Force is taking off with 6,000 horsepower behind him!
Doing his famous 1,000 foot burnout!
Behind the car as he is doing his burnout!
Ford Mustang #1
Primary Sponsor: Castrol GTX
Team: John Force Racing
Crew Chief: Austin Coil
HOMETOWN: Yorba Linda, CA
BIRTHDATE: 5/4/1949
SPOUSE: Laurie
CHILDREN: Adria, Ashley, Brittany and Courtney
If John Force didn't exist, drag racing would have had to invent him. The most prolific winner in NHRA history with 99 tour victories, the popular Californian almost single-handedly kept the sport afloat in the 1990s when the only thing consistently faster than his mouth was his 320 mile-an-hour Castrol GTX® Funny Car.
Eleven times in the last twelve seasons, Force has been the NHRA's unchallenged champion both on and off the track. He lost the title only in 1992 when Cruz Pedregon overtook him by winning five of the season's last six races.
He is the only drag racer ever named Driver of the Year for all of American motor racing, the result of an incredible 1996 season in which he put his 6,000 horsepower hybrid in the final round 16 times in 19 races, won 13 event titles and posted a 65-6 record in individual competition.
He's the only drag racer ever considered for one of ESPN's Espy Awards, earning runner-up honors as both the Driver of the Year (1999) and Driver of the Decade.
With eight straight NHRA Funny Car titles to his credit, the 52-year-old drag racing icon has shown no signs of slowing the breakneck pace that for more than a decade has left rivals reeling in his wake.
His Castrol GTX Mustang is the world's quickest Funny Car at 4.731 seconds elapsed time. His Auto Club of Southern California Mustang, driven by teammate Gary Densham, is the world's fastest 326.87 mph.
While he always has possessed the sport's fastest mouth, it wasn't until he hired Austin Coil to turn the wrenches, that his career really took off. Their partnership, which began in 1985, has been the most productive in history, more successful than Sox and Martin, Candies and Hughes, Reher and Morrison, any pairing one might want to suggest.
Force's success in straight-line racing belies his early years on the tour, years of on-track futility and off-track vaudeville.
With no license, no sponsor and no clue, Force used a tax refund check and the money gleaned from an organ his mother-in-law won on television to buy a Vega Funny Car from his late uncle, Gene Beaver. He then hustled a winter booking in Australia using a photo, which supposedly showed him racing Dale Pulde and the Mickey Thompson Pontiac at Orange County International Raceway in Irvine, Calif.
The photo was staged—while both cars were sitting still. In reality, Force hadn't driven a Funny Car until he showed up in Australia where, by pure accident, he became the first to break the 200 mile an hour barrier.
Once back in the states, Force wanted nothing more than to compete. Becoming an icon was the last thing on his mind. In his first 65 pro starts, he reached the final round nine times -- but never made it to the winners' circle.
His fortunes began to turn in 1985. With Castrol's arrival as principal sponsor and his hiring of Coil, the pieces were in place for what would become a decade of domination.
Force qualified No. 1 for the first time in 1986, a year in which he reached the finals three times and finished fourth in the Winston driver standings. A year later, he drove his Castrol GTX hybrid to victory at the NHRA Grandnational at Montreal, Canada and, in 1990, set a standard he would maintain through the decade when he won seven times en route to his first series title.
The only blemish? That 1992 season when he had to settle for second place. He didn't like it. Still doesn't and, as long as that fire burns, he will remain the sport's irresistible force.
Force is taking off with 6,000 horsepower behind him!
Doing his famous 1,000 foot burnout!
Behind the car as he is doing his burnout!