He may not be faster than a speeding bullet.\u00a0He may not be more powerful than a locomotive.\u00a0And, on legs ravaged by childhood polio and mangled in a high-speed crash in Texas, he certainly isn\u2019t able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
But, to legions of drag racing fans, especially those attending this week\u2019s 23rd Super Grip Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway, John Force remains larger than life.\u00a0To believers, the driver of the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet Camaro SS still is Superman, the alter ego he assumed here 25 years ago.<\/p>\n
In 1999, in the midst of winning a record 10 straight NHRA Funny Car championships, Force donned a blue and red firesuit emblazoned with Superman\u2019s distinctive logo, climbed into a Funny Car touting the latest cinematic incarnation of the \u201cMan of Steel\u201d and promptly beat five Top Fuel dragster drivers, including Doug Kalitta, to win the inaugural Winston Showdown and its then massive $200,000 top prize.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was a victory that quickly became part of drag racing lore.\u00a0By 2001, though, the Showdown was gone and so was Superman, at least the drag racing version.\u00a0Not that Force didn\u2019t excel in the event that took its place.\u00a0In fact, he has won the Thunder Valley Nationals four times (2004, 2007, 2010 and 2013) and will try to add to that bounty this weekend when he sends his 330 mile-an-hour PEAK Camaro after a second straight victory on the NHRA\u2019s Mission Foods tour.<\/p>\n
Although he repeatedly has rejected the notion that he is Superman, the G.O.A.T. or anything more than just a California kid following his dream, Force cannot deny his one extraordinary superpower and that is his longevity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For more than 40 years, he has been part of the championship conversation, as he is once again thanks to victories in two of the first seven races, the most recent last Sunday at Epping, N.H., where he beat teammate Austin Prock in an all-JFR final at the New England Nationals.<\/p>\n
As a result, he returns to Bristol Dragway second in the driver standings, just 22 points off the lead enjoyed by Prock, the Funny Car rookie who wasn\u2019t even born when Force won his first 48 tour events and his first three championships.<\/p>\n
Whether or not you believe he\u2019s Superman, it\u2019s difficult to imagine a drag racing landscape without Force in it, which makes the 75-year-old\u2019s comments following last week\u2019s win a little perplexing for his multitude of fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not being dramatic,\u201d he told members of the media, \u201cbut my time is up. It was up when I was 65.\u00a0Hell, it was up when I turned 50.\u00a0The world is changing for me and I\u2019ve got to do some real thinking (about the future).\u00a0I know I\u2019m gonna have to (step away), sooner or later.\u201d<\/p>\n
Given a few days to savor the 157th win of his career, though, the one-time truck driver clarified the point.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not quitting today,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m out here racing for a championship and I just love it.\u00a0I love the sport, I love the people, I love Prock and all these kids who keep me motivated, but I am starting the (transition) process and we\u2019ll just see what happens down the road.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on June 5, 2024. <\/p>\n
The post Is John Force Bringing Superman Back to Bristol?<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" He may not be faster than a speeding bullet.\u00a0He may not be more powerful than a locomotive.\u00a0And, on legs ravaged by childhood polio and mangled in a high-speed crash in Texas, he certainly isn\u2019t able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.\u00a0\u00a0 But, to legions of drag racing fans, especially those attending this week\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93813","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=93813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93813\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}