Drag Racing | Funny Car driver ready to race in Kent despite car-safety concerns

The uncharacteristic silence of 14-time world champion Funny Car driver John Force is over.

Although Force races at more than 300 mph and usually talks even faster, he had little or nothing to say following the tragic death of competitor Scott Kalitta last month.

Force, the grizzled face of the sport, remained mute even after the NHRA took the unprecedented step of temporarily shortening races by 320 feet from the traditional quarter mile to 1,000 feet.

"Out of respect for the Kalitta family I decided just to be quiet," Force said in a rapid-fire interview earlier this week. "This has torn all of our lives apart."

The shorter racetrack, designed to both slow the cars and give them additional stopping room, was implemented in Denver last week and will remain in place at Pacific Raceways in Kent when the 21st annual Schuck's NHRA Nationals begins with qualifying Friday.

After eight years without a fatality, Kalitta was the third NHRA driver to die in the past four years.

Darrell Russell, a former rookie of the year and a rising star, was killed in a Top Fuel dragster in June 2004 after a blowout of a rear tire. Force driver and teammate Eric Medlen died in a testing accident on March 23, 2007. Kalitta died June 21 when an explosion at the finish line damaged the parachute designed to stop the car. It jumped the sand pit at the end of the track in Englishtown, N.J., and hit a camera boom still going 275 mph.

Force became a zealous advocate for safety after Medlen's death, spending his own time and money to help engineer several key changes to the roll bar and chassis of Funny Cars. Those changes quite possibly saved his own life when he suffered a horrific crash near Dallas last September.

"When I lost somebody, I woke up," Force said. "I thought we were untouchable. Boy, was I stupid. We worked with Ford and the NHRA, and we built a better race car. The roll cage that we developed based on what happened to Eric saved my life."

Force figures he's about 80 percent recovered from his accident. He now has three permanent screws holding his right ankle in place and a 12-inch scar covers his right knee. Although he has regained the 30 pounds he lost, his hands aren't as strong after several fingers were broken. He spent 27 days in the hospital and still requires regular physical therapy.

Ironically, Force, 59, believes the crash might have lengthened his career by at least five years.

"I haven't drank any alcohol since then and I go to the gym seven days a week," Force said. "I didn't realize it, but I was losing it.

"I'm not the same guy who would drink coffee all day and beer all night. To compete with these guys at my age, I have to be in shape. I don't want to live on the edge anymore."

For now, Force supports the NHRA's decision to shorten the race tracks.

"We can't keep losing drivers," Force said. "Give [NHRA president] Tom Compton credit for making a decision. We have to fix these problems and still give the fans a show. They're the reason we're here.

"Our sport has evolved over the last 30 years. The tracks can't contain us any more. When we're pushing 350 mph, they're too short. It's just my opinion, but we put on a good show in Denver and we need more races to evaluate it."

Force is sixth in the Funny Car points championship race this season. He won for the 126th time in his career at the O'Reilly Summer Nationals in Topeka, Kan., on June 1, the win coming more than 32 years after his first victory.

"There was a time when I drove a race car on fire and safety wasn't even an issue," Force said. "After we lost Eric, safety became the top priority. Now winning and safety are side by side. I believe we can have both. Mentally, I'm ready to race for the championship again."

While Force feels no fear when he climbs into his 7,000- horsepower Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang, that emotion is overwhelming when daughter Ashley Force, 25, climbs into her Funny Car.

Ashley Force became the first woman to win a Funny Car race earlier this year when she beat her dad in the finals in Atlanta on April 27. She will arrive in Seattle late this week because she attended the taping of the ESPY awards in Los Angeles after being nominated for an award that recognizes athletes for unique sports accomplishments.

Father and daughter both ran into problems at Pacific Raceways last year during Ashley's rookie season. In the quarterfinals, she veered left and drove head-on into the wall. While Ashley suffered only a sprained thumb, John Force needed time in an ambulance after hyperventilating.

Force recovered in time to race in the final, but suffered his own misfortune when his car was engulfed in flames after engine failure in a loss to Jack Beckman.

Force figures he has at least five years of racing left, and he will then hand over the keys to one of his other daughters, either Courtney or Brittany, both Super Comp drivers.

All four of Force's Mustangs are in the top 10 in Funny Car points.

Robert Hight is second behind leader Tim Wilkerson. Ashley Force is fourth, John Force is sixth and Mike Neff is ninth.

"We're going to fix these problems and still put on a show," Force said. "The fans have my word on that."