Force Makes it a Hat Trick
John Force beat Tommy Johnson Jr. in the final round of the 17th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts Summer Nationals Sunday and, in the process, opened up a 127-point lead in his bid for a record 14th NHRA Funny Car Championship.
In winning for the third consecutive week, Force put together a solid series of 4.80 second quarter miles – 4.858, 4.806, 4.839 and 4.809.
The victory was the 118th of Force’s spectacular career and his eighth at Heartland Park-Topeka and, like the last two, it came after only a so-so qualifying performance. Starting his Castrol GTX Start Up Ford Mustang only seventh in the 16-car lineup, the 12-time Auto Racing All-America selection took out Jeff Arend in round one, teammate Eric Medlen in round two and Ron Capps in the semifinals.
The race with Medlen was the only one that gave the veteran a scare. He won with a time of 4.806 seconds, the best of eliminations. Medlen, who had qualified second in the Castrol SYNTEC Mustang, trailed in 4.818 seconds.
It was the second time in his career that Force has won three races in three weeks; the 14th time he has won three consecutive NHRA tour events.
Robert Hight, who led the qualifying in the Team Castrol/Automobile Club of Southern California Ford, reached the semifinals before a loss of traction and a supercharger malfunction put him out against Johnson. Nevertheless, the runaway leader in the 2005 rookie-of-the-year race moved up to No. 2 in points behind his teammate, boss and father-in-law.
“Robert and Eric both had stronger cars than me today,” Force said, “but me and Coil and Bernie (crew chiefs Austin Coil and Bernie Fedderly) have been doing this a long time. Against Eric, that was a close race. I was on oxygen before the round ‘cause these young kids, they go after you. We just barely beat him.”
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