{"id":805,"date":"2014-02-10T14:23:06","date_gmt":"2014-02-10T14:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=805"},"modified":"2014-05-05T15:47:28","modified_gmt":"2014-05-05T15:47:28","slug":"defending-multi-champ-wins-nhra-season-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=805","title":{"rendered":"Defending Multi-Champ Wins NHRA Season Opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Force opened his pursuit of a 17th Funny Car world championship title in record-setting fashion when he raced to victory during the season-opening Circle K NHRA Winternationals held at historic Auto Club Racing at Pomona near Los Angeles.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"NFFC-WN-Force\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Force outran his most recent arch-rival, Matt Hagan, in the final round of the tradition-rich event. Force powered his Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang to a national record time of 3.965 seconds at 323.58 mph to take the win over Hagan\u2019s Mopar Express Lane\/Rocky Boots Dodge Charger, which lost traction early in the race and finished in 6.613 at 117.88.<\/p>\n

It was Force\u2019s sixth consecutive final round appearance dating back to last season and an NHRA record 139th victory. Force, who earned a 20-point bonus for setting the national E.T. record, now holds a 50-point lead over Hagan.<\/p>\n

Force, 64, who raced past Paul Lee, Tommy Johnson Jr. and Bob Tasca in earlier rounds, won from the No. 1 qualifying position and also set the Funny Car national speed record at 324.12 mph.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a good race car. It\u2019s amazing,\u201d said Force, of his 16th win at his home track and his seventh Winternationals trophy. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to build our sport and come out here and run good for you all and the fans, and it\u2019s hard sometimes. Jimmy Prock and that whole brain trust did a great job. We\u2019re back in the game. Everything\u2019s just going right. I don\u2019t get it. I ain\u2019t that good of a guy. I\u2019m just excited. There\u2019s a lot going on (with sponsors), and man, what a good time to flex your muscles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Event Essentials: \u00a0Circle K Winternationals (Pomona CA):<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\u00a0NAME<\/td>\n\u00a0ET<\/td>\n\u00a0MPH<\/td>\n\u00a0CAREER WIN<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Winner:<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a0John Force<\/td>\n\u00a03.965<\/td>\n\u00a0323.58<\/td>\n\u00a0139th<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R\/UP:<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a0Matt Hagan<\/td>\n\u00a06.613<\/td>\n\u00a0117.88<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Low ET:<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a0John Force<\/td>\n\u00a03.965<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Top Speed:<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a0John Force<\/td>\n<\/td>\n\u00a0324.12<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bump Spot:<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\n\u00a04.162<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Event Entries:<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a021 cars<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The FC Final saw Matt Hagan move first in the Mopar Express Lane Dodge only to spin the tires while John Force recorded a national recorded setting ET to win in the far lane.<\/p><\/div>\n

Photos by: \u00a0Bruce Biegler<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Force opened his pursuit of a 17th Funny Car world championship title in record-setting fashion when he raced to victory during the season-opening Circle K NHRA Winternationals held at historic Auto Club Racing at Pomona near Los Angeles.<\/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\/805"}],"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=805"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":843,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805\/revisions\/843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}