PEAK Coolant and Motor Oil Chevrolet driver John Force seeking 10th victory at Topeka
TOPEKA, KS – Sixteen-time NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Funny Car champion John Force heads into 
Sunday’s Menards NHRA Heartland Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka seeking another victory at the track and a boost in the points standings.
Driving the PEAK Coolant & Motor Oil Chevrolet Camaro, Force already has nine victories at Heartland Park and a 10th would go a long way toward his goal of winning a record 17th championship. Currently, Force is third in Funny Car points.
“I’m excited to get back into town,” Force said. “We’re going there for Weld Racing, a company that’s out of Kansas City. I’m also working with Menards this weekend with PEAK. It’s a good race track.
“We’re trying to get these cars consistent. My crew chiefs and I have been going through a lot of change, but we’re getting closer. We’ll see what happens.”
Force etched his name into the Traxxas Shootout in March with a victory in the NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway. While he’s won his last five first-round appearances, including Gainesville, he’s been stopped short of reaching another final.
He made the semifinals in Las Vegas, and at Atlanta, he was the No. 5 qualifier and nearly defeated Ron Capps in the second round, losing by a few inches. Capps went on to win the event.
One of the biggest aspects will be the weather. Topeka has been a location in which cars tend to set time and speed records, with the fastest Funny Car speed ever recorded there last year. Two Friday night qualifying session could be opportunities to reset that mark. But most importantly, it’s the chance to put the car in Sunday’s field.
“We’ll watch the weather, but only God can predict the weather, not us – not even the weather man,” Force said. “We’ve got to get our mindset that we’re going to race, not to watch weather. You have to address it, depending on how many runs you think you’ll get. Do you put it in the show or do you put on a show. We’ll see where that takes us.”
Two qualifying sessions are slated for Friday (5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Eastern) and Saturday (3 and 6 p.m.), with final eliminations scheduled for 11 a.m. Sunday.
Fox Sports 1 will provide one hour of qualifying coverage on Friday (11 p.m. Eastern) and Saturday (3 p.m.) and three hours of live finals coverage starting at 3 p.m.
Monster Energy driver Brittany Force confident she can break out of slump in Topeka
– All professional athletes go through slumps like Monster Energy Top Fuel dragster driver Brittany Force is facing.
The key to getting out of a slump is to keep working – and that’s just what Force and her team have done. The Menards NHRA Heartland Nationals this weekend at Heartland Park Topeka could be the breakthrough Force needs.
“I’m feeling good,” Force said after a successful test last week. “I’m positive that we have this bug out of our car. We’ve been struggling, and after Atlanta, my crew chiefs sat me down and said, ‘We figured out what the problem is. Now, it’s correcting it and getting better from here.’
“I was to come out and test and see if we could work the problem out. Four runs (in testing), and we went down the race track. I think we’ve got our old car back.”
Force’s team installed a new front half to her car after the race in Charlotte, but rain wiped out two qualifying sessions at the Atlanta race, and she fell in the first round there.
But crew chief Brian Husen and tuning consultant Alan Johnson knew in Atlanta that another issue with the clutch had been found, and that was confirmed with a solid test at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis last Wednesday.
“We knew we had to come out and do some testing,” Force said. “They knew it was a problem in the clutch, and they figured it out. They knew before we got out here (to test at Indy), and we fixed it. We made four runs right down the race track, so we’re excited and ready to get to the next one.”
And that’s Topeka, where Force has earned two No. 1 qualifiers – including matching No. 1s with her sister Courtney Force in Funny Car in 2014 – and has raced to the semifinals twice in her four races. Brittany Force’s career-best elapsed time of 3.676 seconds was set here in 2016 – and matched at Phoenix earlier this season.
“Topeka is a good race track for us,” Force said. “We’ve qualified No. 1 there, but we’ve never won the thing. Topeka would be an awesome first win to the season.”
Two qualifying sessions are slated for Friday (5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Eastern) and Saturday (3 and 6 p.m.), with final eliminations scheduled for 11 a.m. Sunday.
Fox Sports 1 will provide one hour of qualifying coverage on Friday (11 p.m. Eastern) and Saturday (3 p.m.) and three hours of live finals coverage starting at 3 p.m.
Auto Club Chevrolet driver Robert Hight heads back to where it started: Heartland Park
– This weekend, Robert Hight returns to where it all started: Heartland Park Topeka.
Hight’s first race with John Force Racing as a crew member was here in 1995, and he earned his Funny Car license at the track in 2004.
Now, he comes back with a vengeance for the NHRA Menards Heartland Nationals, trying to put the Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS in Heartland Park’s winner’s circle.
“When first started with John Force Racing in 1995, Topeka is where I started,” Hight said. “I flew into Topeka, met (crew chiefs) Austin Coil and Bernie Fedderly and got started. And I got my Funny Car license in Topeka, too, in 2004. Love that place.”
Hight’s first race behind the wheel at Topeka was in 2005, and he raced to the semifinals. Hight has been to the semis in seven of his 12 races there, with victories in 2010 and 2011. The 2011 win was historic for JFR, as Hight scored the 200th victory for the team by beating teammate Mike Neff in the final round.
Adding another race victory is possibility this weekend, as crew chief Jimmy Prock, co-crew chief Chris Cunningham and the Auto Club crew has Hight’s Camaro running well. He qualified No. 4 and went to the final in Houston, qualified No. 2 in Charlotte and raced to the semifinals in Atlanta.
The surge has moved Hight to fourth in the Funny Car points standings – but he’s looking for more.
“We’re ready to get the monkey off our back and get a win,” Hight said. “Topeka’s going to be a good place to do it. We’re right there. The car is running really good. I can’t wait.”
Heartland Park can produce record runs if the conditions are good, putting another smile on Hight’s race.
“It’s one of the best racing surfaces in the country,” Hight said. “We run a real night session there, so you could see big numbers with the track being as flat as it is and a nice surface area. It’s going to be fast. I love going to Topeka.
“We’ve got a couple crew members from that area. It’s always cool going there and having their families out.”
Two qualifying sessions are slated for Friday (5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Eastern) and Saturday (3 and 6 p.m.), with final eliminations scheduled for 11 a.m. Sunday.
Fox Sports 1 will provide one hour of qualifying coverage on Friday (11 p.m. Eastern) and Saturday (3 p.m.) and three hours of live finals coverage starting at 3 p.m.
