Columnist Ron Kantowski: NHRA may become a Force of two

Friday, Oct. 24, 2003 | 10:20 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

This, I suppose, is what happens when a daughter takes one of those going-to-work-with-Dad days a little too seriously.

Ashley Force, the 21-year-old daughter of 12-time NHRA Powerade Funny Car champion John Force, spent last weekend in Las Vegas, testing an alcohol dragster at the same track on which her famous father will compete this weekend when the AC Delco Las Vegas Nationals blast back into town to light your nose hairs on fire.

The female Force, who has spent the past two years racing in the Super Comp sportsman division when her classes at Cal State Fullerton would allow, made six passes in a Jerry Darrien-owned car that has propelled drivers such as Gary Scelzi, Frank Pedregon and Melanie Troxel into the big time.

"They run 7.90s (elapsed time) and like 107 (mph)," John Force said of his daughter's experience in Super Comp. "And so Darrien, he teaches 'em, he told her to run it to 300 (feet), and then shut it off. Then the next run, he told her to run it until it feels good, so she ran all the way to the (scoreboard) lights. She ran 6.20 and like 210. So then she comes back for the next run and runs 5.99 and 247, and then she runs a 5.87, and then Darrien says 'That's it, she can drive it.' "

Like father, like daughter.

In that I can't write anywhere nearly as fast as Force can talk, I interjected something about it being apparent that Ashley has the talent to drive. I was hoping that her dad would take a minute -- or at least a couple of seconds -- to catch his breath, so I could check on extra batteries for my tape recorder.

But Force's famous motor mouth just kept on running.

"I like to think that she inherited that talent although she doesn't talk as fast as me," he said. "But I think it's probably seat time that makes you a good driver. I wasn't a good driver, it took me years. My uncle once said to me that the only driver he ever saw worse then me in the beginning was Don Prudhomme, and we both went on to be champions."

Force was nowhere close to opening the chute. He kept right on talking, which is why reporters like him so much, going off on tangents that had little to do with his daughter's fledgling drag racing career.

But he kept the candles lit, as he used to say in those TV commercials in which he starred, and ultimately got back to Ashley.

"She wants to do it," Force said. "She's been around racing her whole life. She's never really been involved in it firsthand, but she's been at the races, she knows the routine, getting up early in the morning, getting to the racetrack ... I think she's going to do well. We got her a new sponsorship, we're going to announce it at Pomona (at next month's NHRA season finale), so we're pretty excited about that."

He's also excited about Ashley graduating from college, which he never had a chance to do. In fact, Force, a former truck driver, would probably tell you that he couldn't have passed the entrance exam for one of those matchbook cover trade schools.

"She jokes with her mom that when she was in school, I couldn't tell her about math, because I wasn't smart enough, and now I can't tell her how to drive a (dragster), because I don't know how to drive those cars," he said.

But Force said Ashley has shown interest in Funny Cars. And at a youthful-looking 54 with retirement still a way down the road -- "it's not like you've got to drive around 4 or 5 hours like in NASCAR. We're only out there 4 or 5 seconds," he says -- it's possible they could one day turn the Funny Car division into a Force field.

Racing against his daughter would be "a Dad's dream," Force said, which is what happens when your little girls prefer socket wrenches to Barbie dolls.

"I'd love to race her," he said. "But I don't want to be a Little League dad. I've seen some of those problems. I want her to love it, I don't even want to give her an opinion (about how she's doing)."

But then, of course, he gave one anyway.

"I think she's gonna be OK because she's calm and cool where I'm a very stressed person," said Force, just in case you hadn't noticed. "Like she had a parachute failure and got off in the sand and just got out of the car and said 'No big deal.'

"But she's still a kid and college was important but now she's free to run. We're able to give her the financial backing to help her and that's what I want to do."

Ashley Force did not attend Thursday's NHRA news conference at the ESPNZone although she probably couldn't have gotten a word in edgewise, anyway, what with her old man holding court. But after last week's test here, she told ESPN.com that she wasn't getting too excited about the possibility of racing against her dad just yet.

"This is a big step by itself," she said about moving up to the alcohol ranks. "I want to see how next year goes and how well I do before I can start thinking about what comes after. This is exciting all by itself and that's what I'm going to concentrate on for now."

She isn't the only distaff member of the Force family that has been bitten by the racing bug. Her youngster sister Brittany, 17, also was at LVMS last weekend, trying Ashley's Super Comp car on for size -- and speed.

Force said watching his daughters burn rubber made him proud, as well as extremely nervous.

"When I walked up on (Ashley's) first run I almost felt nauseous," he said.

It might have been one of the few times that John Force was at a loss for words.

archive