Team Force leader and father John Force summed up the day outside the Pacific Raceways press center as well as his feeling seeing his youngest daughter grab her first win. She is only 125 national event victories behind the winningest driver in NHRA history, but he is happy she got just one.
“It (her win) was a rush. It is a moment of emotion where you want to scream and cry at the same time. These are little kids that I watched them grow up and her mother raise. To see them 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,” said the 14-time world champion.

Top Alcohol Funny Car racer Doug Gordon shared the winner’s circle with Force, notching his first national event win of the year. Gordon, a resident of Morro Bay, Calif., qualified his Monte Carlo in the No. 4 spot and made progressively quicker runs throughout eliminations. In the second round he beat four-time Northwest division champ Brian Hough and in the semifinals he faced off against former Pacific division champion Steve Gasparrelli.
Gordon made his best run of the weekend in the final against Roger Bateman, Calgary, Alb. He laid down a 5.572-second, 258.91 mph pass in the final, which was more than enough to cover Bateman’s Mustang, which slowed to a 9.047-second run. Gordon was runner-up earlier this year at the Winternationals and Bateman was runner-up at the national event in Las Vegas.

Comp Eliminator racer Tom Mettler of Bakersfield, Calif., scored the win in his ’01 Dakota, beating out Craig Schuck of Springfield, Ore. Mettler ran 7.416/168.35 to a 7.395/176.84 for Schuck’s dragster.