NORWALK, OH – Drag racing icon John Force tries to keep his streak of final round appearances intact this week on one of the few racetracks on which he has not yet won an NHRA tour event.

The sport’s all-time winner, who has climbed from 10^th to third in the Mello Yello driver standings in less than a month, tries to make it four finals in four weeks when he sends his resurgent Castrol GTX Ford Mustang after the Funny Car Championship at the seventh annual Summit Racing Equipment Nationals.

Force, who is bidding this year for an unprecedented 16^th NHRA Funny Car title, has won NHRA tour events at 24 different tracks, but never at Summit Motorsports Park where he is 0-for-6 with only a runner-up finish in 2010 to show for his effort.

The irony is that he is a many-time winner of the track’s largest independent event, the August “Night Under Fire,” and has been successful enough in that race to have had a spectator grandstand named in his honor.

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JOLIET, IL – John Force raced to his 219th final but came up a few hundredths of a second short of picking up his 136th NHRA Funny Car win at the 16th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway today. In a tremendous final with Matt Hagan Force’s Castrol GTX Ford Mustang ran 4.113, his slowest run of the weekend, beside Hagan’s winning 4.065 second run. Force’s Mustang began chucking spark plugs at half-track bleeding off power as the 10,000 hp Funny Car tried to accelerate down the race track.

Prior to today’s final Force was 2-1 in final rounds against Hagan who he outdistanced for the 2010 Mello Yello Drag Racing Series title, his unprecedented 15^th NHRA Mello Yello world championship,  on the last day of the season. Today Force was masterful on his way to his third consecutive final round defeating Tony Pedregon, Del Worsham and Ron Capps to reach the final.

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JOLIET, IL – The conditions were some of the best the NHRA has ever seen and the Funny Cars took advantage as four drivers made three second passes, a record for an NHRA Mello Yello Series national event, in the final qualifying session. John Force had the quickest Funny Car on Friday and in the first session today but in a long final session the 15-time champion Force’s career quickest ET, 4.010 seconds, was only good enough for the No. 5 qualifying spot.

Ron Capps recorded the first three second pass at Route 66 Raceway and will be the No. 1 qualifier on Sunday with his 3.988 second run. Force will race former teammate Tony Pedregon in the first round tomorrow at the 16th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 NHRA Nationals.

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JOLIET, IL – For the second race in a row John Force was the best of the field on Friday in Funny Car. With only one qualifying session contested today due to the threat of inclement weather Force powered his Castrol GTX Ford Mustang Funny Car to the top spot with a 4.035 second run. He had to wait for a number of top contenders to run and the closest Funny car to the 15-time champ at the end of the night was Matt Hagan’s 4.040 seconds.

“You are racing here in Chicago and you have killer conditions and a killer race track. Everybody stepped on them after Chad Head put up that great number 4.05. Everybody knew it was out there. (Crew chief) Mike Neff does a great job and he has a great job around him,” said Force, who could clinch his third No. 1 of the season tomorrow.

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Chicago, IL – Top Fuel Rookie of the Year contender Brittany Force is looking to make headlines going into this weekend’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway in Chicago.

Despite a first round loss to seven-time champion Tony Schumacher this past weekend in New Hampshire, Force feels her Castrol EDGE team can get the job done and enters this event 12^th in the points standings.

“This weekend I would love to move up in the points and be closer to getting into the No. 10 spot,” Force said. “Going into Chicago, I am motivated to qualify in the top half of the field and go some rounds and even go for our first win.”

The first 11 races of the season have been a test for both Force as well as the John Force Racing organization. The 26-year old daughter of 15-time Funny Car champion John Force became the first driver to compete in the Top Fuel category.

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YORBA LINDA, CA – Three-time NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Funny Car winner and 2012 Automobile Club of America Road to the Future winner Courtney Force will be one of 21 featured athletes in ESPN The Magazine’s fifth annual The Body Issue. The 25-year old NHRA Funny Car driver will join Matt Harvey, Colin Kaepernick and Kenneth Faried in the issue. The Inaugural Auto-Plus NHRA New England Nationals Funny Car winner, Mets’ strikeout specialist, the Super Bowl QB and the Nuggets standout rebounder join 17 other elite athletes to be included in ESPN The Magazine’s The Body Issue, which hits newsstands Friday July 12.

“This summer I got the opportunity to be featured in the ESPN The Magazine’s Body Issue. This was the perfect chance to reach out to millions of people and to shine a light on to the athleticism of our sport NHRA drag racing and to show what it takes to drive one of these nitro burning machines,” said the seven-time Funny Car national event finalist. “It is very important to be both physically and mentally fit when you are driving one of these 10,000 horsepower Funny Cars. Being featured in The Body Issue allowed me to show that race car drivers are athletes too.”

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Chicago, IL – Coming off her second win of the 2013 Mello Yello Drag Racing season, Courtney Force is ready to make her 35^th Funny Car career start at the 16th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by Super Start Batteries at Route 66 Raceway, June 27-30.

“Our Traxxas Ford Mustang Funny Car team has had a great season so far with two wins behind us,” said Force. “We have been picking up bonus points left and right and I think we’re on our way back up to where we want to be in the points.”

Force, who recently turned 25 years old, celebrated her birthday last weekend in Epping, N.H. at the Inaugural Auto-Plus NHRA New England Nationals. She got her third career Funny Car win, was presented the first Wally trophy ever presented for an NHRA national event at New England Dragway and moved up in the top ten. She currently occupies the No. 4 spot in the Funny Car point standings.

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CHICAGO, IL – In the past two weeks Robert Hight has “enjoyed” two winner’s circles for his teammates, Bristol winner John Force and last week’s winner Courtney Force. In his role as President of John Force Racing, Inc., Hight was thrilled for his teammates and their respective crews. As driver of the Automobile Club of Southern California Ford Mustang Funny Car those winner’s circles we bittersweet for the 2009 Funny Car champion and one of the most competitive drivers on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. This weekend at the 16^th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts Rt. 66 NHRA Nationals Hight will be focused on enjoying his own winner’s circle on Sunday.

“I am definitely happy for John and Courtney. We are in the race winning business and for all our sponsors winning those two races plus the season opening Winternationals is huge. Now I need to get into the winner’s circle with my Auto Club Mustang. Jimmy is getting closer. We qualified really well in New England on a new track. I think coming to Rt. 66 Raceway we will be in a good position to go some rounds,” said Hight.

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JOLIET, IL – On the track on which his victory 13 years ago made him the NHRA’s all-time biggest winner, John Force tries to extend to three his current streak of final round appearances on the NHRA Mello Yello tour at the wheel of a suddenly energized Castrol GTX Ford Mustang.

The 64-year-old icon, a winner two weeks ago at Bristol, Tenn., and runner-up to daughter Courtney last week at Epping, N.H., believes his resurgent race car not only is capable of reversing a recent downward trend at Route 66 Raceway but also is potent enough to give him a shot at an unprecedented 16^th series championship when racing begins this September in the Countdown to 1 playoffs.

After languishing in 10^th place for most of the current season, putting in jeopardy his record streak of 28 consecutive Top 10 appearances, Force has surged to fifth place in points and rolls into town for this week’s 16^th annual O’Reilly Route 66 Nationals in a familiar position – as one of the Funny Car favorites.

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EPPING, NH – In a rematch of their Father’s Day first round battle in Bristol last weekend Courtney Force came out on the winning side today taking out father and 15-time NHRA Funny Car champion John Force in the final round of the Inaugural Auto-Plus NHRA New England Nationals. The second year driver won for the second time this season and third time in her career outpacing her teammate 4.301 seconds to 4.361 seconds in front of a capacity crowd at New England Dragway.

“I told him I was definitely going to try to get revenge, but last time I told him I was going to beat him for a Father’s Day gift and give him the day off, it definitely backfired on me and he got the win. I decided to keep my mouth shut this time. I was just hoping we could get a little bit of revenge over him and we were able to do that. Being that it was my birthday weekend made it that much better,” said Force, who turned twenty-five on Thursday.

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