Brittany Force paced John Force Racing in Saturday\u2019s final qualifying effort for Sunday\u2019s Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.<\/p>\n
Force captured the No. 1 qualifier position in Top Fuel with an elapsed time of 3.711 seconds at 335.73 mph. The day was originally scheduled to have two rounds of qualifying, but rain in the morning and early afternoon forced NHRA officials to cut qualifying to just one final round for all professional categories.<\/p>\n
Piloting the Mark Christopher Auto Center Chevrolet\/Monster Energy dragster, Force, a two-time NHRA Top Fuel champion (2017 and 2022), recorded her first No. 1 qualifying effort since Denver last summer and the 47th\u00a0of her career. This is also her fourth No. 1 qualifying run at the Winternationals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a killer run for our team, I\u2019m real proud of them,\u201d Force said. \u201cIt\u2019s tough when you sit out and wait for the rain all day. We were hoping to get that run in. Thank you to the fans for hanging out with us all day. We\u2019re hoping to show you some more good racing (in Sunday\u2019s final eliminations).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of number one qualifiers, but again, our focus is race day. That\u2019s where the points really add up. That\u2019s what matters at the end of this thing when we return here at the end of the season to try to chase down a championship. So, yes, we love those number ones. Great way to kick off the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
While she has a prior win in the season-ending World Finals at Pomona, Force has never won the Winternationals at her home track. Her father, team patriarch John Force, is a seven-time Winternationals winner in Funny Car.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re definitely ready for tomorrow,\u201d Brittany Force said. \u201cWe wanted three (qualifying rounds), but two is good enough. And they were two consistent runs, which is what we\u2019ve been focusing on coming into this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need consistent runs that go down the racetrack. We\u2019re not trying to do these crazy runs that light the board on fire. Let\u2019s get down there, let\u2019s get us in the show, and let\u2019s go rounds on race day. So far, we\u2019re in a good place, and we\u2019re anxious to see what we can do tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brittany\u2019s father, John Force, was able to bounce back from Friday\u2019s disappointing single qualifying run, which was disallowed because his\u00a0PEAK Antifreeze & Coolant Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car crossed the center line.<\/p>\n
Force worried that the weather might not cooperate on Saturday and he may not have qualified, which means he would have missed Sunday\u2019s final eliminations. But Force\u2019s fears were for naught as the weather broke and he was able to qualify No. 6 with a run of 3.996 seconds at 318.99 mph.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll in all, you\u2019ve really got to do your job, that\u2019s really what it\u2019s all about,\u201d Force said after he was assured of a strong starting spot. \u201cWhat\u2019s amazing is how sick you can be all night (worrying about whether he\u2019d get one more qualifying run) when you\u2019ve done this for 100 years. Hey, we\u2019re in the show at Pomona!\u201d<\/p>\n
Force\u2019s fellow Funny Car driving teammate, Austin Prock, had a rough effort Saturday. He struggled to maintain control of the Automobile Club of Southern California\/Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Camaro SS, ending up with a time of 4.758 seconds at 229.31 mph.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was definitely the most embarrassing run I\u2019ve ever made, Prock said. \u201cIt was definitely frustrating \u2026 but tomorrow is when it counts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got a little bit of money from the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge (a special race-within-a-race exhibition event), but it\u2019s just frustrating on my end. I could have done a lot better job. I don\u2019t have many runs in these cars and every run is a new learning experience. We\u2019ll go through everything tonight and I know these guys will give me a bad fast car tomorrow and I\u2019m going to drive the hell out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prock dropped from ninth-quickest on Friday to 15th\u00a0on Saturday. He will face No. 2 qualifier Ron Capps in Sunday\u2019s first round of eliminations.<\/p>\n
Even though it occurred Thursday evening, John Force was still talking Saturday about the emotional celebration of life event honoring the late drag racer and team owner Roland Leong.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe celebration of life has a lot of meaning,\u201d Force said. \u201cI always knew Roland Leong was loved by a lot of people, but I didn\u2019t realize how many until I saw the crowd there. There were so many funny stories and how people felt about losing him.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing the emotion from Don Prudhomme, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen him cry and never saw him that emotional. The man must have been a true friend to him. And then (Leong\u2019s) two daughters talked about him, things I never knew about him. He\u2019s a great individual and he\u2019s watching over us all now, but he got a great going away party. It was great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weather permitting, final eliminations for the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals will start Sunday at 10 a.m. PT. FS1\u00a0will televise a qualifying recap on Sunday from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET. The Finals will also air on FS1 from 7 to 10 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n
The post Brittany Force Roars to No. 1 Qualifier at NHRA Winternationals<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated | Drag Racing News, Opinion, Interviews, Photos, Videos and More<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Brittany Force paced John Force Racing in Saturday\u2019s final qualifying effort for Sunday\u2019s Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip. Force captured the No. 1 qualifier position in Top Fuel with an elapsed time of 3.711 seconds at 335.73 mph. The day was originally scheduled to have two rounds of qualifying, but rain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92091\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}