Profile
Once it became clear that Ashley, now 25, Brittany, 20, and Courtney, 19, were serious about becoming racers, Force and his tightly knit John Force Racing, based in Yorba Linda, California, mapped out a methodical strategy to transform each of them into competitive racing drivers.
Thus far, Brittany and Courtney have done their racing in the Super Comp class, a sportsman-level category dominated by gasoline-fueled V8-powered dragsters that cover the quarter-mile in less than 9.0 seconds at close to 160 mph. Meanwhile, Ashley graduated from Super Comp in 2005 to Top Alcohol Dragster, 2,000-horsepower machines that ring up 5.0-second elapsed times and trap speeds of 270 mph. After a successful 2006 season, she's made the leap to nitromethane-fueled Funny Cars this year.
The leap did not go unnoticed by the media, including mainstream outlets. Once drag-racing's winningest driver put his college-educated daughter (California State University at Fullerton) into the driver seat of an 8,000-horsepower, 330-mph Ford Mustang, it ignited countless network television interviews, a fusillade of magazine features, and perhaps most notably, a weekly reality series on the A&E network, Driving Force.
"It's very exciting," beams Ashley. "One thing has led to another and sometimes the pace and the demands of driving the car, learning what I need to learn and taking care of the commitments that go along with what we do can be tiring. But my dad has been doing it a lot longer than I have, and it helps to know he's not asking me or anyone else to do something he can't."
|
