{"id":96861,"date":"2024-07-19T08:35:36","date_gmt":"2024-07-19T15:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=96861"},"modified":"2024-07-19T10:10:11","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T17:10:11","slug":"peak-chevy-funny-car-to-run-countdown-without-john-force-at-the-wheel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/peak-chevy-funny-car-to-run-countdown-without-john-force-at-the-wheel\/","title":{"rendered":"PEAK Chevy Funny Car to Run Countdown Without John Force at the Wheel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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John Force continues his rehab from a June 23 crash in Richmond – Gary Nastase photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

John Force\u2019s bright blue PEAK Chevrolet Camaro SS will be back in action well before its legendary driver is able to climb into the office he\u2019s used to gain 16 championships and 157 Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series Funny Car national event wins, his John Force Racing team announced.<\/p>\n

While Force recovers from the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) sustained in a June 23 crash at Virginia Motorsports Park outside Richmond, VA, his car is being prepped to return to competition before the start of NHRA\u2019s Countdown to the Championship that follows the 70th annual U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.<\/p>\n

Force had intended to compete in the 47th annual Cornwell ToolsNight Under Fire on Summit Motorsports Park\u2019s dragstrip the first weekend of August, where he was scheduled to race against seminal Funny Car rivals Ron Capps, a three time champion, two-time titleholder Cruz Pedregon and journeyman Dale Creasy Jr. That contest in Norwalk, Ohio is the tentative target for the car\u2019s return. The Night Under Fire show includes Top Fuel dragsters, Funny Car floppers, jet-powered cars and the Norwalk track\u2019s world-class fireworks shows.<\/p>\n

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Force’s car could make an appearance at the 47th Night Under Fire at Summit Motorsports Park – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAfter conversations with John\u2019s team and with our partners, especially Brian Bohlander at PEAK and Jim Campbell at Chevrolet,\u201d said Robert Hight, John Force Racing president, \u201cand with John\u2019s input and approval, we have begun taking the steps necessary to get the PEAK Chevy back on the racetrack.\u201d<\/p>\n

A three-time NHRA Funny Car champion and two-time Seattle winner, Hight has been sidelined this year by health issues. His seat in the Cornwell Tools Chevy Camaro SS has been capably filled by third-generation racer Austin Prock, who currently leads the category standings and is attempting, this weekend in Seattle, to become the third driver to win the Northwest NHRA Nationals titles in both Top Fuel, where he recorded his first professional victory, and in Funny Car.<\/p>\n

Hight noted, \u201cWe hope to tie up all the loose ends and introduce a driver sometime right after Sonoma,\u201d next week\u2019s NHRA Sonoma Nationals July 26-28. \u201cThere is a good pool of driving talent out there but, obviously we need to find the right fit for both the team and for our sponsors.\u201d While the team initially said Force was being transferred from Virginia to California, today\u2019s announcement said the nine-time Pacific Raceways Funny Car victor is being treated at an Arizona facility specializing in TBI recoveries.<\/p>\n

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John Force Racing is looking for the right driver fit to substitute for legendary John Force – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This weekend\u2019s 35th Northwest NHRA Nationals features four qualifying sessions – including the first ever Friday night qualifying session at Pacific Raceways, the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge for all four Mission Foods classes – Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock, Pro Stock Motorcycle – and full television coverage on both FOX Sports 1 (FS!) delivering Friday and Saturday qualifying, as well as FOX\u2019s free-to-air broadcast channel, which airs final eliminations, starting at 4PM ET. Those Sunday eliminations are scheduled to start at 10:30AM PDT.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As John Force continues his recovery from a traumatic brain injury, he and his team search for someone to fill his shoes in his Funny Car for Norwalk.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":96862,"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":[3465,3470,5029],"tags":[10577,6606,1504,75,423,9740,10128,7,5473,1460,440,2811],"class_list":["post-96861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-racing","tag-47th-night-under-fire","tag-austin-prock","tag-chevrolet-camaro-ss","tag-john-force","tag-john-force-racing","tag-mission-2fast2tasty-challenge","tag-mission-foods-nhra-drag-racing-series","tag-nhra","tag-pacific-raceways","tag-peak-antifreeze-coolant","tag-robert-hight","tag-summit-motorsports-park"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Force-by-Gary-Nastase-min.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-pch","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96861","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=96861"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96883,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96861\/revisions\/96883"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}