COURTNEY FORCE FOLLOWS FAMILY TRADITION
Seldom does life, let alone drag racing, go according to plan. In Courtney Force's case, it didn't.However, the 21-year-old daughter of 14-time Funny Car champion John Force and youngest sister of class contender Ashley Force, isn't complaining.
Now that she has earned her first National Hot Rod Association victory, beating fellow Los Angeles-area resident Chris Demke in the final round of the sportsman-level Top Alcohol Dragster class at last Sunday's Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways, Courtney Force has an even stronger craving for the sport.
Seldom does life, let alone drag racing, go according to plan. In Courtney Force's case, it didn't.
However, the 21-year-old daughter of 14-time Funny Car champion John Force and youngest sister of class contender Ashley Force, isn't complaining.
Now that she has earned her first National Hot Rod Association victory, beating fellow Los Angeles-area resident Chris Demke in the final round of the sportsman-level Top Alcohol Dragster class at last Sunday's Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways, Courtney Force has an even stronger craving for the sport.
Force said her classes at Cal State Fullerton were supposed to prepare her for that moment. But she found herself in the winners circle and answering questions about defeating sister Brittany in the semifinal, about Dad and Mom, about the pressure to win, and even about Feng Shui.
She handled it all with the same composure, the same excitement tempered with graciousness, that has made Ashley Force Hood a sensation, even endearing to her on-track rivals.
The media and fans know that the Force family speaks from the heart. And the youngest of the clan followed form last Sunday.
"We're used to having Dad or Ashley take home the trophy for our team -- or Robert (teammate and brother-in-law Hight). It's weird that I'm actually taking it home," she said.
"This year my goal was to get past first round. So I'm pretty shocked."
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
 |
Click to visit our sponsor's website
She'll get over that feeling quickly, especially if, as she indicated, she wants to be a fulltime professional drag racer.
"It's hard to say I've completely (decided), " she said Sunday evening. "I'm still going to school, but I'm going to school just as a back-up plan. I'm planning on majoring in Communications and Entertainment Studies, hoping to help me with this exact situation. I was hoping to be graduated before having to deal with this. It came a lot sooner. I'm more than happy that it did.
"I'm hoping to stick with drag racing. If my dad lets me, then I'd be more than happy to stay and hopefully carry on the name," she said.
Once the satisfaction of winning sank in a couple of days later, Courtney Force said, "My ultimate goal is to eventually go pro, but there is no rush, because I want to finish college and get my degree in Communications in Entertainment Studies first.
"However, I don't know if it will be in a Funny Car or a Dragster -- just as long as I get the opportunity to race. I love Top Alcohol Dragster and still need more seat time and experience before I could even think about going pro, but I hope someday I will be able to reach this goal. I have about a year and a half left in college at this point, before I could start thinking about it," she said.
"I'm lucky enough now that I've been able to team up with Sanyo, Brand Source, and the Ford Fiesta Movement, because it has educated me on the work and opportunities involved in what it takes to become a pro like my sister Ashley and what it can possibly bring in the future," Force said.
Courtney Force is on the threshold of a promising career. It isn't lost on her that team owner and crew chief Jerry Darien helped prepare such standouts as Brandon Bernstein, Morgan Lucas, Melanie Troxel, Gary Scelzi, and, of course, sister Ashley.
Still, her mother, Laurie, can remember when Courtney Force and her sisters would become confused about the drag racing process, asking, "Is this the day that Daddy brings home the trophy?" Perhaps her mind raced back to the days when her little girls proudly cherished the dolls that their daddy brought them various racing trips when they had to stay home in Yorba Linda, Calif., and tend to school.
So for Laurie Force, Sunday's outcome was stunning, for she said about her younger two daughters, "Until a few races back, they barely ever got by first round."
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
 |
Click to visit our sponsor's website
John Force, though, years ago called Courtney "my wild child." Going on nothing more than a father's instinct, he said when she was still in elementary school that he knew that this one of his four daughters for certain would want to become a drag racer.
And she has shown her seriousness, swearing off visits to the beach this summer and declaring, "Weekend after weekend we're at the racetrack -- I love being at the racetrack!"
For years she has teased her father, recalling his crazy parenting. She giggled at the memories of him letting her and her sisters play hooky from school and go to Universal Studios or some other indulgent theme park, simply because he had been gone from home too long and wanted to spend time with them. She laughed at the times he would come home from a race, keyed up, and would jump up and down on the beds with them and watch cartoons.
She also remembered "earning" some extra spending money from the occasions when her dad would pay her and her sisters, handsomely and inappropriately, to be quiet when he needed to concentrate on business. Or how about the time he pulverized their McDonald's Happy Meal treats by stomping on the toys because they were little, plastic Cruz Pedregon Funny Cars (before he realized what he was doing)?
Those goofy memories are the kind of incidents in every family legacy. (Besides, no one was any worse for the wear. Hardly -- she and her sisters visited other friends' homes as they were growing up and concluded, their mother said, that "we're glad we're not normal. Those kids had to eat their vegetables.")
Bottom line (as her dad is fond of saying): Courtney Force clearly loves her father and has come to appreciate everything he sacrificed and everything he taught her and shared with her about the sport she so dearly loves as much as he does.
"I want to dedicate this trophy to my dad," Courtney Force said, "because he has helped me through all of this. And he never stopped, never gave up on us. I just want him to know I really appreciate everything he has done. I hope he's proud that I finally got him a win so it was worth his while."
Said her father Sunday, "It's a moment . . . where you want to scream and cry at the same time."
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
 |
Click to visit our sponsor's website
He said it was emotional to see his daughters "come out in a sport that I have loved my whole life and I gave everything to. I wanted my children all to feel what I felt. Even if they don't stay in the sport, to know one time the feeling of the greatest show on earth, NHRA Drag Racing . . . Courtney got a taste of that today."
Laurie Force has accepted that drag racing, which once fractured the family, draws them closer. She said to watch her daughters "step up and take on these cars -- these animals -- out there and go rounds and do well is actually shocking. And I'm proud of all of them."
Sharing the winners circle with Antron Brown, Tim Wilkerson, and Mike Edwards was something Courtney Force said she didn't expect to happen that day.
"We've been progressing at every single race," she said Sunday, referring to Darien and his wife, Debbie Darien, as well as crew members Casey Grisel, Matt Barnette, Rian Konno, Sean Noonan, Victor Scardina, and Tom Gatlin. "We've been winning first round a lot, then going to second round. This was my third semi and my first final. So (we) weren't expecting to get a win today."
They earned it, with a come-from-behind 5.440-second, 257.83-mph run in the Sanyo Supercharged HD Dragster. Demke slowed at about 1,000 feet down the quarter-mile strip and finished with a 5.508, 218.87.
"It is unbelievable. When I saw my win light I didn't believe it at first. I thought maybe I did get the win, but I still didn't want to get my hopes up. I am just so excited," she said.
John Force and Ashley Force Hood both lost in the semifinal round Sunday, and teammates Hight and Mike Neff were eliminated by the end of the second round. Courtney Force -- no stranger to the public glare after a leading role in the reality TV series "Driving Force" on the A&E Channel -- said she heard the public-address announcer say, "It's all up to Courtney Force now. I thought, "I wish I hadn't heard that.' That is too much pressure."
But Funny Car driver Jack Beckman, her instructor at Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School, told her simply to enjoy herself. "He told me to not think about it as a final. I just went out there and had fun and happened to get a win," Force said.
"I was just holding on and going as fast as I could, hoping that this car would just pass that finish line first. I saw him right ahead of me. His car fell back. I think it (broke). I just barely caught up to him and got the win."
Courtney and Brittany Force are not scheduled to race at this weekend's FRAM/Autolite Nationals at Infineon Raceway at Sonoma, Calif. They'll take to the Northern California track at the divisional event the following weekend.
Her momentum, at least for a private instant, is tempered with the reality that drag racing truly does not always go as planned.
"I head toward Sonoma with mixed emotions. There were many years I watched my dad win races at this track as a kid, which were fun times. But with the loss of Eric Medlen in 2007, it makes it hard, because I always remember filming our TV show while visiting the wineries and spa with him and my dad, riding horses, and roping cattle. Eric won Sonoma and I know how happy it made him and me. Having our team get a win in Sonoma this year would really make it special."
| {loadposition feedback} |
