For those who dont follow NHRA!!

[OBI WAN]

I'm and avid fan of NHRA racing so I'll share a little story of the man thats #1.

JOHN FORCE
12-Time POWERade Champion
Although he has exhibited extraordinary skill as a team owner, one whose Funny Cars have won the last 11 NHRA POWERade Series Championships, John Force still derives his greatest pleasure from the few seconds in which he is strapped into the cockpit of his 7,000 horsepower Castrol GTX Start Up Ford Mustang.
"I still love the driving," Force said in the midst of his quest for an unprecedented 13th individual title.
Coming off a season in which he won "just" three times and finished further back in the driver standings (No.3) than he had in 14 seasons," drag racing's most prolific winner is determined to fight his way back to the top, primarily because there are those who have suggested that, at age 55, he's past his prime.
"As long as I can do this without hurting my team, I'm going to do it. It's not like you have to drive around for hours. It's like sex," suggested the 111-time tour winner, tongue planted firmly-in-cheek. "You only have to do it for five seconds."
With Castrol GTX® Start Up - the oil that provides "protection from the moment you turn the key" - in place as the newest sponsor of his 329 mile per hour Mustang, Force is poised to drive back to the top of the standings despite the most competitive Funny Car race in the last 12 years.
"We made a lot of changes last year," Force said, "and we just never got on a roll like we have in the past. I spent too much time trying to figure out the new (LED) lights (in the Christmas Tree starting system) and my Crew Chiefs, Austin Coil and Bernie Fedderly, spent too much time on a new chassis and a new combination.
"When we looked up, everybody was ahead of us and we never caught up."
"Catching up" is something Force rarely has had to do in the 19 years since Castrol came on board as his principal sponsor.
Significantly, even though he surrendered his points title to teammate Tony Pedregon, who subsequently left to form his own team, Force remains the sport's unchallenged champion off the track where he has won the rabid support of millions of blue collar Americans captivated by his self-effacing charm, non-stop banter and unexpected accessibility.
The sport's most dominant personality, Force sells more souvenirs, conducts more interviews, signs more autographs, breaks more records and wins more often than anyone else, past or present. He is, for instance, the only drag racer ever named Driver of the Year for all of American motor racing, the result of a spectacular 1996 season in which he reached the final round in 16 of 19 events with 13 victories.
If there is a rival to Tiger Woods in total domination of one sport, it is Force. Named by the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association to 10 straight Auto Racing All-America teams, an accomplishment achieved by no other race car driver from Richard Petty to Mario Andretti to Steve Kinser, Force last year gave up the NHRA Funny Car title for the first time in 11 seasons.
However, losing the title id nothing to tarnish the former truck driver's reputation. After all, the team's 13 championships in 14 seasons is an accomplishment never before achieved in motorsports - or in any sport, for that matter.
By comparison, the Boston Celtics won eight straight NBA basketball championships. The New York Yankees won five straight World Series titles. The Montreal Canadians won five consecutive Stanley Cups. Michael Schumacher has won four consecutive Formula 1 driving titles.
In an era of sports parity, Force has created a dynasty.
Of course, while Force always has possessed the sport's fastest mouth, it wasn't until he hired Crew Chief Austin Coil that his car and his career really took off. Their partnership, which began in 1985, has been the most productive in history, more successful than Sox and Martin, Candies and Hughes, Reher and Morrison or any other.
Coil has engineered every one of Force's career wins, every NHRA series championship, each of his 10 "special event" victories. However, neither ever could have accomplished individually what they have together. Force's success in straight-line racing belies his early years on the tour, years of on-track futility and off-track vaudeville.
"Anything for gas money to the next race," Force has said. "Anything" included dressing up as a clown for an appearance at Wendy's, with whom he had a brief sponsor relationship, and as an animated tree for a promotion at an auto dealership.
He appeared in TV ads for Wally Thor's School of Trucking and briefly considered joining his brother, Walker, in law enforcement but, he joked, "I flunked the ink blot test."
Nevertheless, all he ever really wanted to do was drag race and play football.
"I was too slow to play football in college," said the high school quarterback.
"Besides, I kept falling over until they figured out that one leg was shorter than the other (the result of a childhood bout with polio). So that left drag racing."
With no license, no sponsor and no clue, Force used a tax refund check and the money gleaned from an organ his mother-in-law won on television to buy a Vega Funny Car from his late uncle, Gene Beaver. He then hustled a winter booking in Australia using a photo which supposedly showed him racing Dale Pulde and the Mickey Thompson Pontiac at Orange County International Raceway in Irvine, Calif.
The photo was staged - while both cars were sitting still. In reality, Force hadn't driven a Funny Car until he showed up in Australia where, by pure accident, he became the first to break the 200 mile an hour barrier.
"I was a hero," Force said, "until the promoter figured out that we didn't know what we were doing. If it hadn't been for Gary Densham (now a teammate to Force as driver of the Automobile Club of Southern California Mustang), I probably wouldn't have gotten out alive."
Once back in the states, Force wanted nothing more than to compete. Becoming an icon was the last thing on his mind. In his first 65 pro starts, he reached the final round nine times -- but never made it to the winners' circle. His fortunes began to turn in 1985. With Castrol's arrival as principal sponsor and his hiring of Coil, the pieces were in place for what would become more than a decade of domination.
Force qualified No. 1 for the first time in 1986, a year in which he reached the finals three times and finished fourth in the Winston driver standings. A year later, he drove his Castrol GTX hybrid to victory at the NHRA Grandnational at Montreal, Canada and, in 1990, set a standard he would maintain through the decade when he won seven times en route to his first series title. He's been virtually unstoppable ever since.
In fact, he has won at least one NHRA tour event for 18 straight seasons, a streak he extended this year when he won at Bristol, Tenn., Dragway for the first time, giving him at least one tour victory at every racetrack in the NHRA POWERade Series.


Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang Funny Car
Birthdate: May 4, 1949
Residence: Yorba Linda, Calif.
Career victories: 111
Best NHRA POWERade finish: No. 1 in 1990-91, 1993-2002
Family: Wife Laurie, daughters Adria, Ashley, Brittany and Courtney.


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[OBI WAN]

His daughther!! And dam shes hot!!







Like Father; Like Daughter
Her racing pedigree notwithstanding, Ashley Force already is leaving her own mark on the drag racing landscape as driver of the 270 mile-an-hour Mattel Toy Store A/Fuel dragster owned by Jerry Darien and Ken Meadows.
Ms. Force, 21-year-old daughter of 12-time NHRA POWERade Funny Car Champion John Force, not only is winning on the track, she's doing so off track as well.
The former high school cheerleader has emerged as a fan favorite, one whose long autograph lines rival those of her famous father. Moreover, this fall, Mattel will begin marketing a Barbie-like Ashely Force doll in its retail stores in California and Texas.
Although she grew up around racing, it wasn't until she attended one of Frank Hawley's driving schools, a 16th birthday present from her father, that the California girl first entertained the thought of driving career.
The first step in her development was a two-year apprenticeship at the wheel of a Super Comp dragster built by Victory Race Cars and powered by a Ford racing engine built by Terry Kell.
This year she is taking the next step in a program that one day could land her in one of her father's Ford Mustang Funny Cars or in a Top Fuel dragster, the big brother of the car she now drives for Darien and Meadows.
For Ashley, who last year graduated from California State University-Fullerton with a Bachelor's degree in Communications, the transition from Super Comp hasn't been as difficult as she had imagined.
In fact, the toughest part of her career to date has been the change in the relationship with her father, an 11-time Auto Racing All-America selection whose consuming passion for his chosen sport is well documented.
"He's always just been my dad," Ashley said, "while everyone else sees him as the boss. Now he's my boss, too. So I've had to get used to it. He's always a step ahead.
Ashley knew things were going to be interesting the first time she expressed to her father a genuine interest in pursuing a driving career.
"Dad said as soon as I got my car, I needed to start sleeping in it," she recalled, "because I guess that's what he did when he started out. He said I should walk around with my helmet on - like people wouldn't think that was weird."
The difficulty, she acknowledges, is in achieving a balance between the racing career her father envisions and the balance upon which her mother, Laurie, insists.
"My dad's whole life has revolved around racing," she said. "My mom wants me to have a balance. 'John,' she told him, 'she still needs to have friends away from racing. She can still do things during the week. That's the kind of the struggle we're having because dad is just racing, racing, racing."
While driving the Super Comp car, Ashley's biggest moment was earning the Perfectly Strange Award from Strange Engineering for running a perfect 9.050 elapsed time during the 2003 AC/Delco Las Vegas Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a race in which she also advanced to the round of six.
This year, she's been to the final round of an NHRA national event - the Summit Racing Southern Nationals at Atlanta Ga. - and has won at the regional level in a Lucas Oil Sportsman Series race at Rusk, Texas (on June 13).
Driving for a team that developed professional stars like Brandon Bernstein and Gary Scelzi, Ashley has been the Top Alcohol Dragster division points leader for most of the season. She also is the runaway leader in the race for the South Central Division (Division 4) championship.
According to her father, she'll get at least two years of experience in the Lucas Oil Series before moving up in classification.
At Esperanza High School in Yorba Linda, Calif., Ashley's curriculum was diverse, to say the least. Although she had no driving aspirations at the time, Ashley's curriculum at Esperanza High School (Yorba Linda, Calif.) included classes in auto shop and welding.

"You have to take an elective," she said. "I could have taken Home Eck (Home Economics), which my mom said I should have because I don't know how to cook at all, (but) I thought auto would be more fun."
If her interest in auto shop and welding weren't sufficient indication to her father that she might one day want to become involved in the family business, joining older sister Adria Hight, who serves as Chief Financial Officer at John Force Racing, then certainly he got a clue when, after getting her California driver's license, she opted for a Ford F-150 pickup truck, the 4x4 model, instead of the Ford Mustang convertible he had proposed.
"She wanted a big 'ol Ford truck," smiled the sport's most prolific winner. "I'm a typical father who always wanted his son to grow up and drive his race car -- but I don't have any sons, so I always hoped one of my girls would have an interest. Ashley took auto mechanics in high school. I never even did that. And when she wanted the truck instead of the Mustang, that's when I thought she might really want to (go racing)."
As for hobbies, there's little time away from school and the racetrack although she does enjoy the company of dogs Tahoe and Dakota (for whom she really wanted the truck) and the family cat, Timber.
"For a few years during high school, I coached Pop Warner cheer. My sisters (Brittany, 17, and Courtney, 15) were on it and that was a lot of fun, but now they're both in high school and both on cheer.
"I'm a movie fanatic," she said, "just like my dad. I go at least once a week. (Of course), sometimes, he goes a couple times a day. I went with him once and he went to the first half of the movie. Then he got up and left because he told me he had already seen the last half. I think he went to see the end of something else."
One thing is certain: Force won't leave in the middle of the current movie. As the star of "Future Force," Ashley has his full attention.




2000 McKinney A-Fuel Dragster
Birthplace: Orange, CA
Current Residence: Yorba Linda, CA
Years with John Force Racing: All my Life!
Other Racing Experience: 2 Years in NHRA Super Comp Class, Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School - Alcohol Funny Car
Crew Responsibilities: Driver
Hobbies: Racing! Going to the movies and shopping!
Family: John, Laurie; Sisters: Brittany, Courtney, Adria; Dogs: Tahoe, Dakota; Cat: Timber


http://www.johnforce.com/04_pics/Ashley/pomona2/thumbs/t-0446-3091.jpg (http://www.johnforce.com/04_pics/Ashley/pomona2/medium/t-0446-3091.jpg)

[OBI WAN]

#2 Driver taking over from Tony Pendregon going on his own with his brother Cruz!







ERIC MEDLEN

Adept with One Horse or 7,000

As a high school rodeo star, Eric Medlen proved he could outperform the competition with one horse. This year, he's trying to do so with 7,000.

"It's all about horsepower," Medlen said of the similarities between the cow pony on which he used to rodeo and the Castrol SYNTEC Ford Mustang he'll drive this season for his father and Crew Chief John Medlen. "It's just a different exhaust system."

As the rookie driver of the 7,000 horsepower hybrid that last year extended to 11 the number of consecutive seasons in which a Castrol-backed Funny Car has won the NHRA POWERade Championship, Medlen may be new to the cockpit, but he certainly is not new to the pressures of competition.

In fact, before he came to work at John Force Racing as a mechanic in 1996, the 30-year-old bachelor seriously was considering a career in pro rodeo as team roping partner to 1975 World Champion Jerold Camarillo.

In fact, it was Camarillo who counseled Medlen to at least temporarily shelve a budding pro rodeo career.

"I told Jerold, 'I don't really know what to do,'" Medlen recalled. "'I kinda want to stay here and rodeo with you but I've always wanted to work with my dad, too.' Jerold said, 'well, you know, 80 per cent of World Champions in roping are 30 and older, so you can always come back and do this.

"If (a drag racing career) doesn't work out, you can come back and this will always be here, but if you pass it up, it might not ever come around again, so you've got to take your chance.' That meant a lot, because he wanted me to stay, too."

It was a life-changing decision, one that eight years later has landed Medlen in the cockpit of a car that dominated the 2003 POWERade series, winning eight races, five more than any other Funny Car including the national record-holding Castrol GTX High Mileage™ Mustang of boss and teammate John Force.

"It's unbelievable," Medlen said of the opportunity. "But to do it with John Force Racing, with my dad and with his guys, the ones who won the championship last year, it's like a fairy tale, really."

"He's a great coach," Medlen said of Force. "He told me, 'just go out there and have fun. Everything will take care of itself. Drive it with your heart. Drive it like you mean it. Don't work about anything else.'

"Having him and (Gary) Densham as coaches and to have guys like (Gary) Scelzi and (Ron) Capps and (Del) Worsham, all of them offering their support, has meant a lot."

Of course, it's not like Medlen just climbed off a horse and into one of the two quickest Funny Cars on the planet.

He was the supercharger specialist on Force's car for five seasons and the clutch specialist the last two. Furthermore, while working as a mechanic he indulged his passion for kart racing and construction.

"I always had go karts," Medlen said. "After the first year (at JFR), I wound up bringing them (to the team's primary shop facility in Yorba Linda, Calif.). I raced them some. Then I sold those and got some faster ones. Finally, I got into shifter karts. Those are some pretty serious machines. I had a couple of 125 shifters and an 80 and a nice trailer. I probably had $30,000 invested in it.

"Shifter karts were fun," Medlen said. "In the off-season, the Indy Car guys, that's what they drive to stay sharp - 120 miles per hour on the straightaway. You don't really get a sense of (that) speed. You're concentrating so much on what's going on that you don't have time to think, 'boy, those trees sure are going by fast.'

"But when I decided that I wanted to drive a Funny Car, just to see what it was like, really, I sold all that stuff, probably for 10 cents on the dollar, to raise the money just to go to Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School (in Gainesville, Fla.)."

After several trips to Hawley's school during which he made countless laps in a Top Alcohol Funny Car, Medlen got a chance to license in Mike Dakin's A/Fuel dragster. Still, driving a pro Funny Car never was a consideration.

"(Driving) was a dream I always had," Medlen said, "but you look around and you start figuring out, 'I'm not going to drive one of these things because you've either got to have 10 million dollars or you gotta be this or gotta be that. So, I guess I'll just work on 'em.' But you pay attention so much when you want to (drive). They warm the car up, you watch every single action. You think, 'man, if they ever get stuck in traffic, I could warm it up. I know how to do everything.'"

Medlen comes by his mechanical aptitude quite naturally.

His father is considered one of the most innovative mechanics in the sport and from the time he was old enough to grasp a wrench, the younger Medlen was a part of that life. He used to sweep out his dad's machine shop and when he first started driving go-karts, he was so small he needed two pillows and a pedal extender just so he could work the accelerator.

After graduating from high school in Oakdale, Calif. ("The Cowboy Capitol" of northern California), he studied mechanical engineering for three-and-a-half years at Terra Technical University in Fremont, Ohio, and for two years worked at Callies Crankshafts, Inc., as a machinist.

It was that background that landed him a position of responsibility on Force's crew.

"I liked doing the blowers (superchargers)," Medlen said. "(because) you got to be involved in development. We were the first ones to modify (the basic supercharger unit, resulting in the backset blower the team has run for the last two seasons).

"That was a little nerve wracking," Medlen said, "because (Force Crew Chief Austin) Coil brings this $8,000 blower back to me and says, 'now, listen, I want you to cut the case out, (but) don't cut it too much because it'll ruin it.'"

Medlen is confident that having a background in mechanics will be of tremendous benefit during his development as a driver.

"I think the more you know about the car itself, especially if you don't have a lot of actual driving experience, the better off you are," he said. "There's no substitute for physical driving experience, but I think the fact that I've worked on the crew for eight years, the fact that I've done a lot of different things, helps to speed up the learning curve. "Look at some of the other guys out there who are driving. Larry Dixon, the POWERade Top Fuel Champion, and Capps, who drives a Funny Car for Don Prudhomme, both used to work as mechanics. Worsham, he used to do everything on his car.

"I just hope I'm able to make the transition as well as some of those guys.

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With hid Father the #2 Force tuner looking over his shoulder!!

[OBI WAN]

#3 Driver
Gary will leave after this season and continue to try to campaign on his own with a secret little help from John Force. Who will be the new #3 driver???? Could Ashley impress her father enough this past year to take control of a TOP FUEL FUNNY?? Remains to be seen.

GARY DENSHAM
Experience Drives Title Bid
According to Gary Densham, "a bad day drag racing is better than a good day doing almost anything else." It's a philosophy that for more than 30 years has kept the 57-year-old former high school auto shop teacher at the forefront of his sport.
Now, as his four-year stint at John Force Racing speeds to a close, he is savoring the attention afforded the winner of the world's oldest, largest, richest and most prestigious single drag race, the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals contested each Labor Day at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Not only did Densham drive the Automobile Club of Southern California Ford Mustang to victory in the 50th renewal of the sport's signature event, he also won the companion Skoal Showdown bonus race, thereby joining boss and teammate John Force as one of only five Funny Car drivers ever to have "doubled-up" at Indy.
It's a defining accomplishment for the barrel-chested veteran who, unlike most of those against whom he regularly competes in the NHRA POWERade Series grew up with Funny Cars, the ill-handling, 7,000 horsepower automotive mutants that routinely accelerate from zero-to-325 miles-an-hour in just 1,320 feet.
In this age of specialization, Densham is a throwback to an era in which racing was less about money and more about individual ingenuity. Guys like Densham and Don Garlits built their own cars, tuned their own cars and then drove their own cars.
And although he revels in his newfound success with John Force Racing, Inc., which includes two tour victories in each of the last four years, Densham is not so sure that the new way necessarily is the best way.
"The first car I built was a '40 Ford with an Oldsmobile (engine) in it so I could beat up on the (Chevy) 409s and (Pontiac) GTOs that my friends from school had," Densham said. "I had a couple of carbureted cars when I started racing seriously, but in Southern California (in the 1960s), A/Gas supercharged cars were the thing. Stone, Woods and Cook and "Big John" Mazmanian.
"I actually worked a summer when I was in high school building those cars - cutting firewalls out and building frames in Anglias and Willyses. I kept track one year and Steve Plueger and I put 365 runs on our A/Gas car. We'd take it out to Lions (Drag Strip) on Wednesday night, take it somewhere else on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
"If there wasn't an A/Gas supercharged race, we'd put a little fuel (nitromethane) in it and go run Fuel Altered. We actually won quite a few of those races, not by being the fastest car, but by being the most consistent - which is still how you win today."
However, Densham could see the future and in it, no one was driving an Anglia.
"You could see (that) as neat as those cars were, the Funny Car was just going to take over," he said. "Magic in a can" was what the veteran called nitromethane, the fuel that provided the "pop" for both the Funny Cars and fuel dragsters.
For a couple seasons, he enjoyed moderate success at the wheel of a 1971 Ford Pinto Funny Car he built in his garage. Then, in 1973, he built a Dodge Challenger that would provide his first glimpse of the big-time.
"I was really proud of that car because I built it myself. Back then, we still had some cars that were half steel and half fiberglass," Densham said. "There were some of the old wide chassis still around (but my car) was a narrow roll cage configuration like we have right now. Everything was chromed, anodized and polished.
"It took about six months to build (and) it was like the second car that ever showed up with steel braided stainless (fuel) lines on the injectors. I saw (chassis builder John) Butera build a set for (Barry) Setzer's car and I said, 'man, I've gotta have some of those' because then all we had was rubber hoses flopping around.
"I can remember taking it out to Orange County (International Raceway in Irvine, Calif.) and unloading it off my little flatbed trailer and (Don) Prudhomme and (Tom) McEwen and (Raymond) Beadle (the Funny Car stars of the era) all came over and said, 'who built this car, man? This is really cool.'"
Most of today's drivers wouldn't be caught dead with a wrench in their hand, but that's the part that Densham missed the most when he came on board in 2001 as driver of the third of the JFR Mustangs, reuniting with Force with whom he had a long history.
In fact, the bond between Densham and Force was forged in another era; on another continent, even.
It was the winter of 1974 that Densham came to the aid of a young Funny Car wannabe stranded in Australia with an erratic race car, a makeshift crew and an irate promoter. That wannabe was Force who today will acknowledge that were it not for
Densham, he "might still be down there. He got us through it and got us back home."
Force never forgot and when Densham was faced with a sponsorship shortfall in 2001, Force stepped in. The veteran has responded with eight wins and three (soon to be four) Top 10 finishes.
Winless in his first 244 NHRA races and runner-up in his first six final round appearances as a Funny Car independent, Densham earned a breakthrough victory at Memphis, Tenn., in only his 17th start in the Auto Club Ford.
"There were a lot of guys who questioned Gary Densham as a driver," Force said, "but I never did. I was with him in Australia and I knew the man could drive a race car. After all the years, probably one of my biggest racing highlights was Gary winning his first race. And I don't think he's through, yet. He's still got some racing left in him."
One of the most rewarding aspects of his career is that Densham has been able to impart his experience and knowledge to a whole new generation, first as the auto shop teacher at Gahr High School in Cerritos, Calif., where he taught for 29 years, and, more recently, as a spokesman for the Auto Club in its Youth and Education initiative.
Through the Auto Club program, Densham addresses more than 60 student groups each year, encouraging youngsters to drive responsibly and to consider careers, if not in racing, then somewhere else in the automotive industry.
For most of his career, Densham not only raced out of his own pocket but did so with a volunteer crew made up largely of students and former students.
"It was really good back then because we raced primarily locally on Saturday night," Densham said. "It was a simple deal. A lot of times I'd keep the car at school so that (the students) could help. They thought it was really cool. We were just a bunch of dummies having a lot of fun. Who could know you'd be able to make a living at it?"
Now Densham is imparting his knowledge to son, Steven, who is become acclimated to a Top Alcohol Funny Car, and to new teammate Eric Medlen, who at 31 is a Funny Car rookie in the Castrol SYNTEC Ford.
"Between the two of us, we've seen it all," Densham said of himself and Force. "No matter what kind of situation (Eric) gets into, we've probably been there."

Automobile Club of Southern California Ford Mustang Funny Car
Birthdate: Oct. 20, 1946
Residence: Bellflower, Calif.
Career victories: 8
Best NHRA POWERade finish: No. 4 in 2002.
Family: Wife Joanne, son Steven.
http://www.johnforce.com/04_pics/Densham/Indy/thumbs/t-0436-5694.jpg (http://www.johnforce.com/04_pics/Densham/Indy/medium/t-0436-5694.jpg)

[OBI WAN]

Another I cheer for and shes now the #2 hottie of racing with rods justa slamming between the legs!!





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http://www.goarmy.com/assets/images/racing/hd/h1_190_mph_rocket_rider.gif http://www.goarmy.com/assets/images/racing/tmb/tmb_nhra_psb_driver_angelle.jpg

http://www.goarmy.com/assets/images/racing/hd/s1_angelle_savoie.gif Angelle Savoie left her job as an intensive care nurse to enter the world of professional racing in 1996, and she's never looked back. It didn't take long for Angelle to start turning heads at races; she won her first race in just her fourth career start. Her first year, Angelle finished seventh in points despite missing the first six events of the season. In her first full season of competition, Angelle won the 1997 All-Star Invitational and was winning the respect of her peers.

By 1999, Angelle was well on her way to her goal of claiming the national championship, but fell only eight points shy of that goal, finishing an impressive second in the final standings. Carrying this momentum in the 2000 season, Angelle earned her first NHRA World Championship crown by leading her category in wins, final rounds, and being the number-one qualifier. Angelle became only the second woman in history to claim an NHRA world title, joining Shirley Muldowney.

Angelle' s winning ways did not stop in 2001, as she once again secured the NHRA crown by collecting a remarkable 22 victories, breaking an NHRA record and becoming the winningest female in drag racing history. By 2002, Angelle had already accomplished more than most thought possible, but that didn't stop her. She once again took home the NHRA crown, making her only the second rider to win three consecutive world titles and tying Shirley Muldowney for most titles won by a female competitor.

Midway through the 2003 season, Angelle joined Don Schumacher Racing and partnered with the U.S. Army. By season's end Angelle had finished second in the points standings by winning three races and capturing three number one qualifying positions.

[OBI WAN]

HIGHT NAMED DRIVER OF AUTO CLUB OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA MUSTANG
January 19, 2005
YORBA LINDA, Calif. - Finally acknowledging one of the worst kept secrets in drag racing, John Force confirmed Thursday that his son-in-law, former crewmember Robert Hight, will bid for rookie-of-the-year honors in this year's NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series at the wheel of the Automobile Club of Southern California Ford Mustang.

"It's the changing of the guard," Force said. "With Robert and before him Eric (Medlen, driver of the Castrol SYNTEC Ford) and my daughter Ashley (a three-time winner last year in the Mattel Toy Store dragster), we're making a game plan to keep this race team on top long after I've taken my last ride.

"My main job the next six years is to win championships for Castrol, Ford and the Auto Club," Force continued, "but my other job is to help train these kids. It's an exciting time for me and I can't wait to get started."

Hight, 35, was the clutch specialist on Force's Castrol GTX Funny Car for six championship seasons beginning in 1995.

In 2001, he left the tour to become Facility Manager for John Force Racing and last season, while continuing to oversee JFR shop operations, he served as the team's official test driver. In that capacity, he logged more than 30 quarter mile runs, most of them in Monday test sessions following NHRA national events.

In fact, few rookies have been better prepared for the rigors of the pro tour. Not only is he familiar with all the mechanical aspects of a 7,000 horsepower Funny Car and with the sacrifices that must be made in pursuit of the ultimate goal, he already has made as many runs in testing as some rivals will make in a season of NHRA racing.

Under the watchful eye of crew chief Jimmy Prock and with instruction from the man he succeeds in the Auto Club Ford, Gary Densham, Hight posted several 4.70 second quarter mile times at speeds exceeding 320 miles per hour.

In addition, he already is a master of two of the disciplines most critical to drag racing success: concentration and reaction.

A champion trapshooter, Hight believes the skills he developed in mastering that sport, especially hand-eye coordination, will be a major benefit in his driving career.

Married to Force's oldest daughter, Adria, and father of the 13-time champion's
first grandchild, Hight grew up in Alturas, a town of 3,500 in northern California. He worked at Tognotti's speed shop in Sacramento while attending college and, upon graduation, began earnestly seeking a job in racing.

He first worked for Roger Primm on a Top Fuel dragster tuned by veterans Frank
Bradley and Terry Manzer and driven by Del Worsham. That led to an introduction to Bernie Fedderly, one of Force's co-crew chiefs, who subsequently offered him what he characterized as "the best job in racing."

His first two years with the team, Hight literally lived at the race car shop, a
situation that accelerated his high speed education.

"I lived in the shop the first two winters (1995 and 1996)," Hight said. "I didn't really know anybody, so I would stay down at the shop, working on the race car until midnight, one o'clock, just tinkering, learning. I told (crew chief Austin) Coil, if there were any little projects I could do, just tell me, and I'd start working on them. I may have been slow, but it was on my own time and I was learning."

It was during that time that Hight connected with his wife.

"Adria lived down the street," he explained. "She'd drive by the shop at night and she'd see lights on and she'd stop and talk to me. I never thought anything about it (but) she'd always ask for me to go do things with her.

"I didn't because I was afraid I'd get in trouble. Finally, John came to me and he said, 'hey, if you want to hang out with Adria, don't worry about it. You're not going to get in trouble.' And that's what happened."

Although he always envisioned a driving career, Hight didn't actively pursue that dream until one of his former crewmates, Eric Medlen, made the transition last year as rookie driver of the Castrol SYNTEC Ford.

"Eric set the bar last year," Hight said, "and if I can have as good a (first) year as he did, I'd say that's a success. I'm also going to have him to help me throughout the year because he went through everything last year. He'll be able to help me a lot.

"The biggest deal, the first year, is I hope I can qualify for every single race (and) hopefully win some races.

"I'm nervous, but I don't mind pressure," Hight said. "When you're out there shooting, if your mind just wanders for a second, you'll fail. Basically, in drag racing, you only have to do something for a total of maybe two minutes. Once you start the car until you make your run, it's about two minutes. I think holding focus for two minutes should be way easier than holding focus for two hours (the time frame during which a
champion trapshooter must hit 200 targets)."

In addition to Medlen, with whom he worked on Force's Castrol GTX Funny Car, Hight credited Densham, the former high school auto shop teacher, and Worsham, runner-up to Force in last year's NHRA POWERade Funny Car standings, for helping with his development.

"Del and I have become great friends," Hight said. "He always helps me. He watches all my runs and then we talk about it later in the week. And Gary's helped a lot. Other than John, there's nobody out there with more experience. He's been great."

Hight inherits a race car that over the last four seasons won eight times for John Force Racing, the Auto Club and crew chief Jimmy Prock. The Auto Club Mustang was runner-up at last year's season-opening CARQUEST Winternationals at Pomona, Calif., before winning the world's oldest, largest, richest and most prestigious single drag race, the Labor Day Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, Ind.

Hight will resume his training this week with the start of pre-season testing at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.