BRITTANY FORCE JUMPS TO No. 7 AFTER GATORNATIONALS

GAINESVILLE, FL – Brittany Force and the JFR Top Fuel dragster were the top performers for John Force Racing at the 46th annual Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals today. Force qualified No. 7 and took out Dave Connolly in the first round before losing a close quarter-final race to eventual Gatornationals Top Fuel winner Spencer Massey. The third year pro is still looking for her first win after four final round appearances in 2014 but she did move up into a tie for seventh place in the Mello Yello Top Fuel point standings with Top Fuel world champion Larry Dixon.

“It is very important to stay in the top ten. We don’t have to be No. 1 or No. 2 right now. Your points position doesn’t matter until you are in the Countdown. Right now we just want to stay in the top ten and I feel good about being No. 7 right now,” said Force.

Force made her quickest run of the weekend in the first round to outpace Connolly 3.792 to 3.859. In the second round her Top Fuel dragster slowed in the heat and her 3.926 second pass was not enough to overtake Massey’s 3.911. Both Top Fuelers dropped cylinders on their respective runs and lost power just before the finish line.

“Getting past the first round motivates the whole team for the next race. It is always tough to lose in the first round. For this JFR Top Fuel team to get to the quarter-finals just pushes us to try and do better next race. We will be ready for Charlotte. That race is always a lot of fun and it is a little crazy. We went some rounds there last year and we are looking forward to getting back there,” said Force.

The first round was not kind to the trio of John Force Racing Chevrolet Funny Cars. Both John Force and Courtney Force were upset by lower seeded competitors and defending Gatornationals champion Robert Hight’s Auto Club Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car was derailed by a five dollar part. Last time all three John Force Racing Funny Cars failed to reach second round was last year at the Reading NHRA national event.

John Force, the No. 3 qualifier, faced eventual first-time finalist John Hale for the first time in his nearly forty year career. Hale was Force’s 138th different opponent and it was Hale and the Jim Dunn tuned Funny Car that reached the finish line in front of the seven-time Gatornationals champion. Both Funny Cars smoked the tires but Force’s BlueDef/Peak Antifreeze & Coolant Chevy Camaro lost traction first and the winningest driver in NHRA history was not able to track down Hale before the pair reached the finish line. Hale’s winning ET was 4.451 seconds to Force’s pedestrian 5.899 seconds.

“We are early in the season. We want to win every race for our sponsors like BlueDef, Traxxas, Auto Club, Mac Tools, Chevrolet and Lucas Oil but we can’t do that all the time. I have a brain-trust of crew chiefs and we are going to do some testing and get all our race cars figured out. This wasn’t a great day but we didn’t get hurt too bad in the points and we will heading to Charlotte for the Four-Wide next,” said Force, a seven-time Gatornationals winner.

Five pairs of Funny Cars after Force was defeated Robert Hight and the Auto Club Chevy Camaro SS pulled up alongside Tommy Johnson Jr. While Hight was the No. 10 qualifier he was confident that his team had addressed some of the issues that had plagued the 34-time NHRA national event winner on Friday and Saturday.

“We are working hard and this season hasn’t gone our way yet. We aren’t giving up and we have some work to do. We are going to do some testing. Unfortunately you lose a lot more than you win. We won here last year and we have done well here in the past,” said Hight after his first round exit. “My Auto Club Chevy dropped a cylinder in the first round. Sometimes that is just part of racing and you just have to get a little better. The season is pretty long and I know we are going to be in the think of this championship battle.”

At the hit of the throttle Hight’s Chevy dropped a cylinder and was down on power in the first 100 feet. It lost traction shortly after that and Hight had to watch Johnson Jr. pull ahead for the win. It was Hight’s first loss in the opening round of the season after reaching the semi-finals in both the Winternationals and CARQUEST NHRA Nationals.

Courtney Force and the Traxxas Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car team qualified their 10,000 horsepower machine in the No. 8 spot going into race day at the NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla. The 26-year-old matched up against veteran driver Ron Capps in the first round and lost on a slight hole-shot preventing her from moving on to round two of eliminations.

Force posted a 4.105 second elapsed time at 315.86 mph while Capps posted a 4.112 ET at 312.42 mph, but Force’s reaction time off the line was a .091 and Capps left with a .072. Force had the better qualified car and lane choice, but this time that didn’t matter.

“We had a pretty good race car this weekend; unfortunately we couldn’t get it done. It’s tough for me as a driver because obviously I’m out here and trying the best I can, but it’s unfortunate when you can’t get the win for your team and your sponsors. We’ve got the whole season ahead of us so we’re just going to keep working hard and push forward to the next race. We have to put this in the past and just focus on the race in Charlotte,” said Force.

This was the fifteenth time Force has lined up beside Capps in eliminations. She is now 4-11 to him in NHRA national event wins.