In what’s been a tumultuous season for Brittany Force and John Force Racing, the pairing bounced back in a big way Monday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Force, who hadn’t won a race since the series’ fall visit to The Strip two years ago, completed a memorable weekend as she topped defending Top Fuel champion Doug Kalitta in the finals, capping off a weekend where she was also the No. 1 qualifier.
“This is definitely a special one and always be a special one in our book,” Force began. “Not just for me, but all of John Force Racing. It’s been a difficult season for us all. I’ve been out of the winner’s circle for two years since this event here in Vegas, two years ago.
“So, I felt good coming into this race, our team’s really been pushing hard and we’ve been seeing the progress on the track. I had a good feeling about today.”
Force’s Funny Car teammate and Countdown to the Championship points leader, Austin Prock, won for the eighth time this season to give JFR a double victory.
It was a picture-perfect day for the three-car operation as the team’s leading man, 16-time Funny Car champion John Force, was back at the track with a watchful eye after injuries suffered in a brutal crash that kept him from the track for nearly five months.
“To be able to celebrate with him in the winner’s circle and to double up, this is one of the biggest wins in our camp for sure,” Brittany Force beamed.
Force’s win certainly wasn’t easy, despite Kalitta smoking the tires at the hit of the throttle.
Following bleak conditions on the race track on Sunday due to cold weather and a lengthy clean-up from a crash, NHRA postponed the remaining portion of the event to late Monday morning.
The wait was agonizing for Force as the two-time Top Fuel champ had to mentally reassert herself into race mode the following day.
“It’s hard to get back in race mode,” Force began. “For me it was, ‘You have to find it, you’ve got to get back into that race mode.’ We’re pulling up and its feeling like the first run of the day, but it’s a final round.
“It’s a big one, there’s a win on the line. So, you have to mentally prepare, you have to mentally get yourself back there. Just put all the noise out, pull it up there. Stay confident, this whole team was confident.
“We had lane choice and again, I just felt good about this weekend, I felt good about today.”
Once Force was mentally prepared, all that was left to do was mash on the gas and hold her dragster straight.
“Stepped on the thing, took it down there, it was smooth, it had its usual chatter which we’ve been looking at all weekend long,” Force said. “I didn’t see Doug next to us and I saw our win light. Got on the radio, talking to my guys.
“Just absolutely pumped, excited and it was an emotional one.”