NHRA
Norwalk: John Force - Ford interview 2010-06-23
This Week in Ford Racing June 23, 2010 Last weekend, during the Thunder Valley NHRA Nationals at Bristol Dragway John Force, driver and owner of the Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang Funny Car, went to the Winner's Circle for the fourth time ...
Published: Jun 24, 2010, 6:18 AM
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This Week in Ford Racing
June 23, 2010
Last weekend, during the Thunder Valley NHRA Nationals at Bristol Dragway John Force, driver and owner of the Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang Funny Car, went to the Winner's Circle for the fourth time this season, and 130th time in his career. Force heads to Norwalk, Ohio this weekend looking to build on that momentum.
JOHN FORCE - driver/owner, Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang Funny Car
CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR WIN IN BRISTOL . "The all One Ford concept that Ford has is really working. Ford executives came to me last year and they wanted to put this One Ford concept into NASCAR and they wanted it in drag racing and they're doing it within the company as well. This is really working if you look at what the Ford Mustangs have accomplished this year. We've always had One Ford with our three funny cars, but now we have it with [Bob] Tasca out there too. The technology that we get from the engineers and the work that we do at the John Force - Eric Medlen Project helped get the Ford BOSS 500 engine to Tasca. He put it into his race car. With the great team that he's got behind him, his old hot rod came out swinging and he won at Englishtown. [Tim] Wilkerson runs on aerodynamics and with plenty of time we'll be selling him parts. Understand, it's a One Ford approach, but on race day we race. Tasca took me and Ashley [Force Hood] out at Englishtown and I took him out at Bristol last week. Out of 12 races this season we have nine Mustang wins. The program that Ford put into play is working and we're real excited about it. We can come out with the five Mustangs and do the damage that we do."
YOUR TEAM ALONE HAS SEVEN OF THOSE NINE FORD WINS. "Ashley is right on the verge of winning. She was Low ET last weekend in Bristol and she was Low ET earlier on in the year. Her car is right there in the hunt and she's going to get there."
BEFORE THIS PAST WEEKEND'S WIN, YOU HADN'T MADE IT PAST THE SECOND ROUND IN SIX RACES. IT MUST FEEL GOOD TO GET THAT WIN AFTER A COUPLE OF RACES WHERE YOUR TEAM WASN'T AS STRONG AS IT WAS EARLIER IN THE SEASON. "We knew that when the conditions were good earlier on in the year, when it was cool air, and a cool race track, we could run the big numbers because of our BOSS 500. I believe we make more power than anyone out there. I truly believe that. The problem is adapting it to the race track. The problem came when we started to get into the heat, we started to struggle. Ashley struggled, I struggled, Robert [Hight] struggled and it was a matter of backing those cars down and making that transition. I think aerodynamics is playing a really big part in that. We started changing things around and, boy, we started to go down the race track. We ran big speeds. They said we ran as fast, a 2.97, as the dragsters did in Bristol on a 138 degree track. That is hot. God bless the fans since they stuck it out with us in that heat. We're going into Norwalk this week with the heat again, so we'll see what happens."
YOU TALK ABOUT HEADING INTO NORWALK. LAST YEAR, YOU MADE IT TO THE SEMI- FINAL ROUND. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO DO THIS YEAR TO GO ALL THE WAY TO THE WINNER'S CIRCLE? "I'm excited because my two girls, they run the A-Fuel Dragsters, so with Courtney driving the Ford Drive One Dragster and Brittany driving the Brand Source Dragster, they'll be there this weekend. They run a different schedule than us because they don't run all of the national events. They will be there at Norwalk and we're excited about that. Now with the funny cars, we look at it sometimes as a negative because we have to run against Wilkerson and Tasca with a lot of the same technology. In a way it doesn't matter because Tasca took out [Matt] Hagan at Englishtown and Hagan was after Robert in the points, so it really is working. The team of five Mustangs, even though we have to race against each other, the odds are we can take out the Dodges, the Toyotas, the GM cars. That's what the game plan is about. We just have to go in and adapt to the heat. We have to get those pole positions that are critical. I'm excited about all of the wins, but it's really all about the future. Ford cannot think about the cars they sold in the past, and I can't think about all my past wins."
-source: ford racing
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