Only Dad stood in her way
Written by Sheila Scarborough · April 28, 2008
Appearing in her third straight final round and holding the Funny Car POWERade points lead, Ashley Force seemed destined for that first win sooner rather than later.
Since we’re talking about the Force family here, there also had to be drama attached — today in Atlanta, Ashley had to get past her father John Force to win her first Funny Car Wally.
Check that block.
Ashley Force is the first woman to win a Funny Car title. She did it by beating her tire-striking father with a 4.837 at 320.36 mph; the grandstands roared.
“I’m just happy to win an event; that was the main thing,” said Force. “Being a female, that’s exciting as far as the records and everything, but my team, we just wanted to get our first win. We went a whole year last year and got close a few times. To finally get it done, we’re just so excited.
“At the top end, Dad just came over and congratulated me and told me and my team, ‘Good job.’ I think Dad’s done this enough years that he has the same routine and doesn’t care who’s next to him, whether you’re related to him or not. I’m the one who needs to practice and not be thinking about that. He wants his 1,000th [round-]win as well. Mom and I had it figured out, though: He can get it next week on his birthday — that will be special — and I can get my first win here.”
John Force barely squeaked into the final; his semi-final run against Funny Car rookie Bob Tasca III was incredibly close (identical reaction times, elapsed times only .003 apart.) This was his first final since last season at Reading, as the champ continues his comeback from the Fall Nationals wreck (near Dallas) in September 2007.
In Top Fuel, Antron Brown is making it look easy to shift from Pro Stock Motorcycle to flaming headers, as he beat Tony Schumacher’s US Army rail by nailing the tree and then holding his edge, running a 4.537 at 325.14 mph. This was his third consecutive final as well, his second nitro win and the first time he’s beat Shoe (his former US Army teammate.)
“This weekend I had a little problem with my brakes, and my car kept rolling on me a little bit,” said Brown. “I kept pulling the lever back, and it kept rolling a little bit, but I didn’t let that disturb me. That made it pop some real good reaction times this weekend, so it made me look like I was doing good.
“In the final round, we were racing Alan Johnson, Tony Schumacher, and the whole Army team over there, and they’re five-time world champions, so you have to give it everything you’ve got. As soon as I saw that thing just flicker yellow, I hit the pedal as quick as I could, and that thing took off and was going down Broadway; I didn’t feel any hiccups on the racetrack, so I knew it was on a good pass. I didn’t see Tony, but I heard him, so I knew he was right there. I was like, ‘Man, come on, come on.’ I went through the traps, saw that win light on, and I just went ecstatic. I couldn’t get out of that car quick enough. It just felt fantastic.”
Schumacher still holds the Top Fuel points lead (with Brown in second) based on his Pomona and Gainesville victories and three finals.
Pro Stock had a rather unaccustomed Wally winner in Mike Edwards, who had consistent runs and quiet faith in his team as he defeated Jason Line with a better reaction time to make up for identical ETs and Edwards at 206.20 mph to Line’s 206.92 mph. Edwards notched the 14th win of his career and his first since starting his own engine program.
“I just can’t describe the feeling of winning races in this class,” said Edwards. “It’s been since 2006 since I won, and I was wondering if I was ever going to do it again, to be honest with you. I’ll tell you what, it’s just an unbelievable feeling to win one of these races because you have to race guys like the
“That car has just two races on it; this is the second race on it. So to come here and win and run the way we ran here today is unbelievable. This might be my best-feeling win I’ve ever had because the whole team, from the engine shop we put together this year to the guys at the track, work so hard and put in such a great effort; I’m just so proud of them. I’m just very fortunate to get the opportunity to drive this thing.”
Line still has the points lead, courtesy of this fourth final round appearance.
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Andrew Hines grabbed his first win since Vegas last year, and his first at the Atlanta Dragway. He beat Chip Ellis with a 6.946 at 191.40 mph. Hines was also the pole winner, nailing sixes in all of his runs through qualifying and eliminations, and he’s now the points leader.
“[My .009] light in the final was a little bit of an accident — I wanted to go teen,” said Hines. “I figured we had to be teen to run with Chip. We kind of threw a tune-up at it we hadn’t put it in it all weekend long, and it definitely performed.
“Our motorcycle was flawless this weekend. We left the same engine in it all weekend long, and that was the same engine we had in testing on Monday. I can’t say enough about what the guys have done with the engines back at the shop. People were saying that we should have dialed it at a 6.95 on the windscreen with some shoe polish, and it would have run it. It was just going down the track so smooth and so great all weekend. I’ve never had a motorcycle make that many runs in a row that were almost identical.”
The next event is the O’Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals in St. Louis, Missouri May 2-4; unfortunately, I’ll be at a conference that weekend and won’t be able to cover it, but check with NHRA.com and ESPN for the race results.
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