Force Denies Father 1,000th Round Win To Snag First Funny Car Triumph

COMMERCE, Ga. — Ashley Force rose above the glam-gal image from slick-page magazine ads, reality TV, AOL Sports’ World’s Hottest Athlete label and Mattel’s modern 300-mile-per-hour Barbie clone Sunday at the National Hot Rod Ass’n’s Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals.
In dramatic fashion at Atlanta Dragway, Ashley Force defeated her father John in his 500th race and stopped him from recording his 1,000th round-win to become drag racing’s first female Funny Car winner and expand her point lead to 59.
She shared her historical moment in the winner’s circle with Antron Brown (Top Fuel), Mike Edwards (Pro Stock) and Andrew Hines (Pro Stock Motorcycle).

DRAMATIC STYLE: Ashley Force (near lane) defeated her father, John, in the final round of Funny Car eliminations Sunday at Atlanta Dragway to become the first woman to win in Funny Car. (AutoImagery.com Photo)

While Ashley Force had extremely easy runs against Del Worsham in the opening round, Ron Capps in the semifinals and ultimately her father (who lost traction immediately), she demonstrated her driving skill in corralling her Mustang in a wild quarterfinal ride against crafty veteran Jim Head.
After winning in her fourth final-round appearance and third-straight this season, Ashley Force said, “Before, I would think about what I would say if I won. This time, I’m not thinking about it, and now I don’t know what to say.”
She recovered, though, and said plenty — about beating her father for the second time at Atlanta, living up to expectations and women’s contributions to drag racing.
“We just knew that if we kept getting to the finals, we’d eventually get one,” she said on behalf of crew chief Dean “Guido” Antonelli and assistant Ron Douglas. “I kind of hated that it had to be against Dad, but I’m just happy to win an event.
“We went a whole year last year and the biggest win I had was off the track (in AOL’s ‘World’s Hottest Athlete’ poll),” the second-year pro driver wisecracked. “To finally get it done here in Atlanta, where I beat Dad last year, was special. He came over and he congratulated me. He told me, ‘Good job.’ He told my team, ‘Good job.’”
On the track, she said, “I never saw him, and I never saw my win light. But they told me on the radio. I know he wanted his 1,000th win, but Mom and I had it all figured out — he can just go do that next week (at the O’Reilly Midwest Nationals near St. Louis) on his (59th) birthday. That would be special.”

FAMILY LOVE: Ashley Force gets a kiss from father John Force after becoming the first woman to capture a Funny Car victory. Force defeated her fatehr in the final round. (AutoImagery.com Photo)

“It’s an exciting time, you know, with Danica (Patrick, IRL IndyCar Series) winning,” Force said after triumphing in the sport’s first father-daughter showdown. “There are a lot of women in a lot of different motorsports, and we’re getting our practice, we’re getting our experience and we’re making our way toward those wins. It’s a good week for women (including Laurie Cannister’s second IHRA pro Alcohol Funny Car victory of the season the week before). And it’s exciting for the fans to finally have a woman winner in Funny Car. But I know that it’s the 10 guys on my team who got me to this point. I would never be here without them and without Guido and Ron. I’m proud to be a female in the seat, but it’s those guys who got me here.”
Curiously, she said she got her inspiration Sunday, not from dad John, who has won 125 races and 14 championships, but from Top Fuel winner Brown.
“Antron (Brown) and I are seeing a pattern here,” Ashley Force said. “When I saw him win in the semis, I suddenly got all kinds of confidence because every final he has been in (this year) I’ve been in, too. Not that that has anything to do with anything, but it’s little things like that where you feel a little bit more confident.”
Brown dismissed Tony Schumacher and the U.S. Army Dragster on a holeshot in the final round to claim his second Top Fuel victory in just six starts in the David Powers Motorsports-owned Matco Tools dragster.
The class rookie’s .035-second reaction time, compared to Schumacher’s  .060, gave him what he needed to post a winning 4.537-second pass at 325.14 mph over the reigning champion’s quicker and much faster 4.521/329.58. Brown, making his third-consecutive final-round appearance, had a .0096-second margin of victory, about five feet.
Brown, who has two Pro Stock Motorcycle victories at Atlanta Dragway among his 18 overall, said, “When you race Tony, you have to give it all you got. Those guys are five-time champs. When I saw the win light come on, it felt fantastic.”
Schumacher still leads the Top Fuel standings, but Brown is just 26 points behind him.
In the final round of NHRA’s 600th Pro Stock race, Edwards and opponent Jason Line registered identical elapsed times of 6.680 seconds. But Edwards’s .009-second reaction time on the launch made the difference, as he won in the Penhall/Young Life Pontiac GXP with a 206.20-mph speed that was slower than Line’s 206.92 mph. Line, the Summit Racing Equipment-sponsored 2006 champion, had a respectable .059 reaction time, but lost by .0506 of a second.
Said Edwards, “That’s kind of cool to win the 600th race. Anytime you can win one of these races against these guys it’s an unbelievable feeling. And to get in the winner’s circle with Ashley Force, that kind of tops it off, doesn’t it? What a great kid. I mean, she’s under a lot of pressure, so to do what she’s done is pretty awesome.”
In the Pro Stock Motorcycle class, Hines used a .009 reaction time on his Vance & Hines Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson V-Twin to defeat Chip Ellis and took the points lead. Hines won with a 6.946-second e.t. at 191.40 mph to Ellis’s 6.958/190.70 on the Schumacher Electric Suzuki.