ASHLEY FORCE ON LENO
Fri, 2007-09-07 08:25
Ashley Force, the 24-year-old driver of the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang Funny Car
and recent winner of AOL Sports’ “Hottest Athlete” poll, will guest Monday
night, Sept. 10, on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The NBC-TV show airs in
every major market following the late local news.
Coming off a solid performance in last week’s Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at
Indianapolis, Ind., a race in which she qualified No. 2 and, on race day, posted
the quickest quarter mile time in the category (4.784), Ms. Force has
distinguished herself this season as the first woman to compete in the Funny Car
class since 2000.
Her No. 2 start at Indy was the best ever for a woman Funny Car driver and
she already has won more rounds (10) than any of the nine other women licensed
in the class. She also has become only the second woman to advance as far as
the Funny Car semifinals, doing so in back-to-back races at Atlanta, Ga., and
Madison, Ill.
Although she has established her credentials as a candidate for the
Automobile Club of Southern California’s Road to the Future Award as the NHRA
Rookie-of-the-Year, Ashley has gone through a baptism of fire – literally and
figuratively.
The former high school cheerleader has hit the cones that delineate the
center of the race track, been on fire and, last July in Seattle, Wash., crashed
heavily into the guardwall while trying to chase down her second round opponent,
drag racing legend Kenny Bernstein.
A resident of Yorba Linda, Calif., Ashley isn’t the first Force to occupy
a seat next to Leno. Her father, 14-time NHRA Funny Car Champion John Force,
was a guest on the show in 1997.
In the AOL contest, Ashley beat IndyCar driver Danica Patrick and softball
pitcher Jennie Finch to win the women’s championship before burying men’s champ
Tom Brady of the New England Patriots for the overall title.
The Tonight Show appearance is the latest milestone for the graduate of
Cal State-Fullerton. Earlier this year, she appeared on ABC-TV’s Good Morning,
America and was featured in Men’s Journal magazine as one of “The Superstars of
Summer.” She is on the cover of the Drag Racing Action magazine currently on
newsstands and is one of the stars of Driving Force, the real life TV
series airing on A&E Network.
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