Thursday, April 15, 2004 | 9:40 a.m.
Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at [email protected] or (702) 259-4089.
John Force, winner of 12 NHRA Funny Car championships and 109 races, said the competitive fire still burns within him despite what some are calling the worst slump of his career.
Although he won three races in 2003 -- a great season by many driver's standards -- it marked only the second time Force had failed to win at least four races since he won his first championship in 1990. He also was out of the top 10 in points for the first four races last season and never led his category for the first time in a decade.
Force has yet to reach the winner's circle this season but he is second in points and trails category leader Del Worsham by only 71 points going into this weekend's O'Reilly Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park.
Force, 54, said he is re-energized this season as a result of being around teammate Eric Medlen. Force hired Medlen, 30, in January to replace Tony Pedregon in the team's Castrol Syntec Ford Mustang.
"Being around Eric has been a wake-up call for me," Force said. "He's really motivated and that's motivated me to go after my 13th championship."
Force, one of the most outgoing drivers on the NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series circuit, said Medlen's energy has been contagious.
"Watching him (signing autographs), all the energy, all the excitement ... I've seen him chase people down to give them an autograph," Force said. "We were working a Wal-Mart in San Antonio for Castrol and I couldn't find him. He was going up and down the aisles looking for customers. He told me 'my (autograph) line got a little weak so I went out freelancing.'
"I said, 'well, he'll calm down after a while,' but his energy just seems to grow. It's just a bonus that he seems to have a gift for driving a hot rod."
Medlen, who worked on Force's crew for eight years before he was given the opportunity to drive one of his boss' Funny Cars, is tied with Gary Scelzi for sixth in points. Both Medlen and Force advanced to the semifinals in the most recent race, at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
"I think we've got one of the top-running cars," Scelzi said of his Oakley Dodge Stratus. "If we could just get a little bit of luck, I think everyone will realize what we've got for them.
"I was pretty discouraged after Sunday in Vegas but when you look at points, I'm a little over two rounds out of second place and not that far out of first -- and we're only four races into (the season). Like (crew chief) Mike Neff says, there's no reason to panic yet."
Scelzi, who is in his second full season in the Funny Car category after winning three NHRA Top Fuel championships, won two races at Houston Raceway Park while he was competing in Top Fuel.
Also, the inaugural Hankook Tire Drifting Series event will be held Friday in the new Drifting Arena, located near the half-mile dirt track at LVMS. Spectator gates open and open practice begins at 6 p.m.
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