John Harold Force (born May 4, 1949) is an American NHRAdrag racer. He is a 16-time NHRA and 1 time AHRA Funny Car champion driver and a 22-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 157 career victories.[6] He graduated from Bell Gardens High School and briefly attended Cerritos Junior College to play football.[7] 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.
Current drivers racing for Force's team are Austin Prock, and daughter Brittany. Mike Neff was crew chief for John two separate times. Effective July 2013 Jimmy Prock replaced Mike Neff as crew chief,[8] and Mike Neff became crew chief for Robert Hight. Neff, who was once the crew chief for rival driver Gary Scelzi, raced in a 4th Funny Car for JFR from October 26, 2007, following the death of Eric Medlen, until the end of the 2009 season. However, in 2010, after a 2009 season in which Force did not win a single race, Force parked his 4th car, and named Neff as his new crew chief instead. This decision resulted in Force winning his 15th NHRA Championship. His nickname among several of the drivers, as well as several announcers within the sport of drag racing is "Brute Force", a nickname he earned by his dominating wins during his run of ten straight NHRA championships. Force, his daughters, Courtney, Ashley, and Brittany, granddaughter Autumn Hight (granddaughter) and her father Robert Hight are collectively known as "The First Family of Drag Racing".
Early life
Force was born to Harold and Betty Ruth Force in the Los Angeles suburb of Bell Gardens, California. As a child he lived in logging camps, Indian reservations, migrant farms, and trailer parks. He survived childhood polio with therapy and perseverance of his mother and family.[9] He played football in high school and attended Cerritos College.[10] John is one of six children. John has five siblings, Walker, Louie, Tom (now deceased), and Cindy Hem (married to late husband Skip Hem) were all older than John. Dana (Baby Force) Marino is ten years younger than John. Walker and Cindy still live near John in Southern California. Walker Force and Louie Force have worked with John over the years, but Walker Force is the only sibling now working at JFR. Younger sister Dana (Marino) did not grow up in the same house or spend any time with the family in the early years of the Force Family Racing activities. Dana now attends some of the NHRA events as she is a part-time Intern-Journalist with "The Motorsports Report" based in Las Vegas, Nevada, and resides an hour south in Kingman, AZ. She is a realtor by trade, but is Aunt Dana to Adria, Ashley, Courtney and Brittany. Much of the family still attends NHRA National events to cheer on John, Robert Hight (Adria's husband), Brittany and Austin Prock (JFR Crew Chief Jimmy Prock's son) when the events are closer to their homes in Pomona, Las Vegas, Sonoma, and Phoenix.[11]
1978–2004
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In 1971, Force drove the Jack Chrisman-built Night StalkerMustang, his first funny car.[12] Early in his career, he drove a Corvette, a Monza and then in the 1980s switched to an Oldsmobile Cutlass through the end of the 1993 season. He drove a Chevrolet for 1994, quickly changing to a Pontiac in 1995 and 1996. Force was a Ford driver and team owner from 1997 until 2014, when he returned to Chevrolet.
1985-Travel back in time to an era when John Force was trying to find his place in a drag racing world in Spokane, Wash., at the ADRA World Finals in the latter years of the old American Hot Rod Association. It was part of the syndicated Pro Drag Superstars series. Both Johnny West and John Force were tied at 1650 Points. John Force beat Johnny West in the finals with a time of 5.87 seconds at 252.10 miles per hour 1/4 mile run in the Coca-Cola Wendy's Funny Car. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW-6Jk_gTgk
Between 1987 and 1996, Force won sixty-seven of 203 NHRA national events, four of nine Big Bud Shootouts, and six World Championships.[13] In 1996, with Austin Coil tuning, Force went to the final round in sixteen of nineteen national events, taking thirteen wins, one of the best records ever in Funny Car history.[14] His domination would continue, with ten NHRA FC World Championship wins from 1993 to 2002, including six straight 1997-2002; his success was so amazing, he was accused of cheating (and was willing to strip off his firesuit to prove he was not).[15] Between 1997 and 2006, Force went to the final in 105 of 228 events and took sixty-one tour wins.[16] On top of that, he had ten of the quickest or fastest passes in Funny Car.[16]
Force's points finishes were 23rd, 8th, 26th, 16th, 20th, 4th, 13th, and 5th from 1978 to 1985. Force then had Castrol Motor Oil jump on as his main sponsor, and was even more successful. From 1986 to 1995, he finished 4th, 4th, 6th, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 1st, 1st, and 1st. He then had fellow driver and arch-rival Cruz Pedregon's younger brother, Tony, come aboard to drive John's 2nd car. From 1996 to 2000, John finished 1st all 5 years. In 2001, John had longtime friend and fellow drag racer Gary Densham drive a third car. In that same year, John once again finished as the champion, which he followed up with an astronomical 10th straight world title in 2002. In 2003, for the 1st time since 1992, John didn't win the title. It was not all lost however, because teammate Tony Pedregon won his 1st world title. At the end of the season, Tony Pedregon went on to join brother Cruz in their own racing organization, and Gary Densham went on to race independently. John found quick and personal talent in two young-guns. Eric Medlen, son of long-time JFR crewmember John Medlen, came on to race. John's other driver, Robert Hight, was his son-in-law and crewmember. Both had a lot of success in their season, but John topped both in 2004 with a 13th world title.
In 2000, Force was sponsored by BP's Castrol brand, continuing the relationship between Force and Castrol that began in 1985 and lasted through 2014. After winning his fourth Funny Car title in 1994, Force earned the nickname of "Brute Force" from drivers, and even announcers such as Steve Evans. This nickname hearkens back to his early days on the track, when he drove his own unsponsored car, named "Brute Force". Force guest starred as himself in a 2004 episode of King of the Hill ("Dale Be Not Proud"), in which Dale Gribble donates a kidney to Force, after which it appears he does not need it.
2005
In 2005, Force won 5 events, but only finished third in the championship standings, 32 points behind champion Gary Scelzi, and 24 points behind Ron Capps, both of Don Schumacher Racing [DSR].
2006
In 2006, Force won his 14th NHRA World Funny Car Championship, defeating Capps in the quarter-finals of the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals which mathematically eliminated Capps and teammate Robert Hight from the championship. Force went on to win the event, his third of the season and 122nd of his career.
2007
John Force Racing shop
After the death of Eric Medlen, and John Force's crash in Ennis, Texas at the 2007 O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals, Force started 2007 poorly, suffering a DNQ ending a 20+ year consecutive qualifying streak. He rebounded, winning the O'Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tennessee, then proceeded on to three more final rounds, winning another race in Sonoma, California, putting him fourth in points and allowing him to make the first cut in NHRA's new point system, the Countdown to the Championship aka the "Countdown to Eight". He stumbled again in the next two races but, again, rebounded until his crash.
On September 23, 2007, Force was injured in a crash at the O'Reilly Auto Parts Fall Nationals in Ennis, Texas as he crossed the finish line against Kenny Bernstein. Bernstein's Funny Car drifted into Force's lane, clipping the final timing cone and a foam block which shot into Force's lane. Initially, it was thought that the block ruptured Force's left rear tire, causing it to come apart, violently shaking the chassis until it broke apart. However, it was determined by NHRA after a thorough review, that the block went behind Force's tire and was not the cause of the wreck.[18] Injuries sustained were a broken ankle, abrasion of his right knee, a dislocated left wrist, and badly mangled fingers and toes, and Force had to be airlifted to Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas. Phil Burkart Jr. was added as Force's replacement for the remainder of the 2007 season, starting at Las Vegas.
2008
2008 was a subpar season for Force who finished 7th, out of the top five for the first time since early in his career. However, after the death of driver Scott Kalitta, he was instrumental in the development of some of the safety precautions that were implemented throughout the rest of the season, and along with retired six-time world champion Kenny Bernstein [4 Funny Car titles, 2 Top Fuel titles] and seven-time Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher, with backing from NHRA's Track Safety Committee, assisted in developing a sensor that monitors the engines of Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars. Should the engine backfire at any time during a race, the fuel pump is automatically shut down, and the parachutes are deployed. The idea was to either minimize or eliminate the circumstances that led to Kalitta's death. This safety device became mandatory and was put into place at the start of the 2009 season. Also, a brake handle that, instead of needing to be pulled back toward the driver, was set up to be pushed away from the driver was made an optional setting for the Funny Car division. This change happened because when the 2008 season began, Force's right arm was still in a cast, due to broken fingers, and he needed a different way of using the brakes on the car, rather than the traditional handbrake that needed to be brought back toward the driver; also, in the 2007 accident in Texas, Force had lost some grip in his right hand, and had some problems putting enough pressure on the handbrake to unlock it from position to apply the brakes. This led to the development of the forward application handbrake, which has given several drivers in the Funny Car class quicker access to the brakes. Though Force only finished seventh in the points in 2008, he became influential within the NHRA for innovations in driver safety.
2009
2009 once again saw Force finish outside of the top five. John finished 9th, daughter Ashley finished 2nd, and Mike Neff placing 10th. However, he would win his 16th overall championship as a car owner, with teammate Robert Hight's championship, placing Force as the winningest car owner in NHRA history.
2010
The start of the 2010 season saw Force celebrate 25 years with the same sponsor, as well as 34 years in the NHRA. On February 14, Force won the season opener at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona in the 50th Winternationals in California defeating Ron Capps. After 13 events, Force had 4 wins, and lead the Funny Car points standings with 933, 58 ahead of teammate Robert Hight.
Going into the Auto Club of Southern California Finals in Pomona, CA on November 14, 2010, Force needed some help to win the championship. He started the day 38 points behind 28-year-old Matt Hagan, who ran for team rival Don Shumacher and his team. In order to capture the championship he needed to finish two rounds ahead of Hagan. With Bob Tasca III taking Hagan out in the first round, Force won his first round over Gary Densham and second-round win over Bob Bode, securing the championship. He then went on to victory beating Melanie Troxel in the semi-finals and in the final, defeated Jeff Arend. John Force now has the distinction of being the oldest NHRA champion in history. Long-time crew chief Austin Coil resigned from John Force Racing on November 16, 2010.
2011
As of February 7, 2011, JFR has already flip-flopped cars between John, Robert, Ashley, and Mike. Ashley Force Hood announced that she was expecting her 1st child, and would sit out the 2011 Full Throttle Drag Racing Season. John Force would drive Force Hood's new Ford Mustang with Dean Antonelli and Ron Douglas tuning, sponsored by Castrol Motor Oil. Robert Hight will remain in the Auto Club of Southern California Ford Mustang. Mike Neff, after co-crew chiefing John Force's car with Austin Coil, will drive Force's car from John's 2010 championship season. Neff's Ford Mustang will be sponsored by Castrol Oil. As of February 7, 2011, JFR started testing for the 2011 season. Out of the 11 testers so far, Force is 1st, Hight was 5th, and Neff was 6th. As of July 31, Force is 7th in the points standings, while teammate Mike Neff is leading, and Robert Hight is in second.
2012
2012 saw John welcome a fourth driver to his stable, former Top Alcohol Dragster champion, and daughter Courtney, who was in the running for the Auto Club Rookie of the Year Award, she will be driving the Traxxas Ford Mustang in her rookie season, and she has done something that only sister Ashley has done, beat her father in the first meeting between the two, taking John out of the Arizona Nationals in Phoenix in just the first round. Although Force was unable to retain the championship, finishing in fifth, he saw Courtney win something he never did, the NHRA Road to the Future Rookie of the Year award, and Courtney's second-place finish in the season helped cement John Force Racing's legacy for several years to come.
2013
During the start of the 2013 season, Ashley announced her retirement from full-time competition, this left the Force team short a driver. Rather than find another driver to take Ashley's place within the Castrol GTX Funny Car, John did something he had never done before, field a Top Fuel car, with daughter Brittany behind the wheel. On July 26, 2013 it was announced that after the 2014 racing season Ford Motor Company would no longer be a part of John Force Racing.[19] It was also announced that after the 2014 racing season, primary sponsor Castrol would be leaving JFR after a 29-year business relationship[20]
During the penultimate race of the 2013 season, Force beat his daughter Courtney in the final round to win the race and his 16th NHRA Funny Car Championship.
2014
He won at the season opener in Pomona California as well wins in Norwalk Ohio & Seattle Washington as he would finish 2nd points.
2015
John Force Peak Chevrolet Funny Car
In 2015 John announced a partnership with Chevrolet. He competed in the 2015 racing season with a new sponsorship deal from Peak Antifreeze.
2016
Debuted the new Chevrolet Camaro SS body in May at the Kansas Nationals in Topeka Kansas.[21] John won four races during the 2016 season at The Mile High Nationals at Bandimere Colorado, The Sonoma Nationals in Sonoma California, The Toyota Nationals in LasVegas Nevada and The Carolina Nationals in Charlotte NC. Finished the season fourth in Funny Car Championship points.[22]
2017
John's daughter Brittany & Robert Hight both won the championship in Top Fuel & Funny Car respectively. Advance Auto Parts joined team, sponsoring Courtney Force and rest of JFR teams.
2018
Won at the Denver event for his only win of the season.
2019
On August 4, 2019, John Force won his 150th race at the Magic Dry Organic Absorbent NHRA Northwest Nationals in Seattle, Washington, edging out Ron Capps and breaking a 25 race winless streak, having last won in Colorado the year prior, also against Capps.[23] John expressed extreme relief after winning, his first words to the camera being obscenities (which NHRA had to censor, as the broadcast was on network television). Force was not present in the winners' circle, having ridden his pitbike to the stands to watch Austin Prock, a driver on his Top Fuel team and son of a Force Racing mechanic, win his first race and was still celebrating with fans while Prock was being interviewed.[23]
Force further celebrated the 2019 season by winning the U. S. Nationals.
Daughter Courtney Force retired from driving.
2020
He was the runner-up at the season opener in Pomona California but after 2 events him & his teams didn't run again in the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic but would return in the following year.
2021
In his return after missing most of the previous year because of the COVID-19 pandemic he won 3 events. He won at the Charlotte 4 Wide, Epping, & Topeka events. At Dallas for the first time since 2018 John Force was set on fire in a crash that echoed his win in 1996 where his Castrol car caught fire at this track.[24]
John Force & NHRA Coin creator Joshua Dixon at the 2021 Winternationals
2022
He gained a win of the season at the 4-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, NC.
2023
Force had a pair of runner-up finishes & finished in the Top 10 in points once again.
2024
He won the Saturday Final at the Arizona Nationals in Chandler, AZ. The race was originally part of the Lucas Oil Winternationals in Pomona, CA that was abandoned after the semifinals, resulting in a double finals situation at Firebird Motorsports Park. Force won the first final on Saturday, while Austin Prock, his teammate and son of John Force Racing crew chief Jimmy Prock, won the Sunday final.
Force then doubled at New England Dragway in the first New England Nationals since 2022 (the 2023 race was rescheduled to Bristol the following week) by winning the Mission Foods Challenge for semifinalists at the previous round (Joliet) in defeating Blake Alexander on a holeshot that counts towards bonus points in the Countdown, then defeating Prock in the main elimination tournament's final round for his 157th victory.
In June 2024, Force suffered a traumatic brain injury in a fiery crash at Virginia Motorsports Park after his engine exploded at the end of a run. Having been admitted into ICU, he is expected to recover.[26]
Selected as "Driver of the Year" for all of American motor racing in 1996 by a national panel of motorsports journalists, the first drag racer ever so honored.
153 wins in 259 final rounds as of June 13, 2021[23] (first driver with 100 wins)
First driver to set an official NHRA Funny Car elapsed time under five seconds in the quarter mile (October 16, 1993, Texas Motorplex, 4.996).[27]
16-time NHRA champion driver, and 21-time champion owner.
Ranked #2 on the NHRA Top 50 Drivers, 1951–2000, behind Don Garlits
With daughter Ashley, first father/daughter pair to compete against each other, during the first round of the NHRA Southern Nationals in Atlanta in 2008, which saw Ashley win.
Only driver to have won more than ten championships in his division, beating the record once held by retired NHRA Pro Stock Champion Bob Glidden, who had 10 championships
Most event #1 qualifications in NHRA history, with 161 (as of May 15, 2021)
Force received the Lee Iacocca Award at Bristol Dragway on June 19, 2012
Most consecutive championship seasons - 10 (1993-2002)
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.
Ashley Corinne Force Hood is a former NHRA Funny Car 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.
Kenneth Dale Bernstein is an American drag racer and former NASCAR and IndyCar team owner. He is nicknamed the "Bud King" for his success in the Budweiser King funny car and dragster. He has also been nicknamed the "King of Speed," because he was the first driver to break 300 miles per hour in the standing-start quarter mile. Bernstein owned King Racing, which he drove for in the NHRA and fielded various cars in other racing series such as IndyCar and NASCAR. Bernstein retired from full-time competition in 2002 and moved his son Brandon into the Bud King Top Fuel dragster, but returned to finish the season in place of his son after Brandon suffered a severe injury. With the exception of a brief return to Funny Car in 2007, Bernstein did not return to the car and instead continued to run his team until the end of the 2011 season when he left drag racing altogether.
Don Prudhomme, nicknamed "the Snake", is an American drag racer.
Gary Eugene 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.
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.
Scott D. Kalitta was an American drag racer who competed in the Funny Car and Top Fuel classes in the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. He had 17 career Top Fuel wins and one career Funny Car win. At the time of his death, due to an accident during race qualifying, he was one of 14 drivers to win in both divisions. He was the son of veteran NHRA driver and crew chief Connie Kalitta.
Eric John Medlen was an NHRA Fuel Funny Car driver. Medlen drove for John Force Racing in 2004, 2005, and 2006, campaigning in the Castrol Syntec Ford Mustang Fuel Funny Car, and in 2007, campaigning in the Auto Club/Pleasant Holiday Ford Mustang Fuel Funny Car. He had a total of six career wins. His first win came during his Rookie season in 2004 at Brainerd International Raceway.
Pat Austin is a retired American drag racer. He competed in the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA). He won four NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car championships between 1987 and 1991. He was the first driver to win eliminator titles at the same event when he won the Top Fuel and Alcohol Funny Car classes at Topeka. His 62 wins between his start in 1985 and 1996, which were the most for any driver between the late 1970s and 1996.
Courtney Fallon 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.
John Force Racing is an NHRA drag racing team. In over 30 years of competition, John Force Racing has won two Top Fuel and 20 Funny Car championships. The current line-up of drivers includes Top Fuel driver Brittany Force and Funny Car drivers Austin Prock and Jack Beckman. The team's leadership includes CEO John Force, President Robert Hight, Vice President Ashley Force Hood, and CFO Adria Hight. Past drivers include Gary Densham, Ashley Force Hood, team crew chief Mike Neff, Eric Medlen, who lost his life while racing for the team and whose number 4 appears on all their cars, Tony Pedregon, who was the first driver other than Force to win a series championship driving for the team, and Courtney Force. In 2017, Brittany Force became the first team driver to win a championship in a classification that is not Funny Car, taking the Top Fuel title.
The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series is a drag racing series organized by the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA). It is the top competition series of the NHRA, comprising competition in four classes, including Top Fuel Dragster, Funny Car, Pro Stock, and Pro Stock Motorcycle.
Tony Pedregon is a 2-time NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Funny Car Champion from Torrance, California. He is also the youngest of the Pedregon brothers. His brother Cruz Pedregon is the 1992 and 2008 NHRA Mello Yello Series Funny Car Champion.
Cruz Pedregon is a 2-time NHRA Mission Foods 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.
The 2011 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Season began on 24 February 2011 and concluded on 13 November. This race season marked the 60th anniversary of NHRA as an official motorsports sanctioning body.
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.
Robert Hight is an NHRA drag racer and president of John Force Racing, and driver of the Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car. He is a three-time NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series Funny Car champion, with titles in 2009, 2017 and 2019. His 2009 title gave the JFR team its 15th championship, while his 2017 title was the team's 19th crown. Hight has finished in the top 10 in points in all but one of his 14 competitive seasons.
Ron Capps is an American NHRA Funny Car racer who owns and drives the NAPA Auto Parts Toyota Supra.
Brittany Leighton Force is an American NHRA drag racer and 2-time 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.
Ed McCulloch, nicknamed "The Ace", is an American dragster and funny car driver.
↑ Although Chuck Etchells had beaten Force to the five-second barrier October 1, 1993, with a 4.987 at Topeka, Etchells failed to make a subsequent pass within one percent of that time at the event, which is required to set an official record. Force ran a subsequent pass within one percent.
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