When John Force looks at Terry Haddock, he’s reminded of himself thirty years ago.

Those were the days when he didn’t have two nickels to rub together and accepted free hamburgers as a sponsorship just so the crew could eat. Yet he found a way to race.

Force sees in Haddock the same qualities that helped him to become one of the most streetwise and successful team owners in the nitro pits.

Today, Force is on the other end of the scale.



When John Force looks at Terry Haddock, he’s reminded of himself thirty years ago.

Those were the days when he didn’t have two nickels to rub together and accepted free hamburgers as a sponsorship just so the crew could eat. Yet he found a way to race.

Force sees in Haddock the same qualities that helped him to become one of the most streetwise and successful team owners in the nitro pits.

Today, Force is on the other end of the scale.

John Force Racing had four cars in the Countdown to 1.

Haddock didn’t even get to finish the season.

The NHRA suspended Haddock for the final two races for improvising on a safety rule, something Force admits he would have done back in the day when he was hungry; hungry for success and food.

“In a hundred different ways Terry Haddock reminds me of myself,” Force admitted. “I've had a lot of guys come to me motivated about their dreams in the last 15-20 years and how they were going to make it, and they gave it a shot and they were gone. He kept saying it. And, when I heard it the first time I said, 'okay, let's see if he is here six months from now.' And, he kept showing up. He came up with the big 18-wheeler.”

Haddock begged for a meeting with Force and was relentless in his pursuit of the fourteen-time champion. Force finally granted Haddock his meeting.

“They told me Haddock was here, so I walked outside of my building expecting to run into him in the parking lot,” Force said. “I went back in and sat down and they said he was on the other side of the building with his truck. So, I figured I would walk out there and he would be standing by the truck addressing his team. I walked around the corner and he was sitting in his truck fast asleep. He had driven all night to have a meeting with me.”

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Force’s impression of Haddock took him back to the old days when he too would have driven all night for a meeting with a potential sponsor, even if they were only offering pennies on the dollar.

Force admitted there wasn’t much time for a meeting with Haddock because there were pressing large deals that needed his attention. Still, something drew the emotionally overloaded Force towards Haddock in the truck.

“When I saw him sleeping in the truck I saw myself twenty years ago,” Force admitted, pausing to laugh. “Head back, mouth wide open, hair frizzy, being up all night just to get to a meeting with me. I knocked on the door and him and I just went into this big old conversation about life. That showed me; he wasn't coming over giving me crying stories. He was leaving the deal, and yet feeling he was living the life and feeling he's one of the lucky ones. Never complained, never said nothing, trying to get home to see his kid and I just saw John Force sitting there in that cab.”

Haddock wanted to see if there was a remote chance he could work his way into one of Force’s sponsorships. But most off, he wanted to learn from the master of rags to riches if he stood a chance. He needed Force’s experience more than money.

Force believes Haddock is on his way to making it in drag racing, despite his financially challenged status, because he still fields a Top Fuel dragster and fuel Funny Car.

“He’s always asking the same question, “Can I make it?” And, then I see him out there with a dragster and a funny car; that shows you he is a pretty smart cookie,” Force said. “This is basically what it's all about. It's not about him being brilliant or me being brilliant, because I wasn't. He might be but I'm not. I got there from getting it out week after week. Going hungry. Eating baloney sandwiches. When you got a room, sharing it. Whatever it took to get it done.

“Then to come up with the two car concept … how in the hell will you afford your cars? That will bankrupt the guy. And, he said, 'Well, if they have less funny cars I run the funny car and if they have less dragsters I run the dragster. It also depends on the sponsor that I've got for that week.”

The resourceful Force believes Haddock has a leg up on him from the early days.

“I never had to do that. That's pretty brilliant,” Force pointed out. “Using the same team to try to run both cars. It's tough on him, mistakes are made, but at the end of the day he's doing it the only way he knows how.”

That’s why, when Force, an admitted fan of Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher, almost sounds as if he’s bragging when he talks about Haddock ending the Schumacher’s 35-race first round winning streak earlier this season.

“It was apples and oranges the two of them meeting – but it just shows you on any given day anybody can win,” Force said. “It ain't about money. Yeah, money, the right crew and the right experience is going to make you dominate like Schumacher. And, he will continue to dominate. But yet, here this kid on this day, call it luck, call it what you want, call it destiny, taking nothing away from Schumacher, that was an opportunity for David and Goliath.

“That one moment gave that kid an opportunity to move to the next level in his career, because he can use the name as big as Schumacher to say I beat him once, and maybe I can beat him again. And whether he has beating Al Anabi or whoever he has beaten … he has that opportunity for that sponsor who gives him the bucks to be at that race.

“That is one thing racing offers – the little guy can beat the big guy on any given day,” he continued. “With or without money. With or without a full team, it can get the job done. Will he do it again? Maybe, maybe not. Odds are against him with Schumacher, but he is able to use that name. I am sure Schumacher realized from who he is, he gave that kid an opportunity to maybe have a career some day, like Schumacher.”

First things first, Haddock has to get back to the track.

Haddock’s suspension couldn’t have brought worse timing. He was scheduled to have potential sponsors at the next event but the NHRA didn’t rescind the penalty despite lobbying efforts from Force for a lesser punishment.

Force is limited on what he can help Haddock out with monetarily, but used parts and advice (even tuning), he’s got plenty of that and willing to share.

 

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I am looking at trying to help him because he is a good guy and I know he doesn't have the money. I've got to figure a way, if I can help him. I don't have a place for him in my home, but you won't find a harder worker than him.

“You can't work any harder than driving the truck, working on the car, promoting it, fighting all the battles, finding the money. You can't work any harder than that because I did it. Seven day a week job.

“Let me tell you something, we're in a tough economy right now. We're all having to learn how to survive. I am building a program for my sponsors. I'm trying to help them to evaluate and activate our programs because of budget cuts. And, how we can grow in the future.

“Nobody wakes up one day and just has money. There are only a few that do and the majority don't last. They come in with a silver spoon and they don't last; only a few. I have to say that about my own kids. I give them an opportunity of a good race car – a good team. But I make them work because they have got to learn.

“They say, 'dad, we do more stuff. The race car is not what we do.'

“I said, 'the race car – driving it for a few seconds – that is not the big part of the job.' The job is to win and that is hard to do. But, you only have to invest a little bit of time in that. The rest of your time is learning your team, being at the ropes, working the media, doing the appearances and getting the college education. They were brought into a program. They were given an opportunity. I made them ride in the trucks with me. They grew up doing that. They grew up in those trucks with me when we had no money. You go back with Ashley, 25 years ago, I didn't have a pot to piss in.

“What I am saying is Haddock is doing it. If the economy gets worse, Haddock will survive while others will fail.”

Force should know, when others failed, he survived.

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