Photography: John Force Racing / Gary Nastase / Auto Imagery
SEATTLE, Wash. (July 20, 2025) – The power that enabled two-time Top Fuel World Champion Brittany Force to push her HendrickCars.com dragster to an NHRA national record-setting speed of 341.85 miles per hour in taking down No. 1 qualifier Doug Kalitta in the semifinals of the 36th NHRA Northwest Nationals proved unsustainable in the final round Sunday at Pacific Raceways.
“Overall, it was a pretty solid outing for this HendrickCars.com team,” said the only woman to have won as many as 300 competitive rounds in drag racing’s signature category. “We were able to make our way to the final round but, unfortunately, came up short.
Racing against Shawn Langdon, to whom she had never before lost a final, the 18-time Mission Foods tour winner’s Chevrolet dragster suffered a malfunction that slowed it from a best of 3.659 to 4.040 seconds at 215 mph.
“Pan pressure automatically shut us off in the final,” she said of the safety system that automatically activates in certain situations. “I had no power and was just coasting to the finish line and saw Shawn go around me.”
It was the 39-year-old’s second final round appearance in the tour’s northwesternmost event and her second disappointment. Nevertheless, there were reasons to celebrate, the least of which was not the fact that she moved from sixth to fifth in points and carries a load of momentum into this week’s 37th NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma, Calif.
“Obviously the highlight of our weekend was in the semifinals when we made a killer run and went even faster than our (previous) national record (341.59 mph), the fastest of all time,” she said. “It’s really exciting for this whole team. We work really hard to turn on win lights and put the best numbers up on the board and we’re hoping that record will hold for a while.”
Before she lowered the boom against Kalitta, Brittany had recorded speeds of 340.47 mph (in qualifying) and 340.82 mph in a first-round win over former European Top Fuel Champion Ida Zetterstrom. The former NHRA Rookie-of-the-Year (2013) now owns five of the six fastest speeds in history.
In Funny Car, Austin Prock’s Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS was quickest in qualifying at 3.879 seconds and Jack Beckman’s PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevy was quickest on race day at 3.839. Unfortunately, neither of the John Force Racing Chevy’s were able to survive to the semifinals.
After riding the aforementioned 3.839 to an initial victory over Bob Tasca III, Beckman lost to eventual race winner Matt Hagan in round two. On the other side of the ladder, Prock, who before Brittany’s Sunday heroics was the world’s fastest at 341.68 mph, suffered tire shake issues early and lost to Canadian rookie Spencer Hyde.
Despite Sunday’s results, the two JFR drivers will start this week’s race from the same positions in which they finished the 2024 season – Prock No. 1 and Beckman No. 2.
“We had a good weekend going,” Prock said. “We gained a lot of points in qualifying and that’s what we look to do every weekend. Unfortunately, we came into race day, and we stumbled.
“We got past first round, and we’ve had a pretty good trend of once we get past the first round we go to the final round but, obliviously, that ended this weekend,” said the man who has won 12 times in his first two seasons in the Cornwell Chevy previously driven by Robert Hight.
“I still think this team is heading in the right direction,” he said. “We’re learning from the mistakes that we’re making, so we’ll do our homework over the next few days and get back after it at Sonoma.”
For Beckman, Prock’s exit in round two opened up an opportunity to close a widening gap between first place and second – but it wasn’t to be.
“We never root against our team cars….ever,” said the 2012 Funny Car World Champion. “Our goal is to race Austin in every final round we go to. But they were pulling away in the points and when we watched Austin go up there and smoke the tires (against Hyde), it really opened the door for us to start closing the gap in the points.
“We thought we had the right data and made a good call,” said the cancer survivor and 2003 Super Comp World Champ. “We were so close, but it went out there and shook the tire. I tried to pedal it, but Hagan was driving away, and it became obvious I wasn’t going to chase him down. We’re not licking our wounds, and we have another shot at redemption in a week and we’re going to have monster conditions in Sonoma as well.
“I’m very satisfied that we took a car that was not qualified going into the last qualifying session (and) not only got it into the show but made all the right calls to go out there and run low (elapsed time) of the weekend in the first round. Now, we just have to get back to our consistency. This car had been rock-solid consistent, and we had a wide window in our tune-up program. We just need to get back closer to the center of that opening.”
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SEATTLE, Wash. (July 20, 2025) – The power that enabled two-time Top Fuel World Champion Brittany Force to push her HendrickCars.com dragster to an NHRA national record-setting speed of 341.85 miles per hour in taking down No. 1 qualifier Doug Kalitta in the semifinals of the 36th NHRA Northwest Nationals proved unsustainable in the final round Sunday at Pacific Raceways.
“Overall, it was a pretty solid outing for this HendrickCars.com team,” said the only woman to have won as many as 300 competitive rounds in drag racing’s signature category. “We were able to make our way to the final round but, unfortunately, came up short.
Racing against Shawn Langdon, to whom she had never before lost a final, the 18-time Mission Foods tour winner’s Chevrolet dragster suffered a malfunction that slowed it from a best of 3.659 to 4.040 seconds at 215 mph.
“Pan pressure automatically shut us off in the final,” she said of the safety system that automatically activates in certain situations. “I had no power and was just coasting to the finish line and saw Shawn go around me.”
It was the 39-year-old’s second final round appearance in the tour’s northwesternmost event and her second disappointment. Nevertheless, there were reasons to celebrate, the least of which was not the fact that she moved from sixth to fifth in points and carries a load of momentum into this week’s 37th NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma, Calif.
“Obviously the highlight of our weekend was in the semifinals when we made a killer run and went even faster than our (previous) national record (341.59 mph), the fastest of all time,” she said. “It’s really exciting for this whole team. We work really hard to turn on win lights and put the best numbers up on the board and we’re hoping that record will hold for a while.”
Before she lowered the boom against Kalitta, Brittany had recorded speeds of 340.47 mph (in qualifying) and 340.82 mph in a first-round win over former European Top Fuel Champion Ida Zetterstrom. The former NHRA Rookie-of-the-Year (2013) now owns five of the six fastest speeds in history.
In Funny Car, Austin Prock’s Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS was quickest in qualifying at 3.879 seconds and Jack Beckman’s PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevy was quickest on race day at 3.839. Unfortunately, neither of the John Force Racing Chevy’s were able to survive to the semifinals.
After riding the aforementioned 3.839 to an initial victory over Bob Tasca III, Beckman lost to eventual race winner Matt Hagan in round two. On the other side of the ladder, Prock, who before Brittany’s Sunday heroics was the world’s fastest at 341.68 mph, suffered tire shake issues early and lost to Canadian rookie Spencer Hyde.
Despite Sunday’s results, the two JFR drivers will start this week’s race from the same positions in which they finished the 2024 season – Prock No. 1 and Beckman No. 2.
“We had a good weekend going,” Prock said. “We gained a lot of points in qualifying and that’s what we look to do every weekend. Unfortunately, we came into race day, and we stumbled.
“We got past first round, and we’ve had a pretty good trend of once we get past the first round we go to the final round but, obliviously, that ended this weekend,” said the man who has won 12 times in his first two seasons in the Cornwell Chevy previously driven by Robert Hight.
“I still think this team is heading in the right direction,” he said. “We’re learning from the mistakes that we’re making, so we’ll do our homework over the next few days and get back after it at Sonoma.”
For Beckman, Prock’s exit in round two opened up an opportunity to close a widening gap between first place and second – but it wasn’t to be.
“We never root against our team cars….ever,” said the 2012 Funny Car World Champion. “Our goal is to race Austin in every final round we go to. But they were pulling away in the points and when we watched Austin go up there and smoke the tires (against Hyde), it really opened the door for us to start closing the gap in the points.
“We thought we had the right data and made a good call,” said the cancer survivor and 2003 Super Comp World Champ. “We were so close, but it went out there and shook the tire. I tried to pedal it, but Hagan was driving away, and it became obvious I wasn’t going to chase him down. We’re not licking our wounds, and we have another shot at redemption in a week and we’re going to have monster conditions in Sonoma as well.
“I’m very satisfied that we took a car that was not qualified going into the last qualifying session (and) not only got it into the show but made all the right calls to go out there and run low (elapsed time) of the weekend in the first round. Now, we just have to get back to our consistency. This car had been rock-solid consistent, and we had a wide window in our tune-up program. We just need to get back closer to the center of that opening.”
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