ENGLISHTOWN, NJ – Friday at the 44^th annual Toyota NHRA Summernationals was a mixed bag for John Force Racing as Courtney Force was the quickest Funny Car of the first session and then had a blower drive shaft on her Traxxas Ford Mustang break before she had a chance to run in the second session. John Force improved in the second session but Robert Hight and Brittany Force will have to race into the show on Saturday in their respective classes.

In the first session Courtney Force went to the top of the Funny Car field with a 4.130 second run at 306.05 mph and picked up three bonus points.

“We had a great first pass. We picked up three bonus points on just that run for being quickest. Our Traxxas Ford Mustang went down and ran a 4.13, which is a good run right out of the box,” said Force.

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ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. – It’s been 14 years since John Force last won a race at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.  That’s the longest the Hall of Fame Funny Car driver has gone without a victory at any track in the NHRA Mello Yello Series.

The fact is, he hasn’t even reached the final round since 2004 and is only 8-8 in his last eight appearances in the Toyota Summernationals, contested this week for the 44^th time.

Nevertheless, it would be ludicrous to discount the sport’s biggest winner from the title conversation when the world’s top drag racing professionals once again convene for the Northeast’s biggest event.

At an age when other 60-somethings are content to spend their weekends astride nothing more powerful than the riding mower, Force will climb back into the cockpit of a 10,000 horsepower Castrol GTX Ford Mustang with a better-than-average shot at ending his recent malaise on one of the tracks on which he got his start.

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ENGLISHTOWN, NJ – Robert Hight and the Auto Club Ford Mustang team have started the 2013 Mello Yello season the same way they started the 2009 season. They are winless through the first eight races but have shown signs as of success as of late. Luckily for Hight and his team 2009 turned out alright considering they hoisted the Funny Car World Championship trophy in Pomona. This weekend at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park’s historic Toyota Summernationals Hight is looking to get his first win of 2013 and his first win at the storied East Coast racing facility.

“Englishtown is a major race just like a major event in golf. You want to win at Pomona, Gainesville, Indy and Englishtown. This place has seen some of the most famous drivers and some of the greatest racing. John (Force) used to match race here on Wednesday night and they would have all sorts of crazy things going on but it all came back to the racing. I want to get a win here and we were close last year,” said Hight.

While Hight has not been getting a lot of win lights at the start of the season that turned around in Topeka where he was the No. 3 qualifier and raced to his first final round of the season. Unfortunately for the first time in four final round meetings with veteran racer Johnny Gray Hight came up just a little short losing the final. Hight now holds a 3-1 final round record to Gray.

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ENGLISHTOWN, NJ – 2012 Rookie of the Year, Courtney Force, will travel to Englishtown this week for the 9^th event on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing series tour.  Old Bridge Township Raceway Park will host the 44th running of the Toyota NHRA Summernationals from May 30-June 2.

“I’ve had a pretty exciting week since our last NHRA race in Topeka, Kansas. My family and I flew home as quickly as possible to see my sister, Ashley, and her husband Danny, and to welcome my new nephew, Noah William Hood, to the family. I was in Michigan at Ford World Headquarters for a couple days and then drove to Indy for some of the Indy 500 festivities. I’m just ready to get back to racing this weekend in Englishtown,” said Force.

In 2012, Force qualified in the No. 13 spot, but went on to beat fellow Ford driver Tim Wilkerson and past champion Matt Hagan before losing to Ron Capps in the semi-final round. Force ran a 4.110 to Capps’ 4.079.

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ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. – Brittany Force goes back to school this week, not at New York’s Hunter College, where she studied for a

semester on the way to earning her Bachelor’s degree, but at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park where she’ll continue to learn the family business in a modified classroom on wheels.

Granted, the canopied cockpit of the 330 mile-an-hour Castrol EDGE Top Fuel dragster isn’t your normal learning environment, but then John Force Racing, Inc., isn’t your normal business, either.

Brittany’s dad is 15-time NHRA Funny Car champion and International Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee John Force.  Her brother-in-law is 2009 champion Robert Hight.  Her older sister, Ashley Force Hood, was the first woman ever to win an NHRA Funny Car race and her younger sister, Courtney, was last year’s NHRA Rookie-of-the-Year.

Together, they’ve set the bar pretty high, but Brittany, who already has secured her California teaching credential, is unaffected by the predictable comparisons.

“When Ashley came out, she had her own set of goals,” she explained  “Same with Courtney.  Same with me.  For me, it’s not about comparisons to Ashley or Courtney.  It’s about setting my own goals and achieving them myself in my time.

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INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Courtney Force, driver of the Traxxas Ford Mustang Funny Car, attended Carb Day and experienced the festivities leading up to the 97th running of the Indianapolis 500 this past weekend. The 24-year-old wanted to show her support for the series and represent NHRA as one of the sport’s only females.

Force enjoyed another “off-weekend” at yet another race track touring the paddock and making a couple stops in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway media center before watching final practice for the Indy car teams.

“It was great having one off weekend, but I couldn’t keep myself away from the race track. I was able to watch final practice for the Indy 500, meet a lot of really cool people involved in Indy Car, talk to some fans at the Automobile Club of Southern California display and tour the paddock,” said Force.

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BROWNSBURG, IN – NHRA superstar Courtney Force, 2012 NHRA Rookie of the Year and winner of the season opening O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals this season will attend the Friday festivities in advance of the 97^th annual Indianapolis 500 this weekend.

Force will tour the paddock, meet with some of the drivers, and then proceed to the media center for media availability around noon. Force was a special guest in 2011 to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the first Indy 500 and is excited to be back at the storied event and facility.

TOPEKA, KS – It was a banner day for John Force Racing as qualifying for the 25th annual NHRA Kansas Nationals concluded with all three JFR Ford Mustangs atop the Funny Car qualifying order. On Friday it was Robert Hight and Courtney Force sitting at the top the provisional order but today 9-time NHRA Kansas Nationals winner John Force ran 4.043 setting the track ET record en route to his 11th No.1 qualifying effort at Heartland Park Topeka. It was the 141st No. 1 of Force’s illustrious career and the first of the 2013 Mello Yello Drag Racing season.

“It was so smooth on that run I told (crew chief Mike) Neff we could go harder. He said OK but we have to race tomorrow. He slowed it down on that run and it still spun at the other end. When I went past the lights I almost got into the wall down there. When I hit the chutes it sucked me over. Neff is a real sharp cookie but I knew that. With his driving ability and what he has done as a crew chief,” said Force after his final run of the day a 4.077 second pass.

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TOPEKA, KS – It is only the first day of the NHRA Kansas Nationals but it was a great day for Robert Hight and Courtney Force who finished each qualifying session 1-2 in the Funny Car category. It was the first time all season Hight’s Auto Club Ford Mustang has been the quickest of the first two sessions and the two-time Kansas Nationals winner was pleased with his first day effort. Hight gave a lot of the credit to his crew chief Jimmy Prock and his pre-race decision to try a new tune-up.

“For some reason we always do good here in Topeka. We have qualified well but here lately we have been struggling and we’ve been working on the early part of the run. We definitely got it today being low ET of both sessions. It has been ages since we did that.  The back half of both of those runs weren’t very good.

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