JOHN FORCE - INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Wed, 2007-01-31 08:23
John Force holds the NHRA records for wins, 122. And world
championships with 14, including, of course, 2006. And just two weeks
ago he announced that his daughter, Ashley, would be turning pro. John,
why don’t you begin by telling us how this preseason has been different
from the last 20 and how your life as a driver and team owner will be
changed this year with Ashley in the fold.
John Force holds the NHRA records for wins, 122. And world championships with 14, including, of course, 2006. And just two weeks ago he announced that his daughter, Ashley, would be turning pro. John, why don’t you begin by telling us how this preseason has been different from the last 20 and how your life as a driver and team owner will be changed this year with Ashley in the fold.
FORCE: It’s a lot more of a business side instead of the fun of driving these cars, even though it’s a job.
But we’ve trained Eric Medlen, turned him into a professional, as a driver, and Robert Hight, rookie of the year few years back and doing a great job out here. So they’re prepared to run for the title because they already did last year, finishing – I think Robert finished second and Hight – or Eric was number four.
Now the focus is on Ashley. We ran good in Vegas. She ran 4.78 in Vegas. She came here. She’s already run 4.77 or 4.78 here in Phoenix.
Ashley had a nasty fire and it put a lot of pressure, especially when it’s your family, but also when it’s a female. But she come out of it and the car was back out and running. We’ll see what happens later in the day.
Q. Can you provide everyone with the details of Ashley’s adventurous trip down the track?
FORCE: I was on the starting line with her mother (Laurie). Of course I’m pacing back and forth, and I keep my scooter running and I also placed my guys all the way down the racetrack.
I’ve got three individuals at different points so somebody can be over the fence in case she got hooked in the car you get to that mode. She had a nasty fire. She said, “Dad it exploded I couldn’t see anything” and the fire went out.
She said “I triggered my bottles” but it blew her windshield open. She got a little bit of smoke she was gasping to breathe and I felt so bad. I said, “Ashley, I let you down. Remember me telling you when your windshield fogs up you lift it up right before you stage and you hold your breath and close it so you don’t steam it because it’s your own body heat that causes your window to fog up when it’s cold at night.”
Because it’s cold outside and you’re hot inside. I forgot to tell her when you catch on fire, when you were little, I threw you in the swimming pool, I told you to hold your breath. And what she did, she hyperventilated because it scared her and she sucked all that smoke down her throat.
Luckily the fire was there and gone but then she rode out the smoke. I was there and she was out of the car.
It was scary for me, but she was like how long do you think it will take to fix it. She was like an hour and a half later back in the staging lanes running again. It was a nasty fire. You’ll see it on our TV show. Our TV people, God bless them, I want to kill them, but they’re all loving it. They’re loving this because it’s drama. But I don’t want none of it.
Been pretty excited. Groomed her about a year and a half but she’s probably had more runs the last two weekends than she got in a year because we’re running four Funny Cars four times a day over a fourday period. In Vegas we were there Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, five days. Seven, $8,000 a run we spent a lot of money.
Do the math, four cars, four runs a day for at least – we’ve been here at least four days already. We ran here Friday, Saturday – we got three runs a day. Yesterday we made four.
And we’re still here. But Ashley, she can go A to B. She can run over 300 mph. She ran 70 or 80, I think at Vegas clicking it off early. And she came here to Phoenix and ran 78. Those numbers are good enough to qualify at Pomona.
But she’s okay. But then we had to put her in side by side. She got up against Cruz (Pedregon). Got up against Gary Scelzi. And so many of them were like we thought we were holding her up. The kid has really evolved. I’m proud of her. I want her on the pressure side by side.
Of course the real pressure is going to be Pomona first round. But I was and we have to get qualified, naturally. But she really did well. But the biggest thing I fear is tire smoke, letting the motor get away from you.
A lot of guys can’t get off the gas. And (John Force crew chief Austin) Coil said she’s driving like she has experience like you. The car smokes the tires, she gets off the gas, saves the motor.
She really learns so much. And I say to anybody raising their kids in this sport, let them evolve through the categories. Don’t jump them up. Let them come up through the ranks of the Super Comps or the Junior Leagues and then go into the Holley Driving School and evolve into A Fuel or Funny Car, teach them the basics. That’s why she’s doing so good.
Doesn’t win her a race yet. But it’s showing me.
Q. John, when you look back over the years and going into this season where you’re trying to get the future situated, do you feel more comfortable about that or were you more comfortable just in the early days trying to put championship on top of championship?
FORCE: Well, because when it was all about me and I was doing my own thing, I worked it seven days a week around the clock. That’s what we did.
And you know now we have good financial backing from the sponsors. Castrol, Ford, AAA in Southern California, all these people that have funded these teams and new sponsors coming on. But now there’s the business side of keeping the balance. I have to run from trailer to trailer to trailer talking to the new employees, new kids struggling doing the clutch. New kids mounting tires that have never done it before.
So much more of a job. Dean Antonelli starting out as crew chief with Ashley. He came to me and said, “John, I’ve worked with you for 12 years, been in the heat of battle. I never was ever this exhausted at the end of the day.” I tell him it’s just like the drivers said. It’s called stress. A little different kind of pressure than just working the car.
Crew chiefs face it and so do the drivers because at the end of the day they have to deliver.
But I’m having fun. I’m out here with my teams. My daughter’s with me. It’s great to get up in the morning and see her. Because so many years on the road I never saw her. So I’m a happy camper right now.
It’s sorting all this mess out. Trust me, it’s a handful. Bernstein is down the aisle, got a handful of his own. Everybody is going through the same thing.
Obviously Schumacher got his deal together, so he went home. But we’ll see what happens at Pomona.
Q. Talking about Kenny Bernstein, give us your thoughts on having to race against him this season.
FORCE: Having to race Kenny? Kenny knows the game. He’s in a learning process right now with Ray Alley and Johnny West. But these are kids that have done this for years. They’ll have the car shaped up in no time. And I’m excited because I think Kenny brings, even with his son in Top Fuel, Funny Cars are what my life’s about. And to bring that name back into Funny Cars is only going to build our brand stronger on the NHRA POWERade Series. So I welcome Kenny Bernstein back with open arms.
And Kenny, trust me, it may take him a while to get it sorted out, but when he does he will be back in the game just like it used to be when he drove.
Q. John, who are you most concerned about in the Funny Car class this year trying to defend your championship, and you can’t say “everybody”?
FORCE: I’m not being cute but I’m concerned with the guy in the other lane. Whoever you’re racing you’ve got to beat because the field is the toughest I’ve ever seen it.
I guarantee you, Ron Capps, he’s had three years of getting smacked around and he’s going to have focus. He’s got a good race team. He almost got it last year.
I look at my own drivers, Robert and Eric. Ashley, you know, she could be a contender. She’s got a lot to learn. Got her first shot at nighttime racing last night. There was fire outside the windows. It was unbelievable.
I believe Kenny Bernstein, he’ll be a force to be reckoned with. I think that’s cute.
It can be anybody. You know what’s funny, you don’t really know coming out of Pomona. A lot of the guys really do well at Pomona the opening race because they’re running last year’s combination. So they’re consistent. The new guys like us with brand new stuff, we’re lost for a while. We didn’t start to run until later in the year consistent. And luckily we caught up with Capps.
But right now the multitiered teams like Worsham because they have the ability to learn from each other. But I’m telling you right now Tommy Johnson, Jr., I’ve watched him run in Vegas and they’ve given them the budget to hit it hard and I’ve watched him here in Phoenix. He runs the numbers just like us.
Tommy Johnson is going to be a contender for the title this year.
Q. After winning 14 championships what’s left for you to accomplish? What are some of your goals?
FORCE: You know, when my daughter was in that fire the other day and it was pretty nasty, and I didn’t even know until I saw the footage and of course I’ve been through it and so has Eric, so have all the drivers. And maybe because it was her, I sat with her and told her how much I loved this sport (of NHRA POWERade Series drag racing), how much I love to be out here with these people.
I said this is your life now and this is where you’ll be and you’re a pro now. There’s no turning back. And it was just the you’re going to be mad at me I forgot what you asked.
Q. What’s left for you to accomplish after doing so well as long as you’ve been in the sport with 14 championships, what are some of your goals what’s left to accomplish?
FORCE: Can I just say this? I want to be good. I want to race with my kid and the team. I’m building the next generation, because I don’t lie to myself. I’m 57. I’m running out of time. I want to be good at what I do.
I don’t want to ever be an embarrassment to my sponsors or my family or the kids that work around the clock out here.
My deal is, you know, my guys joke you don’t drink anymore. I said I don’t have time. I don’t need it. It really isn’t about time. It’s about that I need to sleep every night if I’m going to stay up with the young kids. I see my daughter with so much energy. She’s never tired.
Eric, Robert, never tired. I’m tired at the end of the day. I don’t party like I used to. I go to bed so I can be in the game.
What I want to accomplish, is yes, do I want to win? Do I want to win more races? Yes. Do I want to set records? Yes, I want to do all the above. I want to be good. That’s all that’s left for me to stay in the game because people, we have new sponsors like Mach 1 Air coming in and just new people signing up, and I want to be good for them.
I want to be good around my kids. I’m their dad. I want to show that I’m they knew me in my younger days when they were little but they didn’t care that I won everything. And I want to stick around a while so I guess I just want to be good.
Q. Do you foresee any animosity within the team in the garage with Ashley running Funny Cars with regards to sharing information?
FORCE: I gotta tell you, I gotta tell you honestly, everybody has helped my kid. I mean I’m talking everybody. Jack Beckman, Gary Scelzi, Ron Capps, Worsham, when she had the fire Bazemore came running over there. Of course you know Bazemore, my buddy, I said, “Baze, I appreciate you coming to me.” He said, “This wasn’t about you, Force, it was about that kid.”
Because Bazemore lived a fire deal. He knows what it’s about.
So we fight with these guys, but they’re good people. And I’m sticking to that story. I believe that everybody out here, we’re one big family and I believe we’ve got some great talent but some great personalities out here. And it takes all kinds to make this sport.
That’s what I like about this sport. We are a family, even though on the playing field we fight. You know, at the end of the day we care about each other, and, no, I have never heard a negative about Ashley.
And I listen everywhere, because if there’s an issue I want to try to fix it. If she’s been slow staging, I want to speed her up. I want to talk to the guy. I want to give her all the help I can.
Because these are going to be her friends in the next 30 years, the people that I’ve come to love.
So sounds like I’m getting all mushy here, maybe at my age I don’t know. But I’m having a ball out here. Kenny Bernstein is down the alley and tows his old monster hot rod behind him. It’s fun for me and Prudhomme is here with his car.
So, no, I’m amazed. I thought it was going to be a lot of issues about her. I get calls from Shirley Muldowney, “How is the kid doing?” That’s good. We’ve got good people. No, everything is fine. I could have just said fine, sorry.
Q. John, how important is continuity in crew? You’ve been very fortunate with your crew, in a sport like NHRA, where there’s a lot of changeover year after year with the crews, how valuable is it for you to have a crew that’s stayed constant over the years?
FORCE: We’ve never gone to another team and tried to hire anybody away. We don’t play that kind of game. It’s respect. The other teams and team owners that worked. But when somebody comes to our door and says, “I’m a free agent and I’m looking for a job,” the first thing we do is: You know, we bring some from the outside, you know what I mean, we bring kids from the technical schools that have been taught how to build motors. We get a lot of talent there.
But we picked up a number of people this year that have come from other teams that were – it was time for a change. And we’ve gotten some good people and we walk the roads continually. You know what I mean?
I talk to the kids continually knowing the part that they’re doing is so important, because if everything isn’t perfect, the machine fails.
And that ain’t just one call. That’s all the way down the line. You’ve got to have camaraderie. So far with the pick, I mean we’re talking 10 people on Ashley’s team and we’re talking about probably another seven, I think we picked up 17 or 19 new people. But maybe Bernie Fedderly who does the hiring, is really good at it.
But he’s got us some good people. Nobody is left here. Everybody is on board. You weed them out thorough Vegas because they live it from 6 a.m. to midnight. They don’t get a break. From Phoenix and hell they got a little break because it’s raining. But they’re standing at the ropes ready to run.
New kids, excited. The old school boys. They know the fight. They keep their wind. They keep the pace so they can run in the game when it starts.
Q. John, how important is it for you and Ford Motor Company to develop a Ford nitro motor for Top Fuel and Funny Car?
FORCE: It’s important not just for Ford. They have their reasons, because they take the technology, everything is in the aerodynamics, to the motors and the stuff we use. They put them in the ads and advertise.
Right now the market is a struggle right now. You’ve got the foreign markets all pulling in over here. You know Toyota trying to get into NASCAR and trying to get into drag racing and Ford’s got a fight on their hands. They know it’s a huge machine. And I’m lucky and proud to be part of it. And right now everything that we can create, every way that our team, with drivers that have left Ford Motor Company where John Force Racing won’t.
Our group they’ve been nothing but good to us. I don’t mean just in the finance they give us but in the way they let us run our teams. And they work with us daytoday. They keep us focused on winning, but they let you have that freedom to test and the wind panels and the technology they give us.
But it’s very important in this market that we make every dollar not just fit for us but to fit for them. And this motor program is going to be huge. We hope to deliver it by early June, because I’m excited about the car being an all Ford.
And that is exciting that we can say every piece there is a Ford.
You know, we don’t buy anything from any other car manufacturer. We make everything inhouse for our block. And we’re going to have that done pretty soon. And we’re excited about that.
But we buy them from Keith Black, Brad Anderson, Paisano, that’s where our blocks come from. And we decided with Ford we’ll have our own design. But it is an NHRA spec.
But, once again, it can be a true Ford. That’s what he want instead of the next.
Because I’m looking to grow like Roush and you look at the guys like Roush and Penske that grew. Penske got into racing, ends up with Hertz. There’s a lot of tieins. You’ll have a brand Mustang with John Force Racing. That’s already in the talks now. And this motor is going to help that.
That’s where I’m trying to evolve to the status of Roush. That when you’re in trouble and you can’t find a sponsor, you know what I mean, that the monies from the other programs can finance it. That’s why I’m doing the TV show with A&E this year. It will put over another million bucks in our pocket. That’s going to help me run one of my teams.
Because right now in fact pretty much I might as well give you this, this is what’s going to happen right now.
Ashley is driving the match car to me. The Castrol GTX/Auto Club car and I’m driving the Castrol GTX High Mileage. Eric Medlen will start off the season in the Syntec. But he’s also driving for BP Castrol. He’ll drive for the other brand Tection Extra, and then he’ll drive for AAA with their cruise lines. Then he’ll drive for Mach 1 Air Services and drive for Brand Source and I think it was Pioneer and DirecTV that he will be driving for there. Eric’s going to be jumping around. He’s going to be having about six different cars this year.
It’s going to be really exciting. But it takes money to tie all of this together. And we couldn’t find the right partner we wanted so all the sponsors chipped in.
And I know you didn’t ask this, but I was going to announce it anyway, that they’ve all chipped in to help fund this car because the TV show is also chipping in to help. Ashley wanted her money put into this program from the TV show to make sure that Eric’s car had full funding.
Q. John, with the NHRA specs for a fuel motor, how different can you make it and how can you possibly brand it other than valve covers for this new engine and call it a Ford?
FORCE: Yeah, but it won’t just be valve covers. That would have been an easy fix. We could have put valve covers. We make our own manifolds. We make our own blowers. We even make our own injectors. We make our own heads.
The only thing left is a block and a crank. We can even make rods but we haven’t done it.
What I’m saying, they do call it a spec motor. But it will be a crate motor because we’ll be looking at selling this stuff through the dealerships across the nation. This won’t just be a blown fuel 330 mileanhour motor. This can be a motor developed that can go into a Ford pickup truck.
There’s a lot of directions we haven’t gone down because we haven’t finished. Actually the prototype’s done. But we haven’t because we gotta build all the parts that go around it. Yes, NHRA is trying to level the playing field. They won’t let us change the push rod angle. They won’t let us move the cam shaft, but it will be a little bit different.
But basically it will be all Ford. I mean technically I could say my car is all Ford now. But everybody knows originally 30 years ago they came from the old Chrysler design. And I didn’t run a Chrysler block in 25 years.
You know what I’m saying? All the blocks out here are made by manufacturers but they’re still off the old hemi design. That’s why we want our design. And that’s what we’re going to have. But it’s got to fall under the NHRA spec.
Q. When Robert presented the Brute Force Monza to you at Christmastime, did that give you any idea that you might want to hop in and make a pass with that car?
FORCE: We may. It’s just my focus has to be on winning races. And I love those nostalgic cars. You know what I said to Robert when that was over? “You know what I learned here today running, Robert, that if I was to die tomorrow, racing will continue because of people like you.”
He knew how to build a race car. He knew how to find it, the body, the tint shop, how to get it painted and build a motor. He did it like how I did it in the old days.
He got everybody to chip in, made it a Christmas gift. Coil, everybody on all the teams, from marketing staff, and my wife pitched in.
I was blown out of the water because I guess what bothered me is that they could pull off a secret right in my own house that I didn’t know about.
I said that was the only complaint I had. Always run everything through me. They said they wanted this one time for it to be a surprise. And it was just that he proved to me what he can do.
Yes, we totally will bring that car out. And it was the original the original Brute Force Funny Car, my first paint job, the fist, the lightning bolts. It was pretty exciting. So I had a car before that that I went in Australia with, but this was the original.
But he showed me he could get the job done. So I’m grooming Eric worked on it and everybody worked on it. They showed me the machine that I created will go on without me and that’s what matters to me, that my legacy that I’ve created will go on through my family.
And all these kids are my family. So that’s what’s most important.
And the motor, by the way, is what I’m saying is it will be a Ford JFR Motor, John Force Racing. Ford emblems and it will have our X on it that says “John Force The Next Generation.” It’s the next generation of where we’re going. But right now we’re building the basics so we can go out there and run a car and be proud to say that now it’s totally all Ford.
Q. John, you mentioned – or someone mentioned earlier – with all of your businesses and the shops, the fabrication of running a fourcar team, you’re driving yourself, dealing with sponsors and the TV show. When do you reach the saturation point? How do you find the time to do this? Do you have to ration yourself out or how do you handle it?
FORCE: I’ve really maxed. I’ve had so many deals where I could, hell I could have made a quarter of a million on the show car circuit. Offers to go to London to kick off our TV show (Driving Force) on A&E. It’s opening in markets overseas in Japan and I said there’s no more time.
I need to focus on our four Funny Cars right now. I had a daughter crash at Vegas in SuperComp. We were in an ambulance with mom going to the hospital. Put her through a CAT scan. That was Brittany.
She walked out of there okay. I should have been with her on the starting line but I was in the bus with Gary Graves from USA Today trying to get the story. I failed, Gary saw my panic I ran out of the bus like, she was already in the ambulance and I’m talking about a 19yearold kid that’s never been in a car wreck on the street let alone hitting the wall.
It was nothing major, but it scared her. And it was her first experience in the hospital.
I told the TV people, everybody needs to go home now. They came here. They filmed, and now we need some time to focus and stay on these cars until we get them sorted out to get ready for Pomona. We may have to pack up and go back to Vegas, because we’re running quick. But we don’t have the consistency.
So I make the time because I really love what I do. You know, just every day, just getting up in the morning, you know, and my wife was over here with us this weekend because now we have so much in common with Ashley racing right here with the pros.
So, trust me, just did a full physical, one of the physicals where they run you through the Star Wars machine that runs around your body. My doc called me yesterday and said everything was good; you’re strong, you’re good for another season, go hit it.
And I’m really lucky with my health. I think that’s because I let my stress out. I don’t hold it in. And I’ve started eating right. Exercising. I’m doing everything I should have done 20 years ago.
I’m finally doing it now. And it’s going to allow me to be around a while and it’s going to allow me to race at least for another five years.
Q. You say you’re maxed out now. If you had to cut something out of what you’re handling, what’s on your plate, what would it be?
FORCE: It would have been the TV show. I’m going to be honest. I love A&E for what they give us, all the people, but it’s a fulltime job. When you leave the racetrack, when everybody goes to bed, we go off to film.
It was hard on me last year because I was so into it. It’s my ego. I get so caught up. I want it perfect. I want everything like a race car, I want to do it 50 times.
And so much that you do is filmed and it’s never used. And I had to learn they sent me to a speech therapist where I could learn to talk again, I’m not doing very good right now because I get wound up like I’m in a fistfight.
But my health is good. I’ve stopped the drinking. I’m down to one cup of coffee a day, because, man, I was hyper. At the end of the day I was just maxed. But now I’m really doing good.
I’m proud to say I’m healthy. And if Kenny Bernstein can jump back out here, he’s a few years older than me, and he’s ready and fit to do it, I gotta get back in shape.
Kenny Bernstein is in really good shape. I mean that kid, you know, he’s older than me. But he’s probably got the body of a 35yearold. You know what I’m saying?
He’s really going to do well. Even with our ups and downs, me and Kenny, I’ve been out here praying he’ll do good. He will.
Q. John, probably nobody has had more success than you. I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about this, asked Tony this earlier, is there a best way to handle success?
FORCE: You don’t start believing your own bull stuff. You don’t start believing who you think you are.
I got here because I teamed up with a guy named Austin Coil or I still might be out there trying to win a race, let alone a championship. I teamed up with a guy, Austin Coil, and Bernie Fedderly, a Canadian, that’s been in this business a long time. Bernie being the Canadian. And they teamed together.
They’re like husband and wife. They’re together all the time. They spend more time together on the road with us than they do their own families at home.
But I was always good at reading people’s faces, reading the bull. You know what I mean? Because I’m probably the biggest guy full of it, right?
But I could tell when someone was conning me.
And I learned to pick the right people. When Coil came over here I picked the guy with magic. He already won two championships with Frank Holley and the ChiTown Hustler out of Chicago, in Funny Car, but yet he had no money doing it.
I thought if I could find the money, and as much as I love this sport, and those were my early days, it was 22 years ago, we teamed up, that we could win. But on the road we kept picking the right people.
And that was what was important to me, the people. It wasn’t John Force that won these championships. This is not going to be humble. This is about knowing your people.
When you start thinking you’re so good and your car blows up and you want to run out and yell at somebody, no, you go out and give them a hug and you tell these guys you fix the car, I’ll find the money to fix it.
And you create camaraderie. And you create the love. That’s why the four teams are out here. When Ashley had the fire, AAA was over there working on the car, and Eric’s team was over there. It makes you so proud because it’s the one thing I really brought and that was being a leader.
I think that my best asset is I know how to lead people and you do it treating everybody equal. As long as you show that respect to the guy that cooks your food, to the guy that does bottom end, to the guy that runs your trailer, when you’re in the winner circle, they’re all there.
You don’t say, well, those guys are back in the machine shop. We invite everybody in. They all pick so many races they want to go to. And they’re allowed to go to so many races out of the base in Indy and here.
We make everybody part of the team so when they’re home they feel like they’re winning when you win and they’re motivated every week to do the work they do because they work so hard.
That is my best asset. So for me it’s to continue running John Force Racing. The way I’ve run it, we’ve got a great product within NHRA POWERade Series drag racing, with ESPN, the TV show (Driving Force), it will give us another season at least.
We’re having a ball. But it’s full blown, full throttle for John Force. And my kid’s the same way, and so is Robert and Eric.
I wouldn’t have it any other way. I don’t want to give up the TV show either
John Force holds the NHRA records for wins, 122. And world championships with 14, including, of course, 2006. And just two weeks ago he announced that his daughter, Ashley, would be turning pro. John, why don’t you begin by telling us how this preseason has been different from the last 20 and how your life as a driver and team owner will be changed this year with Ashley in the fold. FORCE: It’s a lot more of a business side instead of the fun of driving these cars, even though it’s a job.
But we’ve trained Eric Medlen, turned him into a professional, as a driver, and Robert Hight, rookie of the year few years back and doing a great job out here. So they’re prepared to run for the title because they already did last year, finishing – I think Robert finished second and Hight – or Eric was number four.
Now the focus is on Ashley. We ran good in Vegas. She ran 4.78 in Vegas. She came here. She’s already run 4.77 or 4.78 here in Phoenix.
Ashley had a nasty fire and it put a lot of pressure, especially when it’s your family, but also when it’s a female. But she come out of it and the car was back out and running. We’ll see what happens later in the day.
Q. Can you provide everyone with the details of Ashley’s adventurous trip down the track?
FORCE: I was on the starting line with her mother (Laurie). Of course I’m pacing back and forth, and I keep my scooter running and I also placed my guys all the way down the racetrack.
I’ve got three individuals at different points so somebody can be over the fence in case she got hooked in the car you get to that mode. She had a nasty fire. She said, “Dad it exploded I couldn’t see anything” and the fire went out.
She said “I triggered my bottles” but it blew her windshield open. She got a little bit of smoke she was gasping to breathe and I felt so bad. I said, “Ashley, I let you down. Remember me telling you when your windshield fogs up you lift it up right before you stage and you hold your breath and close it so you don’t steam it because it’s your own body heat that causes your window to fog up when it’s cold at night.”
Because it’s cold outside and you’re hot inside. I forgot to tell her when you catch on fire, when you were little, I threw you in the swimming pool, I told you to hold your breath. And what she did, she hyperventilated because it scared her and she sucked all that smoke down her throat.
Luckily the fire was there and gone but then she rode out the smoke. I was there and she was out of the car.
It was scary for me, but she was like how long do you think it will take to fix it. She was like an hour and a half later back in the staging lanes running again. It was a nasty fire. You’ll see it on our TV show. Our TV people, God bless them, I want to kill them, but they’re all loving it. They’re loving this because it’s drama. But I don’t want none of it.
Been pretty excited. Groomed her about a year and a half but she’s probably had more runs the last two weekends than she got in a year because we’re running four Funny Cars four times a day over a fourday period. In Vegas we were there Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, five days. Seven, $8,000 a run we spent a lot of money.
Do the math, four cars, four runs a day for at least – we’ve been here at least four days already. We ran here Friday, Saturday – we got three runs a day. Yesterday we made four.
And we’re still here. But Ashley, she can go A to B. She can run over 300 mph. She ran 70 or 80, I think at Vegas clicking it off early. And she came here to Phoenix and ran 78. Those numbers are good enough to qualify at Pomona.
But she’s okay. But then we had to put her in side by side. She got up against Cruz (Pedregon). Got up against Gary Scelzi. And so many of them were like we thought we were holding her up. The kid has really evolved. I’m proud of her. I want her on the pressure side by side.
Of course the real pressure is going to be Pomona first round. But I was and we have to get qualified, naturally. But she really did well. But the biggest thing I fear is tire smoke, letting the motor get away from you.
A lot of guys can’t get off the gas. And (John Force crew chief Austin) Coil said she’s driving like she has experience like you. The car smokes the tires, she gets off the gas, saves the motor.
She really learns so much. And I say to anybody raising their kids in this sport, let them evolve through the categories. Don’t jump them up. Let them come up through the ranks of the Super Comps or the Junior Leagues and then go into the Holley Driving School and evolve into A Fuel or Funny Car, teach them the basics. That’s why she’s doing so good.
Doesn’t win her a race yet. But it’s showing me.
Q. John, when you look back over the years and going into this season where you’re trying to get the future situated, do you feel more comfortable about that or were you more comfortable just in the early days trying to put championship on top of championship?
FORCE: Well, because when it was all about me and I was doing my own thing, I worked it seven days a week around the clock. That’s what we did.
And you know now we have good financial backing from the sponsors. Castrol, Ford, AAA in Southern California, all these people that have funded these teams and new sponsors coming on. But now there’s the business side of keeping the balance. I have to run from trailer to trailer to trailer talking to the new employees, new kids struggling doing the clutch. New kids mounting tires that have never done it before.
So much more of a job. Dean Antonelli starting out as crew chief with Ashley. He came to me and said, “John, I’ve worked with you for 12 years, been in the heat of battle. I never was ever this exhausted at the end of the day.” I tell him it’s just like the drivers said. It’s called stress. A little different kind of pressure than just working the car.
Crew chiefs face it and so do the drivers because at the end of the day they have to deliver.
But I’m having fun. I’m out here with my teams. My daughter’s with me. It’s great to get up in the morning and see her. Because so many years on the road I never saw her. So I’m a happy camper right now.
It’s sorting all this mess out. Trust me, it’s a handful. Bernstein is down the aisle, got a handful of his own. Everybody is going through the same thing.
Obviously Schumacher got his deal together, so he went home. But we’ll see what happens at Pomona.
Q. Talking about Kenny Bernstein, give us your thoughts on having to race against him this season.
FORCE: Having to race Kenny? Kenny knows the game. He’s in a learning process right now with Ray Alley and Johnny West. But these are kids that have done this for years. They’ll have the car shaped up in no time. And I’m excited because I think Kenny brings, even with his son in Top Fuel, Funny Cars are what my life’s about. And to bring that name back into Funny Cars is only going to build our brand stronger on the NHRA POWERade Series. So I welcome Kenny Bernstein back with open arms.
And Kenny, trust me, it may take him a while to get it sorted out, but when he does he will be back in the game just like it used to be when he drove.
Q. John, who are you most concerned about in the Funny Car class this year trying to defend your championship, and you can’t say “everybody”?
FORCE: I’m not being cute but I’m concerned with the guy in the other lane. Whoever you’re racing you’ve got to beat because the field is the toughest I’ve ever seen it.
I guarantee you, Ron Capps, he’s had three years of getting smacked around and he’s going to have focus. He’s got a good race team. He almost got it last year.
I look at my own drivers, Robert and Eric. Ashley, you know, she could be a contender. She’s got a lot to learn. Got her first shot at nighttime racing last night. There was fire outside the windows. It was unbelievable.
I believe Kenny Bernstein, he’ll be a force to be reckoned with. I think that’s cute.
It can be anybody. You know what’s funny, you don’t really know coming out of Pomona. A lot of the guys really do well at Pomona the opening race because they’re running last year’s combination. So they’re consistent. The new guys like us with brand new stuff, we’re lost for a while. We didn’t start to run until later in the year consistent. And luckily we caught up with Capps.
But right now the multitiered teams like Worsham because they have the ability to learn from each other. But I’m telling you right now Tommy Johnson, Jr., I’ve watched him run in Vegas and they’ve given them the budget to hit it hard and I’ve watched him here in Phoenix. He runs the numbers just like us.
Tommy Johnson is going to be a contender for the title this year.
Q. After winning 14 championships what’s left for you to accomplish? What are some of your goals?
FORCE: You know, when my daughter was in that fire the other day and it was pretty nasty, and I didn’t even know until I saw the footage and of course I’ve been through it and so has Eric, so have all the drivers. And maybe because it was her, I sat with her and told her how much I loved this sport (of NHRA POWERade Series drag racing), how much I love to be out here with these people.
I said this is your life now and this is where you’ll be and you’re a pro now. There’s no turning back. And it was just the you’re going to be mad at me I forgot what you asked.
Q. What’s left for you to accomplish after doing so well as long as you’ve been in the sport with 14 championships, what are some of your goals what’s left to accomplish?
FORCE: Can I just say this? I want to be good. I want to race with my kid and the team. I’m building the next generation, because I don’t lie to myself. I’m 57. I’m running out of time. I want to be good at what I do.
I don’t want to ever be an embarrassment to my sponsors or my family or the kids that work around the clock out here.
My deal is, you know, my guys joke you don’t drink anymore. I said I don’t have time. I don’t need it. It really isn’t about time. It’s about that I need to sleep every night if I’m going to stay up with the young kids. I see my daughter with so much energy. She’s never tired.
Eric, Robert, never tired. I’m tired at the end of the day. I don’t party like I used to. I go to bed so I can be in the game.
What I want to accomplish, is yes, do I want to win? Do I want to win more races? Yes. Do I want to set records? Yes, I want to do all the above. I want to be good. That’s all that’s left for me to stay in the game because people, we have new sponsors like Mach 1 Air coming in and just new people signing up, and I want to be good for them.
I want to be good around my kids. I’m their dad. I want to show that I’m they knew me in my younger days when they were little but they didn’t care that I won everything. And I want to stick around a while so I guess I just want to be good.
Q. Do you foresee any animosity within the team in the garage with Ashley running Funny Cars with regards to sharing information?
FORCE: I gotta tell you, I gotta tell you honestly, everybody has helped my kid. I mean I’m talking everybody. Jack Beckman, Gary Scelzi, Ron Capps, Worsham, when she had the fire Bazemore came running over there. Of course you know Bazemore, my buddy, I said, “Baze, I appreciate you coming to me.” He said, “This wasn’t about you, Force, it was about that kid.”
Because Bazemore lived a fire deal. He knows what it’s about.
So we fight with these guys, but they’re good people. And I’m sticking to that story. I believe that everybody out here, we’re one big family and I believe we’ve got some great talent but some great personalities out here. And it takes all kinds to make this sport.
That’s what I like about this sport. We are a family, even though on the playing field we fight. You know, at the end of the day we care about each other, and, no, I have never heard a negative about Ashley.
And I listen everywhere, because if there’s an issue I want to try to fix it. If she’s been slow staging, I want to speed her up. I want to talk to the guy. I want to give her all the help I can.
Because these are going to be her friends in the next 30 years, the people that I’ve come to love.
So sounds like I’m getting all mushy here, maybe at my age I don’t know. But I’m having a ball out here. Kenny Bernstein is down the alley and tows his old monster hot rod behind him. It’s fun for me and Prudhomme is here with his car.
So, no, I’m amazed. I thought it was going to be a lot of issues about her. I get calls from Shirley Muldowney, “How is the kid doing?” That’s good. We’ve got good people. No, everything is fine. I could have just said fine, sorry.
Q. John, how important is continuity in crew? You’ve been very fortunate with your crew, in a sport like NHRA, where there’s a lot of changeover year after year with the crews, how valuable is it for you to have a crew that’s stayed constant over the years?
FORCE: We’ve never gone to another team and tried to hire anybody away. We don’t play that kind of game. It’s respect. The other teams and team owners that worked. But when somebody comes to our door and says, “I’m a free agent and I’m looking for a job,” the first thing we do is: You know, we bring some from the outside, you know what I mean, we bring kids from the technical schools that have been taught how to build motors. We get a lot of talent there.
But we picked up a number of people this year that have come from other teams that were – it was time for a change. And we’ve gotten some good people and we walk the roads continually. You know what I mean?
I talk to the kids continually knowing the part that they’re doing is so important, because if everything isn’t perfect, the machine fails.
And that ain’t just one call. That’s all the way down the line. You’ve got to have camaraderie. So far with the pick, I mean we’re talking 10 people on Ashley’s team and we’re talking about probably another seven, I think we picked up 17 or 19 new people. But maybe Bernie Fedderly who does the hiring, is really good at it.
But he’s got us some good people. Nobody is left here. Everybody is on board. You weed them out thorough Vegas because they live it from 6 a.m. to midnight. They don’t get a break. From Phoenix and hell they got a little break because it’s raining. But they’re standing at the ropes ready to run.
New kids, excited. The old school boys. They know the fight. They keep their wind. They keep the pace so they can run in the game when it starts.
Q. John, how important is it for you and Ford Motor Company to develop a Ford nitro motor for Top Fuel and Funny Car?
FORCE: It’s important not just for Ford. They have their reasons, because they take the technology, everything is in the aerodynamics, to the motors and the stuff we use. They put them in the ads and advertise.
Right now the market is a struggle right now. You’ve got the foreign markets all pulling in over here. You know Toyota trying to get into NASCAR and trying to get into drag racing and Ford’s got a fight on their hands. They know it’s a huge machine. And I’m lucky and proud to be part of it. And right now everything that we can create, every way that our team, with drivers that have left Ford Motor Company where John Force Racing won’t.
Our group they’ve been nothing but good to us. I don’t mean just in the finance they give us but in the way they let us run our teams. And they work with us daytoday. They keep us focused on winning, but they let you have that freedom to test and the wind panels and the technology they give us.
But it’s very important in this market that we make every dollar not just fit for us but to fit for them. And this motor program is going to be huge. We hope to deliver it by early June, because I’m excited about the car being an all Ford.
And that is exciting that we can say every piece there is a Ford.
You know, we don’t buy anything from any other car manufacturer. We make everything inhouse for our block. And we’re going to have that done pretty soon. And we’re excited about that.
But we buy them from Keith Black, Brad Anderson, Paisano, that’s where our blocks come from. And we decided with Ford we’ll have our own design. But it is an NHRA spec.
But, once again, it can be a true Ford. That’s what he want instead of the next.
Because I’m looking to grow like Roush and you look at the guys like Roush and Penske that grew. Penske got into racing, ends up with Hertz. There’s a lot of tieins. You’ll have a brand Mustang with John Force Racing. That’s already in the talks now. And this motor is going to help that.
That’s where I’m trying to evolve to the status of Roush. That when you’re in trouble and you can’t find a sponsor, you know what I mean, that the monies from the other programs can finance it. That’s why I’m doing the TV show with A&E this year. It will put over another million bucks in our pocket. That’s going to help me run one of my teams.
Because right now in fact pretty much I might as well give you this, this is what’s going to happen right now.
Ashley is driving the match car to me. The Castrol GTX/Auto Club car and I’m driving the Castrol GTX High Mileage. Eric Medlen will start off the season in the Syntec. But he’s also driving for BP Castrol. He’ll drive for the other brand Tection Extra, and then he’ll drive for AAA with their cruise lines. Then he’ll drive for Mach 1 Air Services and drive for Brand Source and I think it was Pioneer and DirecTV that he will be driving for there. Eric’s going to be jumping around. He’s going to be having about six different cars this year.
It’s going to be really exciting. But it takes money to tie all of this together. And we couldn’t find the right partner we wanted so all the sponsors chipped in.
And I know you didn’t ask this, but I was going to announce it anyway, that they’ve all chipped in to help fund this car because the TV show is also chipping in to help. Ashley wanted her money put into this program from the TV show to make sure that Eric’s car had full funding.
Q. John, with the NHRA specs for a fuel motor, how different can you make it and how can you possibly brand it other than valve covers for this new engine and call it a Ford?
FORCE: Yeah, but it won’t just be valve covers. That would have been an easy fix. We could have put valve covers. We make our own manifolds. We make our own blowers. We even make our own injectors. We make our own heads.
The only thing left is a block and a crank. We can even make rods but we haven’t done it.
What I’m saying, they do call it a spec motor. But it will be a crate motor because we’ll be looking at selling this stuff through the dealerships across the nation. This won’t just be a blown fuel 330 mileanhour motor. This can be a motor developed that can go into a Ford pickup truck.
There’s a lot of directions we haven’t gone down because we haven’t finished. Actually the prototype’s done. But we haven’t because we gotta build all the parts that go around it. Yes, NHRA is trying to level the playing field. They won’t let us change the push rod angle. They won’t let us move the cam shaft, but it will be a little bit different.
But basically it will be all Ford. I mean technically I could say my car is all Ford now. But everybody knows originally 30 years ago they came from the old Chrysler design. And I didn’t run a Chrysler block in 25 years.
You know what I’m saying? All the blocks out here are made by manufacturers but they’re still off the old hemi design. That’s why we want our design. And that’s what we’re going to have. But it’s got to fall under the NHRA spec.
Q. When Robert presented the Brute Force Monza to you at Christmastime, did that give you any idea that you might want to hop in and make a pass with that car?
FORCE: We may. It’s just my focus has to be on winning races. And I love those nostalgic cars. You know what I said to Robert when that was over? “You know what I learned here today running, Robert, that if I was to die tomorrow, racing will continue because of people like you.”
He knew how to build a race car. He knew how to find it, the body, the tint shop, how to get it painted and build a motor. He did it like how I did it in the old days.
He got everybody to chip in, made it a Christmas gift. Coil, everybody on all the teams, from marketing staff, and my wife pitched in.
I was blown out of the water because I guess what bothered me is that they could pull off a secret right in my own house that I didn’t know about.
I said that was the only complaint I had. Always run everything through me. They said they wanted this one time for it to be a surprise. And it was just that he proved to me what he can do.
Yes, we totally will bring that car out. And it was the original the original Brute Force Funny Car, my first paint job, the fist, the lightning bolts. It was pretty exciting. So I had a car before that that I went in Australia with, but this was the original.
But he showed me he could get the job done. So I’m grooming Eric worked on it and everybody worked on it. They showed me the machine that I created will go on without me and that’s what matters to me, that my legacy that I’ve created will go on through my family.
And all these kids are my family. So that’s what’s most important.
And the motor, by the way, is what I’m saying is it will be a Ford JFR Motor, John Force Racing. Ford emblems and it will have our X on it that says “John Force The Next Generation.” It’s the next generation of where we’re going. But right now we’re building the basics so we can go out there and run a car and be proud to say that now it’s totally all Ford.
Q. John, you mentioned – or someone mentioned earlier – with all of your businesses and the shops, the fabrication of running a fourcar team, you’re driving yourself, dealing with sponsors and the TV show. When do you reach the saturation point? How do you find the time to do this? Do you have to ration yourself out or how do you handle it?
FORCE: I’ve really maxed. I’ve had so many deals where I could, hell I could have made a quarter of a million on the show car circuit. Offers to go to London to kick off our TV show (Driving Force) on A&E. It’s opening in markets overseas in Japan and I said there’s no more time.
I need to focus on our four Funny Cars right now. I had a daughter crash at Vegas in SuperComp. We were in an ambulance with mom going to the hospital. Put her through a CAT scan. That was Brittany.
She walked out of there okay. I should have been with her on the starting line but I was in the bus with Gary Graves from USA Today trying to get the story. I failed, Gary saw my panic I ran out of the bus like, she was already in the ambulance and I’m talking about a 19yearold kid that’s never been in a car wreck on the street let alone hitting the wall.
It was nothing major, but it scared her. And it was her first experience in the hospital.
I told the TV people, everybody needs to go home now. They came here. They filmed, and now we need some time to focus and stay on these cars until we get them sorted out to get ready for Pomona. We may have to pack up and go back to Vegas, because we’re running quick. But we don’t have the consistency.
So I make the time because I really love what I do. You know, just every day, just getting up in the morning, you know, and my wife was over here with us this weekend because now we have so much in common with Ashley racing right here with the pros.
So, trust me, just did a full physical, one of the physicals where they run you through the Star Wars machine that runs around your body. My doc called me yesterday and said everything was good; you’re strong, you’re good for another season, go hit it.
And I’m really lucky with my health. I think that’s because I let my stress out. I don’t hold it in. And I’ve started eating right. Exercising. I’m doing everything I should have done 20 years ago.
I’m finally doing it now. And it’s going to allow me to be around a while and it’s going to allow me to race at least for another five years.
Q. You say you’re maxed out now. If you had to cut something out of what you’re handling, what’s on your plate, what would it be?
FORCE: It would have been the TV show. I’m going to be honest. I love A&E for what they give us, all the people, but it’s a fulltime job. When you leave the racetrack, when everybody goes to bed, we go off to film.
It was hard on me last year because I was so into it. It’s my ego. I get so caught up. I want it perfect. I want everything like a race car, I want to do it 50 times.
And so much that you do is filmed and it’s never used. And I had to learn they sent me to a speech therapist where I could learn to talk again, I’m not doing very good right now because I get wound up like I’m in a fistfight.
But my health is good. I’ve stopped the drinking. I’m down to one cup of coffee a day, because, man, I was hyper. At the end of the day I was just maxed. But now I’m really doing good.
I’m proud to say I’m healthy. And if Kenny Bernstein can jump back out here, he’s a few years older than me, and he’s ready and fit to do it, I gotta get back in shape.
Kenny Bernstein is in really good shape. I mean that kid, you know, he’s older than me. But he’s probably got the body of a 35yearold. You know what I’m saying?
He’s really going to do well. Even with our ups and downs, me and Kenny, I’ve been out here praying he’ll do good. He will.
Q. John, probably nobody has had more success than you. I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about this, asked Tony this earlier, is there a best way to handle success?
FORCE: You don’t start believing your own bull stuff. You don’t start believing who you think you are.
I got here because I teamed up with a guy named Austin Coil or I still might be out there trying to win a race, let alone a championship. I teamed up with a guy, Austin Coil, and Bernie Fedderly, a Canadian, that’s been in this business a long time. Bernie being the Canadian. And they teamed together.
They’re like husband and wife. They’re together all the time. They spend more time together on the road with us than they do their own families at home.
But I was always good at reading people’s faces, reading the bull. You know what I mean? Because I’m probably the biggest guy full of it, right?
But I could tell when someone was conning me.
And I learned to pick the right people. When Coil came over here I picked the guy with magic. He already won two championships with Frank Holley and the ChiTown Hustler out of Chicago, in Funny Car, but yet he had no money doing it.
I thought if I could find the money, and as much as I love this sport, and those were my early days, it was 22 years ago, we teamed up, that we could win. But on the road we kept picking the right people.
And that was what was important to me, the people. It wasn’t John Force that won these championships. This is not going to be humble. This is about knowing your people.
When you start thinking you’re so good and your car blows up and you want to run out and yell at somebody, no, you go out and give them a hug and you tell these guys you fix the car, I’ll find the money to fix it.
And you create camaraderie. And you create the love. That’s why the four teams are out here. When Ashley had the fire, AAA was over there working on the car, and Eric’s team was over there. It makes you so proud because it’s the one thing I really brought and that was being a leader.
I think that my best asset is I know how to lead people and you do it treating everybody equal. As long as you show that respect to the guy that cooks your food, to the guy that does bottom end, to the guy that runs your trailer, when you’re in the winner circle, they’re all there.
You don’t say, well, those guys are back in the machine shop. We invite everybody in. They all pick so many races they want to go to. And they’re allowed to go to so many races out of the base in Indy and here.
We make everybody part of the team so when they’re home they feel like they’re winning when you win and they’re motivated every week to do the work they do because they work so hard.
That is my best asset. So for me it’s to continue running John Force Racing. The way I’ve run it, we’ve got a great product within NHRA POWERade Series drag racing, with ESPN, the TV show (Driving Force), it will give us another season at least.
We’re having a ball. But it’s full blown, full throttle for John Force. And my kid’s the same way, and so is Robert and Eric.
I wouldn’t have it any other way. I don’t want to give up the TV show either
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