FORCE CAPS EMOTIONAL DAY WITH SECOND WIN OF SEASON
EVENT: 20th annual FRAM/Autolite Nationals – 15th of 17 races in the Countdown to Eight
SITE: Infineon Raceway at Sears Point Sonoma, California
DATE: July 27–29
WINNER: Funny Car – John Force
Castrol Highlight: Castrol GTX High Mileage driver John Force won for the 6th time in his 11th appearance in the Finals of the FRAM/Autolite Nationals... Force moved up to 7th place in the Countdown to Eight... Castrol drivers John and Ashley Force squared off in the first round for the second time in 2007 with the 14–time champion capturing the win and evening their head to head record at 1–1... Castrol GTX driver Ashley Force qualified No. 7 running her career fastest mph in qualifying at 324.12 mph.
John Force drove his Castrol GTX High Milege Ford Mustang past the Chevrolet of Del Worsham in an emotional final round Sunday to win the 20th annual FRAM/Autolite Nationals Sunday at Infineon Raceway and moved one step closer to a starting berth in the NHRA's new Countdown to the Championship.
Force, who earned an emotional first round victory over his daughter, Ashley, claimed the 124th victory of his career — his seventh at Infineon — and dedicated it to the memory of 2006 champion and teammate Eric Medlen, who succumbed last March to injuries suffered in a testing accident at Gainesville, Fla.
Force used his quickest run of the weekend and the quickest by anyone on race day, 4.793 seconds, to beat Ashley in the second career meeting between father and daughter.
"I don't like beating my daughter, but I wanted to beat everybody else," Force said after he used his backpedaling skills to get past Cruz Pedregon in the second round.
"Cruz is one of the best and he can pedal," Force said, "but even at my old worn out age, you don't forget how. That's what makes it exciting. My old heap just hooked up and trucked right down through there."
The first round loss dropped Ashley from 10th to 12th in the Countdown to Eight standings with only two races before the cut–off. "It is frustrating when you look back and think if we would have run any other pair we might have won," Ashley said.
Team Castrol/Auto Club driver Robert Hight defeated Funny Car legend Kenny Bernstein in the opening round and became the second Funny Car driver to clinch a Countdown berth. Hight won a photo finish versus No. 16 qualifier Tony Bartone in the second round before a broken throttle cable took him out in the semifinals against Worsham.
"It left good and then it just quit. When it first happened I thought it was the ignition. Well, if it would have been the ignition it wouldn't have still been running. Then I thought I might have lifted. I knew I hadn't lifted but you start second guessing yourself. I just tapped the throttle pedal because the thing was still running and I didn't want to do anything crazy. I could see the cable just swinging free and just flopping around."
