{"id":80154,"date":"2021-06-17T16:12:19","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T23:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=80154"},"modified":"2021-06-17T16:12:19","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T23:12:19","slug":"lets-enjoy-john-force-while-we-can","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/lets-enjoy-john-force-while-we-can\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Enjoy John Force While We Can"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"John<\/p>\n

Believe it – 2020 was a year John Force would like to put in his rearview mirror. After the second race of NHRA\u2019s Camping World Drag Racing Series season, he had to park his two Top Fuel entries for daughter Brittany Force and Austin Prock, together with his own Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car and that of then-reigning champion Robert Hight.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t an easy choice for the 16-time champion who, in 2019, won the vaunted U.S. Nationals, even as he brought up the \u201cR\u201d word after that race, talking with the media about the probability that the icon\u2019s long career was in its waning days. He knows it\u2019s gonna happen, that the race boots, fire suit, helmet and gloves will get hung up for a final time.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just not that time yet, not when Force is notching even more victories, driving exceptionally well and moving his personal goalposts towards the possibility of a 17th title in Funny Car. Earning his 153rd Wally winner\u2019s trophy at Epping, N.H. in the TascaParts.com NHRA New England Nationals presented by Bandero premium tequila against Hight, in their seventh final round meeting, Force\u2019s John Force Racing team won its third straight race in 2021, showing the rust they might have accumulated during the pandemic is, officially, gone!<\/p>\n

This latest victory, earned in the category\u2019s 900th race during NHRA\u2019s 70th anniversary season, gives John Force bragging rights for a couple of weeks before the show lands in Norwalk, Ohio. This win, Force said, \u201crepresents a team effort. You have to look at both of these cars and all the people that take care of me. That\u2019s what it\u2019s all about.\u201d Force parlayed this result into second-place points, just 15 behind Bob Tasca III in first.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

\u201cRobert [Hight] helps me so much trying to help me back in the driver\u2019s seat where I don\u2019t suck so bad,\u201d Force said after this latest victory. \u201cRight now, I\u2019ve got a car and I won today, and I did my job.\u201d Force did his job from the No. 3 qualifying spot, making an initial run past Cory Lee\u2019s Ford Mustang, vanquishing J.R. Todd\u2019s Toyota Camry and getting the best of Terry Haddock\u2019s Mustang to earn the right to face his company president, Hight, whom he defeated with a 3.972-sec pass to Hight\u2019s 3.993.<\/p>\n

Those efforts don\u2019t look or sound like a guy on his way to the exit signs. Still, we must enjoy the sight and sounds of John Force while we are able to do so. Getting through 2020 without John, Robert, Austin and Brittany wasn\u2019t all that much fun, was it?<\/p>\n

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

Believe it – 2020 was a year John Force would like to put in his rearview mirror.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":80157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,17,3470,5029,3399,22],"tags":[5614,38,75,423,41],"class_list":["post-80154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-guest-column","category-news","category-racing","category-nhra","category-event-coverage","tag-anne-proffit","tag-funny-car","tag-john-force","tag-john-force-racing","tag-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/John-Force-burnout-e1623971349835.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-kQO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80154"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80158,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80154\/revisions\/80158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}