Courtney Force enhanced her 2014 World Championship chances and made more history during the NHRA’s AAA Insurance Midwest Nationals.

Courtney qualified in the No. 4 spot for the third consecutive year at St. Louis and picked up her fourth Funny Car win of the season, a record for a female Funny Car driver. She moved from the No. 4 spot in the Mello Yello points to the No. 2 position, right behind her father with her win.  It was her seventh career victory and she became the first female to win back-to-back Funny Car races (Dallas and St. Louis). She has now been to five final rounds in 2014, thirteen overall.

“I think the good news is at least our team is making the right moves at the right time, right here in the Countdown to the Championship. It was tough going up against dad; I didn’t want to race him, but all I thought about was how he took me out in Charlotte and he didn’t feel bad, so I thought, ‘Alright, we’re going for it!’ Our Traxxas team got the win,” said Force.

In the opening round, the 2012 Auto Club “Rookie of the Year” took on Bob Tasca III for the 13th time in her three year Funny Car career. She has now faced him in the opening round eight times, but this is the first time she has raced him in St. Louis. She posted an impressive 4.101 ET at 314.31 mph to Tasca’s tire-smoking 8.380 ET and was second-quickest of the round. Force is now 11-2 to the fellow Ford driver.

“Everyone is trying to get up to that No. 1 spot, that’s’ where everyone has their heads right now and that’s where my dad is. We’ve made some big moves this weekend in St. Louis and it’s definitely a team effort. All of my Traxxas guys, Ron Douglas, Dan Hood, (Castrol GTX High Mileage crew chief) Jimmy Prock, (Auto Club crew chief) Mike Neff, and (Castrol GTX co-crew chief) John Medlen everyone that’s over there at John Force Racing. Thank you for the help when we were going in to that final round. I really appreciate everyone and all the fans that came out this weekend. It’s really great to share this win with all of you,” said Force, from the winner’s circle stage.

After dismissing Tasca from eliminations, the 26-year-old driver went up against Del Worsham in the quarterfinals. The pair have now met thirteen times on race day, with over half of those being in the second round. Force has won the last four match-ups, the last one being in the final round in Dallas last week when she picked up her sixth career victory. Force drove her Traxxas Ford Mustang to a winning 4.154 seconds at 311.13 mph next to Worsham’s 10.873 ET at 70.40 mph.

“I just think about these races as a new race; a new day. We’re just looking to pick up points. I’ve also been looking at round by round. You don’t look at the end of the day. I try not to look at the ladder up until the end of the day even though I did notice that I could possibly meet dad in the semis, but you can’t think like that. You have to take it for the round and see where you are and how you’re running against that person and figure out your strategy of how you’re going to go up there and play the game. It’s all about getting the win out here and picking up points and we have to go rounds to do that,” said Force.

Force did line up with her dad in the semi-finals, one of her biggest competitors in this season’s Countdown to the Championship and reigning world Funny Car champion. Also the for the 13th time she has raced this fellow competitor, she picked up the win giving her one up on the 16-time champion. She is now 7-6 to her father in eliminations. This is the fifth time they have met up this season, but the first time in St. Louis. The 26-year-old left with a .051 reaction time to the veteran driver’s .099 and got a hole-shot win.

“It made me sick to my stomach, to be honest. Normally it’s kind of fun, but for some reason this time I could tell on his face, obviously, he’s in the points lead, he’s worried about Hagan passing him and me and Robert. So I saw the look on his face and I felt bad. Nobody likes to get beat on a hole-shot and I didn’t want to do that to my dad. I did roll in on him and I went after it. I wanted to get the win and I’d rather get the points than get lane choice in the next round. That was where my mindset was at.

“Dad beat me in Charlotte and I dwelled on it for a little while and I was waiting on us to have a rematch so I could get him back. I did it and then it didn’t feel so good at the end. I’ve decided he can’t be too mad at me since I’m taking home a Wally today,” she said.

Force went up against Matt Hagan in her second final in a row. The Traxxas Ford driver has raced Hagan five times this season and picked up the last four wins against him. This was the first time these two have met in St. Louis and the second time they have met in the final round in Force’s three year career. Force posted a 4.094 ET to Hagan’s 4.121 to score the big win against him. She is now undefeated against Hagan in final round match-ups.

This is the first time a father and daughter have been No. 1 and No. 2 in Mello Yello Series point standings. John Force has 2344 with Courtney trailing him at 2322.

Posted by:  Elon Werner

Photos by:  Ron Lewis

Event Essentials:  NHRA AAA Insurance Mid-West Nationals (Sept. 26-28th) – Madison IL

(John Force maintained his overall points lead with a “final four” finish. He also set low ET and top MPH)