Numerous NHRA nitro Funny Car and Top Fuel teams will venture south to test at Palm Beach International Raceway next month.

However, there will be one noticeable absence. The powerhouse John Force Racing team is skipping the test session – which culminates with the Pro Winter Warm-Up Jan. 16-17 – by choice.

Robert HightNumerous NHRA nitro Funny Car and Top Fuel teams will venture south to test at Palm Beach International Raceway next month.

However, there will be one noticeable absence. The powerhouse John Force Racing team is skipping the test session – which culminates with the Pro Winter Warm-Up Jan. 16-17 – by choice.

“What we end up learning at West Palm Beach does not help us one bit anywhere the rest of the year,” said Robert Hight, the president of JFR Inc. “It is such an odd set of circumstances and conditions, so we feel it is better for us to go to a race track which is more like what we race on and we do race at Phoenix and that’s why we are coming there (to test).”

The JFR team, which has attended the PBIR test in past years, consists of nitro Funny Cars driven by 16-time world champion John Force, Hight, the 2009 world champ, Courtney Force, who finished a career-best fourth in the season points in 2014 and Top Fuel driver Brittany Force, who placed a career-best 10th in the points last season.

The test session at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Phoenix is scheduled for Jan. 24-25. The 2015 NHRA national event in Phoenix is set for Feb. 20-22.

“All four of our cars will test in Phoenix,” Hight said. “The only reason we are testing is to get ready for the Winternationals, so it is very, very important.”

The 2015 NHRA season begins Feb. 5-8 at the Winternationals in Pomona, Calif.

“We’re excited (about the 2015 season),” said Hight, who finished fifth in the points. “I won more races (five) in Funny Car than anybody else did last year, and as a team we won half the races in Funny Car and there were only a couple of races that one of our Funny Cars wasn’t in the finals, so it's business as usual. We have to carry on. There are a lot of good cars and a lot of guys stepped up toward the end of the year, and we have to step up as well. I believe we have everything in place to do what we need to do to be competitive and hopefully go out and get that championship back.”

John Force won three races in 2014 and finished second in the points – 43 points behind world champion Matt Hagan. Courtney Force had four wins last season.

Hight said there is a crew chief in place for John Force’s Funny Car, but he would not give a specific name of who that is.

“That will all be announced later,” Hight said.

Force’s crew chief Jimmy Prock resigned Oct. 21 from the Castrol GTX team and John Force Racing. John Medlen, who worked with Prock on Force’s Funny Car, joined Prock at Don Schumacher Racing earlier this month.

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