John Force raced in his 246th final round and he picked up his 147th win during the penultimate NHRA national event of the 2016 season – the Toyota Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Force won for the second time in the Countdown to the Championship and outran his daughter Courtney Force in the 47th all JFR Funny Car final. The 16-time champion moved up from No. 7 to No. 5 in the Mello Yello point standings and just seven points out of fourth place.

“They told me all I had to do was win this race and I had a shot at (Ron) Capps then I found out at the top end that wasn’t the case. I want a recount,” joked Force.

In a classic final round John Force pulled up beside his youngest daughter for the fifth time in a final round. The pair of Force’s had split the previous four races and today it was the elder Force to took the rubber-match win.

“I never like defeating my daughter but we got two wins in the Countdown but we were just a little bit late. It is pretty exciting to see the stands that packed. We have sold out crowds and our TV with FOX is really hopping. I have young kids running this PEAK Chevrolet led by (crew chief) Jon Schaffer. We are building a young group for the future,” said Force. “All the sponsors have been really good to me like PEAK, Chevrolet, Monster Energy, Traxxas and Auto Club. I am just glad we gave the fans a good show. Courtney left on me. I rolled deep on her and she still got the jump on me. I am excited to be in the hunt with these kids.”

Courtney Force and the Traxxas Chevrolet Camaro took a starting line advantage but the now four-time Toyota Nationals winner quickly caught up to her and at the stripe. It was John with a winning time of 3.884 seconds at 327.19 mph against Courtney’s 3.906 second run at 325.85 mph. That was Courtney Force’s lone run on race day outside the 3.8 second range and it was Force’s only 3.8 second run of the day.

(John Force scored an exciting final round win over his daughter Courtney in the Las Vegas fuel FC final round)

“I think we had a great race day with our Traxxas Chevrolet Camaro.  Honestly we turned this car around when it counted for race day and to have three consistent 3.88 passes is pretty unbelievable.  So I am really proud of my guys,” said Force from the Traxxas pit area. “And to go into the final and run a 3.90 and a really close race with dad, you know we gave it all we got.  He was able to get around me for the win and it was definitely a fun race and a close one.   Having an all Force and all Chevy final was great and definitely what we need to do.  I hope to continue doing it in Pomona and all of next season.  So just happy with where we were at today and I think we definitely made some moves in the points.”

(John Force earned victory lane for the 147th time in his illustrious career)

This was the second time that John Force has taken the event win away from Courtney Force at the Toyota Nationals. In 2013 John clinched his 16th Funny Car championship with a final round win over Courtney.

John Force, the all-time Funny Car winner, now has 98 more Funny Car wins than Ron Capps who sits in the No. 2 spot and more impressively Force now has 50 more wins than Hall of Fame Pro Stock driver Warren Johnson who is No. 2 on the all-time NHRA win list.

Force’s winning day started when the PEAK Antifreeze Chevrolet Camaro Funny Car team took out John Bojec in the first round. The winningest driver in NHRA history then raced to the finals for the seventh time at the Toyota Nationals with subsequent round wins over  im Head and then Matt Hagan.

Force’s Peak-sponsored Chevy Camaro was also credited with top speed overall for Funny Cars at the event with a 331.94 mph terminal speed clocking.

Posted by Elon Werner

Event Essentials:   NHRA Toyota Nationals (Oct. 28-30th 2016) 

(Pre-race favourite Toyota driver Alexis Dejoria was forced to withdraw from competition as a precaution after colliding with the guard wall during qualifying)

(Transplanted Canadian driver Jeff Arend drove the Australian-based machine of Peter & Helen Russo at Las Vegas – qualifying on the bump)

Photos by Bob Johnson & Gary Nastase