John Force, the winningest driver in NHRA history, continued to add to his legendary body of work winning for the 7th time at the Mopar Mile High NHRA Nationals in ten final round appearances and for the unprecedented 144th time. This is the 29th season Force has won at least one Funny Car national event, an accomplishment unequaled in all of motorsports. The 16-time Funny Car champion had to defeat his youngest daughter and NHRA superstar in her own right, Courtney Force, in the final round to get the win.

In the final round Force turned a slight starting line advantage into a win light when his Realtree PEAK Antifreeze & Coolant Camaro got to the finish line in front of Courtney’s Traxxas Camaro with a winning elapsed time of 3.965 seconds at 319.45 mph. It was a spectacular side by side three second final with Courtney recording her third three second run of the day in a losing effort.

(John Force – far lane – defeated his daughter Courtney in the fuel FC final at Denver)

“It feels real good. All those records you set in the past….I was runner-up here the past two years to (Jack) Beckman and Robert Hight. At the end of the day, I am young. I will fight this thing until I drop. But I have got new sponsors like PEAK and with Realtree camouflage and Chevrolet. We went and tested and Courtney (Force) was there helping me, Robert (Hight) was there helping me. We got through it, we came on this hill and we found a little bit of magic. If you go look at the whippings we have been taking from Schumacher (Racing) and Kalitta (Racing) all year. Everyone on the team has been winning except me. I needed this real bad and I told Courtney, ‘Hey, you are my baby, I love you and I know you want to do good for Traxxas, but I am giving this everything I got,’” said Force.

(John Force’s win was the 144th of his amazing career)

“I give credit to Mike Neff, who heads my program in Funny Car and Jon Schaffer that runs my Funny Car with a bunch of kids. Have to thank Daniel Hood that runs Courtney’s car too. I brought on Alan Johnson, Jason McCullough and Brian Husen and I turned it all over to them. We got to get out of the dragster business, get back into the Funny Car business. John Force Racing is back in business,” added Force.

The win by Force evened his final round record at 2-2 with his youngest daughter and moved him within 34 points of seventh place in the Mello Yello point standings.

Force started the day as the No. 2 qualifier and defeated Jeff Diehl, Matt Hagan, and Del Worsham to reach his 243rd final round. The win was Force’s seventh at Bandimere Speedway and his 13th in a Chevrolet. This was the first win by John Force Racing in the new 2016 Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car.

Event Essentials:   NHRA Mopar Mile-High Nationals (July 22-24th 2016) 

(Robert Hight set top speed of the race at 322.81 mph – a new track record)

Posted by Elon Werner – Photos by Randy Anderson