FORCE No. 2 ON FRIDAY AT GATORNATIONALS

GAINESVILLE, FL – After the first day of qualifying at the 46th annual Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals  two Forces sit near the top of the qualifying ladders in the Top Fuel and Funny Car classes. In just here third appearance at the famed Gatornationals Brittany Force and her JFR Top Fuel dragster team raced to the provisional No. 2 spot right behind Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher. Force’s run of 3.817 seconds at 318.09 mph held up as the best run until Schumacher made the final run, 3.796 seconds, of the day.

“It felt like a nice smooth run. It went straight down there and put that 3.81 on the scoreboard so the team was excited about that. We wound up No. 2 and that is great when you consider how tricky it is out here. On our qualifying pass earlier I thought it was going to go down there and it blew the tires off. We didn’t get much from that run which is disappointing. On the second run all I wanted was a clean pass. I didn’t care is we ended up low or No. 12 I just wanted a clean pass under power going into Saturday,” said Force, the No. 10 driver in the Mello Yello point standings.

Force’s first run of the day had her No. 14 with a lackluster 5.808 seconds. Of the twenty Top Fuel dragsters vying for one of the coveted sixteen spots Force is all but assured of a starting spot.

“There is definitely added pressure going into a race when you know there are a lot of cars. You know that not everyone is going to qualify so you have to have the good runs that get you into the field so you have confidence. This is a big race to start our season on the East Coast but I knew it wasn’t anything our team couldn’t handle. This will get us prepared for tomorrow,” added Force.

In Funny Car 16-time champion John Force stepped up his game in the second qualifying session at the Gatornationals today. The seven-time Gatornationals winner moved up from the No. 5 qualifying position to finish the first day as the provisional No. 3 qualifier and owner of the quickest run of the second qualifying session as well as top speed. In the opening session Force ran 4.083 seconds at 305.70 mph and was in a group with three drivers posting 4.08 second runs in the top half of the field. On his second run the Jon Schaffer tuned BlueDef/Peak Antifreeze & Coolant Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car improved with a 4.075 second run at 314.04 mph.

“I am excited to have (Crew Chief) Jon Schaffer a young kid running my Funny Car. He has been running Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars for ten years. I am teamed up with some great kids and they are stuck with an old man like me. We are making it work and I love racing with these kids. I have BlueDef on the side of my Chevy Funny Car along with Peak Antifreeze . It was exciting to put up that number and it was great to see Forrest Lucas on the starting line. I am proud to be here representing all these sponsors and seeing all these fans,” said John Force.

Robert Hight was in the pair in front of Force in the second session and the defending Gatornationals champion got out of his Auto Club Chevy Camaro SS Funny Car at the top end less than enthused with his second run of the day.

“That isn’t exactly what we were shooting for. I think it ran 4.11 and that isn’t what (Crew Chief) Mike Neff was looking for. There is a lot if humidity and this is the first race where we have had to deal with that. I think that is throwing everybody a little bit of a curveball,” said Robert Hight.

After the first session Hight was sitting in the No. 7 spot with a 4.450 second run and in the final run of the day his 4.113 second run at 310.05 mph gives his team something to work on for Saturday. The biggest take-away for Hight and the Auto Club team is they are solidly in the show and they have two more runs tomorrow to step up in the field.

Courtney Force holds onto the No. 6 spot in a 16-car field at the end of the day. The 26-year-old and her Traxxas Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car team smoked the tires at the hit in the first session, but had a chance to improve on their qualifying efforts and did just that.

On the second attempt down the race track, the Traxxas Chevy Camaro team laid down a 4.104 ET at 312.13 mph and subsequently picked up one qualifying bonus point for being the third-quickest car in that session.

“Missed out on your first qualifying pass today. It went up in smoke immediately off the line. We went out there on the second pass and we were able to get the car down there and improve with a 4.10. We picked up a bonus point for being third-quickest. We ended up sixth which is in the top half right now so we’re looking forward to tomorrow. Hopefully we can continue to improve, but I’m just excited we got a solid pass down the race track,” said Force.