Courtney Force dominated the tenth NHRA race of the season by every metric, qualifying No. 1, running low ET, top speed and winning the race.

The Funny Car points leader extended her lead and powered her Advance Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car to her fourth victory of the season defeating father John Force in the Virginia NHRA Nationals final round Sunday at Virginia Motorsports Park. Reigning world champions Robert Hight and Brittany Force had early exits in the first round.

In what was the 50th all John Force Racing Funny Car final round, Courtney Force outraced John Force with a 4.039-second pass at 321.96 mph to his 4.076-second pass at 307.65 mph.

Courtney Force (top) outran her legendary father John Force in the fuel FC final round at NHRA VMP

After two days of qualifying where Courtney Force went quickest in the first, second and fourth session and was third quickest in the third session, Force continued her domination in eliminations by first defeating Jeff Diehl in the opening round before running quickest of the weekend with a 3.972-second pass at 325.45 mph to defeat Jim Campbell in round two. She then took out 2018 two-time winner J.R. Todd before facing off with and beating her father in the final.

“This was a great job by my Advance Auto Parts team. It was exciting to be in an all Force final and to see that PEAK team do so well. They have a good thing going over there. They had me nervous when I rolled up for the final round. We had a great side by side race. Brian Corradi and Danny Hood have done a great job with this team and race car. We have been so consistent but we stumbled a little in the first round but we got away with it,” explained Force.

Force has watched her father race for years, now that she’s racing against him, she’s well versed in his ways.

“My dad has his routine and I have grown up watching that routine,” said Force. “I prepared myself that it was going to be a long tree and I just tried to play his game and not let it screw with me. He still made me wait but that is OK because we had a car for him.”

The win marks the 12th of her seven-year career, winning a third of them in a season that is not even half over. Force has won each of her 2018 victories from the No. 1 qualifying position, a feat last done 16 years ago by none other than John Force. However, Courtney is not taking the success for granted or letting it get to her head.

“This is just the beginning of the season and we just have to maintain our focus,” Force said. “So much credit goes to my team and the job that they have done. I am trying to keep up with them and perform well as a driver. We are in the points lead right now and we stretched it a little more with the win today. Our focus is getting to Indy and having a cushion and locking into the countdown. Get back to me then about how we are doing. That is when we are really going to need this momentum. Right now, it is great but we really have to keep it all season long if we want to end up on top at the end of the season.”

Event Essentials:   NHRA Virginia Nationals (June 8-10th, 2018) 

Bob Tasca III raced this cool looking Ford Mustang at NHRA Virginia.

Cruz Pedregon experienced this fiery body shredding incident during FC class qualifying!

Popular independent racer Jeff Diehl qualified on the bump with his Toyota FC

Posted with files by Sara Slaughter and Bruce Biegler
All photos by Dave DeAngelis