 2022 Houston Astros season is the 61st season for the Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise in Houston, Texas, their 58th as the Astros, 10th in both the American League (AL) and AL West division, and 23rd at Minute Maid Park.