with Ashley Force Hood

 
 
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
 

Every month Ashley Force Hood is going to give us a brief look into the John Force Racing teams as seen from her perspective.  She will talk about interesting things she saw that relate to traveling to a race, events at a race or interesting fans or situations encountered along the way! 

Keep in mind Ashley’s schedule is normally very hectic, but she has committed to giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the wacky world of drag racing.


John Force Racing - News

3-16-09

Gainesville Blog

This week we were in Gainesville, Florida and it was our first race of the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Race Season on the east coast so as expected we had a really great turnout! The fans here were super excited to be at the track and the weather was beautiful so we couldn’t ask for more during our race weekend.

We struggled our first day of qualifying hurting our motor both runs though fortunately making full passes and getting safely into the field at #6. Our car usually is pretty happy after every run so we were a little bummed that it was giving us such trouble this weekend. That’s drag racing though! Fortunately, on Saturday things turned around for us. We made two really strong passes- a 4.16 and a 4.12- and ran the best in the field in both sessions. It was really warm that day too so this gave us a lot of confidence going into race day because we knew that no matter the conditions and whether it cooled down a little or stayed hot, we had a tune up ready for both and the car would go.

We obviously want to do well at every event but we especially wanted to do well this weekend for a few special reasons. First, our close friends, the Popa family, were all here for the race. My sisters and I grew up with their kids Ashley and Brandon, and our parents are close friends with their parents Phil and Sharon. They are from Florida and always come out for this event so we’d have loved to have ended the day in a winner’s circle with them! It was also a birthday weekend for John Medlen and my crew chief Dean (Guido) Antonelli, so we really wanted to bring wins home in honor of their birthdays!

First round we matched up against Cruz Pedregon. It was a good race and we got the win! Unfortunately second round against Mat Hagen was also a very close side by side race where we came up a little bit short at the end. We both ran 4.17 and even though we didn’t win it was a good run for us especially factoring in the hot weather and many of the cars smoking the tires through out the day. Dad went on to the semi final round but lost to fellow Ford Mustang driver Bob Tasca. Though the weekend didn’t end up as we hoped we made some good passes and are now looking ahead to our next event in Houston, Texas. It was a beautiful weekend in Gainesville, Florida and a great day of racing for the fans so you can’t get any better than that!