Drag Racing Notebook | Rough weekend of NHRA racing for John Force's team

KENT — It was a lost weekend for John Force and his Funny Car race team.

After failing to qualify Saturday to end a streak of 20 straight years racing in the finals here, Force met with his entire, four-car team in a closed-door meeting for more than two hours.

Sunday wasn't much better.

Daughter Ashley Force was knocked out in the first round by Cruz Pedregon.

Robert Hight, the top qualifier here three straight years, beat points leader Tim Wilkerson in the opening round, then was eliminated by Tony Pedregon in the second.

Force driver Mike Neff beat Bob Tasca III in the opening round, then lost to eventual champion Tony Bartone in Round 2.

And that ended the day for John Force, the winningest driver in the history of the sport who has collected seven of his 126 Funny Car wins at Pacific Raceways.

"I still got that fight left at 59 years old, and we're going to find our way out of this," he said. "We're not the car we used to be, but we're going to be OK. We found some gremlins in our race cars and we're going to fix them."

Force, who won once earlier this season, was the only Funny Car not to make the field.

"When there's only one guy out, you don't even have anyone who you can go cry on their shoulders with during the first round," Force said. "I was terrible last night and terrible this morning, but I ain't going to let life get me down."

After Force driver Eric Medlen was killed in March 2007 and Force nearly died in a horrific crash last September, safety trumped winning.

"Safety was all we cared about since Eric and my crash, and in the process you can't stay ahead of the game doing that," said Force, who spent months in rehabilitation after his accident. "We're back in the game; we're not back where we need to be. I ain't going to let this world get me down."

Wilkerson still tops

Despite a loss in the first round, Wilkerson remains the points leader in the Funny Car standings.

He has four wins this season, one short of his career total entering this season.

"I'm pleasantly surprised with the season," Wilkerson said. "We're seeing a lot of consistency from our car and our crew. We have a good chance of not going backward, but these cars are very fickle."

Despite his success, Wilkerson has a new car in the works and may unveil it as early as September.

"I may change, it depends on how I'm running," he said. "It's hard to convince yourself when things are going well."

Schumacher team wins 111th race

Don Schumacher Racing, which fields four Funny Cars and two Top Fuel dragsters, won for the 111th time when Tony Schumacher won the Top Fuel championship.

All six of Schumacher's race teams qualified to race on Sunday, with Ron Capps and Tony Schumacher making it to the final.

Cory McClenathan reached the quarterfinals, "Fast Jack" Beckman made it to the second round, and Gary Scelzi and Jerry Tolliver lost in the opening round.

Beckman, the winner here in 2007, is a cancer survivor who underwent six months of chemotherapy. He thinks about the disease as little as possible and now visits the doctor every six months for a checkup.

"I feel awesome," he said. "It's nice not to have to go in every month because your brain is never more than two weeks away from thinking about it. Now it's on the back burner."

Tacoma driver wins Super Stock race

Mark Faul of Tacoma won the super stock race with a speed of 126.80 mph.

Other area winners were Mike Lewis of Bonney Lake in the stock eliminator division, and Curt Geise of Auburn in the Super Gas class.