{"id":1110,"date":"2014-07-29T14:46:20","date_gmt":"2014-07-29T14:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=1110"},"modified":"2014-07-29T14:51:56","modified_gmt":"2014-07-29T14:51:56","slug":"courtney-conquers-sonoma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=1110","title":{"rendered":"Courtney Conquers Sonoma"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CForce<\/a><\/p>\n

Courtney Force took home the Wally from the No. 1 qualifying spot at the NHRA Sonoma Nationals when she dismissed competitors Peter Russo, Bob Tasca III, Matt Hagan and 16-time Champion John Force to score her fifth career win. \u00a0With that she became the winningest female driver in Funny Car history with the win. She took that title from her sister Ashley Force Hood, who had four career Funny Car wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just had my eyes set on Ashley for a while. There was a big cluster of people who had four wins and I kind of became obsessed with going for No. 5. You always want to do well and I know that once Ashley stepped out of the seat and started a family she had totally made herself. She did a great job and I looked up to her. I knew she had four wins and I looked at where her stats were to try to see where I was at and compare. She\u2019s just done so well. I looked up to her and I feel like I\u2019ve done a pretty good job if I can do half as well as she did. It\u2019s cool to reach No. 5, but I\u2019m very proud of my team because obviously I wouldn\u2019t be here without them and the hard work that they put in. I\u2019m only as good as my team is,\u201d said Force.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old went up against Peter Russo in the opening round for the first time ever and got lucky when Russo\u2019s car had complications on the line and wouldn\u2019t fire. He was unable to make the run, resulting in a win for the youngest Force. Her Traxxas Ford went up in smoke as she posted a 6.631 second run at 96.06 mph.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter qualifying we had the No. 1 spot, but we ran a 4.04 during the coolest time of the day. It\u2019s still a hot track out there. It looked good and it puts you to the No. 1 spot, but it wasn\u2019t where we wanted to be going into race day. We wanted consistent runs throughout qualifying and I\u2019m looking at the guys that are running the 4.07s and 4.10s and 4.11s in the heat of the day qualifying sessions. Pulling up for round one you\u2019re just thinking we ran 4.17 in Q1 and it was kind of as good as it got for our Traxxas team (in the heat ). It was unfortunate Russo wasn\u2019t able to make the run, but pure luck we were able to get the run by smoking the tires. It doesn\u2019t come easy. You definitely have to look at it and say we got lucky on that run, but it was a bummer that he couldn\u2019t run with us,\u201d said Force.<\/p>\n

In round two, it was Force up against Ford competitor Bob Tasca III. Tasca had lane choice, but Force quickly pulled away with a 4.276 ET at 197.65 mph. She is now 9-2 against Tasca in eliminations.<\/p>\n

In the semi-final round, Force lost lane choice once again this time to Matt Hagan, who she beat in the final round en route to her first career win in 2012 at Seattle. Matt Hagan qualified No. 5 and had lane choice. Force took the win with a 4.235 ET at 193.86 mph as Hagan had problems down track.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our entire team is definitely gelling better. Every year I\u2019ve had the same crew chief since the start of my rookie season and the great thing about John Force Racing is we all stick together as a team and we\u2019re not over here trying to move our guys around left and right. I like to keep my same routine. It makes me comfortable and I think it makes everybody else comfortable. I think it helps us to do better all in all. Year after year I\u2019m getting more comfortable in the seat, trying harder, working on my lights, leaving better and I actually put a lot more pressure on myself now in my third season because now I\u2019m looking at, well, maybe we do have a championship car,\u201d said Force.<\/p>\n

This is the third time she has won from the No. 1 spot and the sixth time she has qualified No. 1 in her three year Funny Car career. It is her first time winning at Sonoma, the 234th win for John Force Racing. Coming into Sonoma, she was 5-5 to her father, John Force.
\n\u201cGoing up in the second round it started being that we got by with that one then we got by with that one. We didn\u2019t have lane choice pretty much all day long until the final and I\u2019m sitting there going should we really switch lanes? We\u2019ve actually been getting down okay and getting the win light in the left lane, but I knew dad wanted that right lane so I thought we might as well take it, it might mess them up a little,\u201d said Force.<\/p>\n

\"(For<\/a>

(For the second time in two races on the NHRA Western Swing – the Funny Car final was all JFR.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Courtney took her Traxxas Ford Mustang straight down the race track to get her sixth win over her father. She is now vying with Alexis DeJoria to become the first woman Funny Car driver to win as many as three races in a single season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pressure was actually off because I was already celebrating after I won the semis. I watched my dad win and I knew if I won the semis I was going to have him in the final and no matter what, one of us was going to be in the winner\u2019s circle. One of us was going to win and at the end of the day it doesn\u2019t really matter who it is. But dad has 140 win right now, I\u2019d really like to just get five,\u201d said Force.<\/p>\n

Force currently owns the fastest speed in the history of 1,000 foot racing at 325.37 mph and has posted top speed in seven of 15 races this year. She also won the 100th pro tour event by a woman when she prevailed May 25th at Topeka, Kan. this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just turned out to be a great day. It definitely wasn\u2019t what I expected after qualifying and not having a completely consistent car. I saw dad in the final round right out my window the whole way down track and we were able to get around him and get that win. I think I saw puffs of smoke. I don\u2019t know if it was his car or mine. I felt like mine was trying to spin the tires.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think about way too many things when I\u2019m against dad. Normally I\u2019m calm and collected and I think whatever is going to happen will happen, but I was so wanting this win that I was thinking don\u2019t screw up on the light, don\u2019t red light, don\u2019t pull in too deep. I wanted to pull in deep, but I didn\u2019t want to light the red light and just ruin it for my team; typical final round scenarios that go through your head, but even more when it\u2019s against my dad. I was nervous. I just didn\u2019t want to screw up and it was just one of those deals where I just wanted to go and get this car straight down the track and do my job as a driver. I knew everyone would be looking at me so I just didn\u2019t want to screw it up for us,\u201d said Force.<\/p>\n

Event Essentials: \u00a0Sonoma Nationals – July 25-27th (Sonoma CA)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nNAME<\/td>\nET<\/td>\nMPH<\/td>\nCAREER WIN<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Winner:<\/strong><\/td>\nCourtney Force<\/td>\n\u00a04.253<\/td>\n\u00a0296.24<\/td>\n\u00a0 5th<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R\/UP:<\/strong><\/td>\nJohn Force<\/td>\n\u00a04.405<\/td>\n\u00a0237.05<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Low ET:<\/strong><\/td>\nCourtney Force<\/td>\n\u00a04.045<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Top Speed:<\/strong><\/td>\nCourtney Force<\/td>\n<\/td>\n\u00a0319.22<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bump Spot:<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\n\u00a06.248<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Event Entries:<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a018 cars<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Posted with files from Elon Werner & Bruce Biegler<\/p>\n

Photos by: \u00a0Gary Nastase<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtney Force took home the Wally from the No. 1 qualifying spot at the NHRA Sonoma Nationals when she dismissed competitors Peter Russo, Bob Tasca III, Matt Hagan and 16-time Champion John Force to score her fifth career win. \u00a0With that she became the winningest female driver in Funny Car history with the win. She […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1110"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1114,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110\/revisions\/1114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}