Force Breaks To 120th Victory
June 13 - John Force rallied from a series of near misses this season to win the ninth annual CARQUEST Auto Parts Nationals at Route 66 Raceway and move to within 48 points of pacesetting Ron Capps in the race for the 2006 NHRA POWERade Funny Car Championship.
In winning for the 120th time in his legendary career, Force extended to 20 the number of consecutive seasons in which he has won at least one NHRA national event. The 13-time series champion had come up short in four previous final round appearances this season, losing to Capps in three of those finales.
It was a spectacular day not only for Force, but for John Force Racing, which advanced all three of its Mustangs to the semifinals befoe Force dispatched protégé and son-in-law Robert Hight in a final round in which both drivers were slowed by broken supercharger drive belts.
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Force, drag racing’s biggest winner, won for the first time since last September by pushing the Castrol GTX Ford through the quarter mile timers in 4.930 seconds to beat Hight’s slightly quicker 4.890. It was the first all-Castrol final since last August when Eric Medlen beat Force in the final round at Brainerd, Minn.
Appearing in the 192nd final round of his career and his fifth of the current season, Force beat Tony Bartone in round one, evened his career record to 8-8 against Phil Burkart Jr. In round two and beat teammate Eric Medlen, driver of the Castrol SYNTEC Ford, in the semifinals.
While the Team Castrol Funny Cars were advancing the to semifinals and beyond, Ashley Force recorded the quickest quarter mile of her brief career (5.229 seconds) before losing to Sean O’Bannon in the Top Alcohol Dragster semifinals.
For the first time this year, neither of the Team Castrol Fords started from the No. 1 qualifying position. Medlen was the highest qualified of the three, starting from the No. 3 position while Hight starter fourth and Force seventh.
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