FORCE WINS SREMP N.U.F.
In a storybook finish, John Force won Funny Car at the 32nd Annual NAPA
Night Under Fire presented by Amalie Motor Oil, driving a replica of
his very first race car from 1973, the “Night Stalker.”
Force took the win against Cruz Pedregon in the final round with a
4.250-second pass at 283.07 mph to Pedregon’s 5.062 pass at 147.68 mph.
Pedregon lost traction and Force passed by him to take the win.
In a storybook finish, John Force won Funny Car at the 32nd Annual NAPA Night Under Fire presented by Amalie Motor Oil, driving a replica of his very first race car from 1973, the “Night Stalker.”
Force took the win against Cruz Pedregon in the final round with a
4.250-second pass at 283.07 mph to Pedregon’s 5.062 pass at 147.68 mph.
Pedregon lost traction and Force passed by him to take the win.
The 2009 edition of the Night Stalker Funny Car was unveiled to the public for the first time during pre-race ceremonies and raced only at Night Under Fire. It will be retired forever. Force’s brother, “Diesel” Louie Force, his original crew chief, assisted in the unveiling. Addressing the capacity crowd Louie referred to the annual Night Under Fire as the "Big Kahuna" of drag races, adding, “We’ve been to races all over, but it doesn’t get any better than right here in Norwalk, Ohio.”
“We used to sit around a race car chassis and talk about winning funny
car races all over California. We didn’t even have a race car. John had
never ever sat in one but we had a dream. I kept telling John it would
happen and we worked hard. We didn’t know what we were doing some times
but that didn’t stop us. We had a dream and we knew we were going to be
champions,” said Louie Force prior to the unveiling of the
“Night Stalker”.
After the race, Bill Bader, Jr., president of Summit Motorsports Park, presented John Force the NAPA Night Under Fire Trophy at the starting line surrounded by fans. John Force promptly turned around and gave the trophy to his brother, thanking him for helping get his start in drag racing. Louie thanked his brother and said, “You know, we’ve come a long way.”
“I went back to my roots tonight. I still had Coil tuning my hot rod but having my big brother Louie here made this a special night. We only raced the ‘Night Stalker’ one time and got thrown out of the track by the starter Larry Sutton. Louie tuned the ‘Night Stalker’ then and it was great to see how much the crowd loved him tonight. When I looked out the windshield after my burn-out and saw Louie backing me up it took me back in time. In the final I had to keep from crying because all I wanted to do was win this race and give Louie the trophy. He deserved it,” said Force.
“I can’t thank Bill Bader Jr. and Bill Bader Sr. enough for making tonight happen. The stands were packed and the fans were great. The show was so awesome that I am working on trying to make it available somehow to fans that weren’t at the race. I think it might something ESPN would be interested in adding to one of the NHRA race shows. I have all the video and photos so we’ll get it to them and see where it goes from there.”
“It was good to have the (Cruz and Tony) Pedregons here too. Louie set up the first meeting between me and Tony Pedregon. We have a long history with the Pedregons. They want to beat me all the time and I want to beat them but tonight everyone got to thank Louie and give him the attention and respect that he deserves. He’s been around racing for thirty years. He drove a wheel stander. He’s lived it just like me and I want to thank him for all his support in the early days and for everyday after that.”
In addition to Force’s performance teammate Robert Hight qualified the Auto Club Ford Mustang 3rd in the eight car field and won his elimination match-up versus Jim Head.
“Robert’s Mustang ran good. It made three consistent passes. We’ll keep working on it heading into Brainerd. I am also excited that my daughters Brittany and Courtney qualified so well at the Division Seven race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma. They are qualified No. 3 and No. 4 so they are doing alright too,” concluded Force.
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