FUNNY CAR

(Jeff Burk photo)

John Force, the winningest driver in NHRA history, defeated long-time rival Jack Beckman in a final for the ages taking the win light by .013 seconds or six feet to capture his 136th career Funny Car title. This was Force’s sixth final round in the last twelve races and his first win with crew chief Jimmy Prock.

“You have to start with Jimmy Prock but it is the brain trust. Jimmy gave me a good hot rod,” said Force, a three-time winner at Gateway Motorsports Park. “I was losing some races but Robert [Hight] worked in that cockpit with me to get me comfortable. I have been guilty of getting overloaded and not focusing on my race car. Now I have people like Just Marketing, Octagon, and Rogers & Cowan working for me so I can focus on winning. You have to live this race car every day.”

Force moved into second place in the Mello Yello Funny Car point standings just six points behind points leader Matt Hagan. This is the highest Force and the Castrol GTX team has been in the point standings since Force won his 15th Funny Car championship in 2010.

Earlier this year Force won at Bristol’s Thunder Valley Raceway with Mike Neff as his crew chief but since that win on Father’s Day the 15-time Funny car champion has been shut out of the winner’s circle.

“It has been a little bit of a drought since we won in Bristol earlier this year. Robert said when we made the switch that these guys are great guys and they are unbelievable. He said when Jimmy Prock get hot he will get fast,” said Force. “The whole brain trust has been working together from Mike Neff to Ron Douglas, Dean Antonelli, John Medlen and Dan Hood to get these Funny Car running. We are working as a team and it is really cool.”

Force started the day taking out rookie Chad Head in the first round before dispatching Ron Capps in the second round. In the semi-finals for the second race in a row he had to race teammate and son-in-law Robert Hight. For the second race in a row he also took out Hight.
In the final Force was racing Jack Beckman who has had the upper hand on Force for most of his career. Beckman has a commanding 21-8 record against Force. They are now 2-2 in final rounds. Force has never lost to Beckman at Gateway Motorsports Park, with a 2-0 record now.