Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Force cast in role of Funny Car spoiler

Thursday, July 24, 2003 | 9:34 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

After spending each of the past 20 seasons chasing the NHRA Funny Car championship, John Force finds himself in an unfamiliar position in the second half of the 2003 NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series.

Instead of setting his sights on winning his 13th Funny Car title, Force has been relegated to the role of blocker for teammate Tony Pedregon in his quest for his first NHRA championship. Pedregon holds a 124-point lead over Whit Bazemore after 13 of 23 events.

"Realistically, with Tony still 326 points ahead (of me), my job has changed," said Force, who snapped a personal 11-race winless streak Sunday at Bandimere Speedway near Denver. "The last 10 years, my job was to win the championship for my team and my sponsors ... but now my job is to beat Baze and (Del) Worsham and Ron Capps and everyone else to help Tony win this title for (Pedregon's sponsor).

"We've got three race cars over here, but this is one team and when one of us wins the championship, we all win."

That's not to say that Force has any intentions of giving up on adding to his NHRA record of 107 victories or his 12 championships.

"Everybody had me dead and buried," Force said. "That's what made (Sunday's victory) so important. We needed to show that we're still here. We lost the combination, not the motivation.

"It's not easy to win one of these races. Maybe we made it look easy (by winning 101 times in 265 races from 1990 through 2002), but it's not."

The NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series will resume its three-race "Western Swing" this weekend with the Carquest Auto Parts NHRA Nationals at Pacific Raceways in Kent, Wash.

Bernstein came out of retirement in May and has been driving in relief of his son, Brendan, who was injured in an accident May 18 during the Matco Tools Supernationals in Englishtown, N.J. Last weekend, Brendan made his first appearance at a race since the accident and Kenny's father, Bert, also was in attendance for the Mile-High Nationals.

"We wanted to win for Brandon and my dad," Bernstein said. "We've been trying very hard since we got back in the cockpit and I think we're headed in the right direction now. We're anxious to get on to Seattle and see what we've got."

Dixon went on to defeat Doug Kalitta in the final and capture his sixth victory of the season. Dixon extended his lead over Kalitta to 229 points in the Top Fuel standings.

The event, originally scheduled for March 15-16, was postponed due to rain.

George Ioannou, the points leader in Pro RWD, is listed as a 5-6 favorite to win his class while Nelson Hoyos (Pro FWD), Cesar Febus (Modified), Marty Ladwig (Hot Rod) and Ken Scheepers (All Motor) are favored to win their respective classes.