While they were hauntingly beautiful, the Carmel Symphony Orchestra stringed quartet and the snow-white doves that scattered into the grey sky seemed incongruous with Eric Medlen.
The rodeo-cowboy-turned-racer was “all guy,” rough-and-tumble, hair tousled, a mischievous grin on his ruggedly handsome face. He liked rock music, slugging back a beer or two with his buddies and enjoying the ladies. That gargantuan grin — and an elbow in the ribs, served with a side of breezy banter — telegraphed his keen, sometimes bawdy sense of humor.
Medlen knew all too well, as a former mechanic on Force’s National Hot Rod Ass’n championship Funny Cars, the tremendous work that follows a flaming, parts-eating quarter-mile run gone wrong. But as a driver, he never hesitated to make the most of a sensational-looking engine concussion — “Hey, man, we get more TV time!” he’d tell Force excitedly.
The only thing soft about Eric Medlen was his heart.
It’s the same for Funny Car icon John Force, who hired the musicians and unleashed the doves at last Thursday’s dedication of the Eric Medlen Project at his Brownsburg racing headquarters. When Medlen died in March from a testing-crash head injury, that notoriously oversized heart of Force’s shattered.
But wife Laurie helped stitch it back together with a challenge that he do something to make the cars safer so no one else, including their daughter, Ashley, would suffer the same. Crew chiefs Austin Coil, Bernie Fedderly, Jimmy Prock, Dean Antonelli and newly-named fourth-car driver (and championship tuner) Mike Neff are contributing their mechanical minds, as are numerous vendors that include Ford and Delphi.
John Medlen, a soft-spoken man of rock-ribbed faith who has inspired even the stubborn and skeptical in the aftermath of his son’s death, immediately threw his passion into making sure that, in his words, “that we would not add one more name to that list” of racing casualties.
Dan Davis, director of Ford Racing Technology, said, “If John did not react to [the loss of Eric Medlen] and do everything that was in his power to improve the survivability, I don’t think he could live with himself in the long run.”
As Force explained the 48,000-square-foot building next door to his race shop that ultimately will house a complete fabrication shop, as well as paint and engine shops and will develop the Funny Car of the Future, he choked up.
“I’m mad at God. I’m still mad every day,” he said. “The only way I can justify the loss of Eric Medlen in my heart is to save lives in the future. I will fight anybody who tries to stop the growth of what we are trying to do in this building. I love God, but I’m mad and just don’t understand.”
So Force is sticking to what he does understand — action and performance.
He said John Medlen’s strength “is all that gets me through it.”
The Eric Medlen Project will design the Funny Car of the Future, a concept vehicle that Force insists must be both affordable and competitive.
With input from chassis builder Murf McKinney, biomechanical research scientist Dr. John Melvin, and engineering experts from IndyCar, NASCAR and Formula One, John Force Racing is seeing progress already. The organization says initial improvements likely prevented injuries to drivers Robert Hight at Topeka and Ashley Force at Seattle.
John Medlen, working closely with Ford, SFI and the NHRA, says the spirit of cooperation has been unprecedented.
“We’ve been given data that it would have taken years for us to develop on our own,” Medlen said. “It’s been a very humbling experience that shows the depth of the impact of Eric’s accident.”