John Force is driven by emotion.

Admittedly the 15-time champion was emotional on Thursday afternoon when he made his first qualifying run at the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, CA. For the first time since 1986, Force was racing without his longtime crew chief, tuner, and voice of reason, Austin Coil.

“I love Austin and Bernie’s [Fedderly] been talking to him this week,” said Force. “You know he always talks to Guido [Dean Antonelli] and Robert [Hight] and we just haven’t talked.”

Coil announced his resignation from the team just days after the John Force Racing team captured an improbable 2011 world championship by overtaking Matt Hagan at the last race of the season. The two haven’t spoken since.

 

John Force is driven by emotion.

Admittedly the 15-time champion was emotional on Thursday afternoon when he made his first qualifying run at the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, CA. For the first time since 1986, Force was racing without his longtime crew chief, tuner, and voice of reason, Austin Coil.

“I love Austin and Bernie’s [Fedderly] been talking to him this week,” said Force. “You know he always talks to Guido [Dean Antonelli] and Robert [Hight] and we just haven’t talked.”

Coil announced his resignation from the team just days after the John Force Racing team captured an improbable 2011 world championship by overtaking Matt Hagan at the last race of the season. The two haven’t spoken since.

Coil cited his decision for the resignation as financially motivated. Force said he was forced to cut salaries last year with decreased sponsorship monies.

“Part of how we were going to survive [is that] we had to cut wages,” Force lamented. “And number two the biggest guys on the top, the crew chiefs, are the ones that took the biggest hit so we could survive.”

Force did say Coil’s reasons were strictly business, and he could respect that. He’s just glad the decision wasn’t health related.

“I think he just wanted a break to do that bucket list,” Force speculated. “He promises me he’s not sick and he wants to run his race car with his wife Lisa. I just want to respect that. I’ve had nights where I want to drive over and see him but when a man looks you in the face and says he’ll call you then I have to respect that.

“No one will ever replace Austin Coil; Dean Antonelli is a kid that trained under Austin for 15 years and there’s one reason why I’ve made that change.”

With Coil’s departure and daughter Ashley Force-Hood on maternity leave, Force felt the best way to adjust to both emotionally tough hits was to drive the same car his daughter drove and Antonelli tuned.

“I had emotional reasons to drive my kid’s car and keep that team well until she decides to come back,” he said. “I wanted to be with Dean Antonelli because he’s the closest thing to Austin Coil as I get.”

Don’t think for a moment that Force, a seasoned veteran of drag racing, who graduated with honors from the sport’s school of hard knocks, wasn’t misty-eyed just before the car fired for the first run on Thursday. Old habits are hard to break.

“I don’t want to be corny; Coil will say that son of a gun is making movies trying to get media attention again,” Force explained. “But you can ask my team when we were about to run on Thursday I yelled I love you Austin Coil. I love him and I’m going to respect him, I have to move on now and do other things. He’ll always be with me and that’s just who I am. He made John Force and there’s no doubt about that. Shirley Muldowney said John would be nothing without Austin Coil; well I wouldn’t argue that.

“Nobody is a one man band; it was John Force, Austin Coil, Bernie Fedderly, Robert Hight, Dean Antonelli, and all the people that worked on that team that made that car a championship car plus Mike Neff for the number 15. I didn’t come here just to win championships, I came here to be with my family and to be with the crowds and to race for Castrol, Ford, Auto Club, Mac Tools and it goes on.”

However, if Coil were to reconsider his decision, would Force take him back?

“I don’t know if he would call,” said Force. “I’d have to address Austin Coil and my team because the biggest thing was I had to move different people into different positions. I’d have to change the money. I might not have the money to pay him what I used to pay him. I can tell you we’d definitely sit down and talk about it because he’s my friend and he helped get me here. But sometimes money is a part of that double edged sword and I don’t know if I’d have enough because he deserves more than what I was paying him. He’s already had offers for some major companies [teams] – I know.”

 

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