NHRA’s Pro Drivers and their team’s update from off-season. Part 1

John Force

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Pomona, CA  -RIS- February 7, 2015 

Here is a little insight as to what took place with some of the top drivers of NHRA & Mello Yello drag racing series regarding their cars, their personal being and family life during the off-season as they start off at the 2015 Circle K Winternantionals.

John Force: www.johnforceracing.com

Elon Werner, John Force Racing (JFR) public relations manager, invited me into JFR’s compound this morning and was happy to give me a recap regarding my three basic questions when we ran into the 16 time world champion funny car driver and team owner, John Force. John was quickly kind enough to entertain my questions.

John immediately told me of the sad passing of his long-time friend, partner and comptroller, David Arritt. 25 years they had known each other. He was happy to mention that Courtney will be marrying Graham Rahal in Santa Barbara but no date has been set as of now; most likely after the season – for both of them. Graham is best known for being an IndyCar driver and the son of retired driver and current IndyCar team owner, Bobby Rahal.

He also highlighted that for one year and seven months, since the end of the 2013 season, that he and the team have been working diligently, tirelessly and basically 24/7 nailing down quality sponsors. (Elon told me on the side that John did not want to upset or strip a major sponsor or ride from another team, wow! For the benefit of the whole (NHRA), that is integrity! He said he has to keep four teams afloat. He’d go to bed with ‘gut aches’ per him. It wasn’t going to be the way it was.

Well, John said ‘last night’ is when they nailed everything down in ink and Peak Antifreeze, Lucas Oil and Chevy retaining TRAXXAS for two years and AAA for another five years. Fantastic. He had nothing but nice words for FORD but Chevy as rolled out the red carpet. Jim Campbell, head of GM Racing, embraced JFR and designed a great marketing campaign. Just recently the team did radio spots, TV commercials and cameos in front of thousands of fans at Mark Christopher Chevrolet; the biggest dealership in the Inland Empire here in SoCal. JFR brought out the late 70s Brute Force “Chevrolet” Monza. John says they have their roots in GM.

But, through it all, John was adamant that  “safety” and “winning” was protected even though the payroll was reduced $1M USD. “If you don’t have that, you don’t have any viable potential at a championship.” Now the team has ‘HEART!’ They, the team, know what is at stake and all want to be ‘heroes’ for each other and the JFR team.

The cars are in the 3s so no real change there except as Brittany stated, she has a new chassis and with the whole team was practicing at Phoenix. “3.69 is not too bad,” said John. He had the teams practicing running, tearing down and doing it all over again.

John likes the new Camaro. He spoke so highly of his more than competent crew chief, Mike Neff, heading up Robert Hight’s team. He was happy to tell me some team movements like “LJ.” LJ stood for Little Jon but now that he has been upgraded to Big Jon being John’s crew chief now; he is 27 years old. Nice. He has been around pro teams for 10 years. One rather amusing story that John told me that even Brittany and Elon did not know was the team’s cook applying for a mechanic’s job. John said to him, “Well you cook and drive a truck well but what do you know about race cars?” ‘Cook Jim’ told John that when applied a long time ago for a mechanics job, the only spot available was – hospitality. I know race cars.” Boom, the cook is wrenching cars now for JFR! Awesome.

Elon filled me in on Robert as he was no readily available. Robert’s team attained six finals and won four races last year; more than most teams but did not win the championship. This is the 2nd year with Mike Neff and the team is – hungry to say the least. They ‘want’ a championship.

Del Worsham:

I serendipitously met Del at the NHRA Will Call window this morning located at the association’s museum. He nicely summarized that ‘both’ he and the car went on a ‘diet’ and got the car down to minimum weight. And, he and the family enjoy his boat and launch out of Newport area on the SoCal coast.

Forthcoming installment - Larry Dixon, Jack Beckman, Vincent Nobile, Tony, Doug...