G.
01-18-07, 02:57 PM
Column: Is Force with NHRA daughter? By JIM LITKE, AP Sports Columnist
Wed Jan 17, 8:11 PM ET
We've seen men named Earnhardt and Andretti build auto racing empires with an eye on the horizon, trying to picture the day when one of their sons would go zooming by.
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John Force did the same over the last two decades, but with a twist: On Tuesday, the biggest name in the drag-racing game handed the keys to one of the family cars to his 24-year-old daughter, Ashley.
"A lot of people want me to say, 'I'll kick dad's butt,'" Ashley said over the telephone from California, taking a break from her daylong media blitz. "Not so fast.
"I've been around long enough to know he's won dozens of races he had no business winning. So the only thing I'll say about that is I've learned from the best."
Pause.
"But I've seen him acting all goofy in a robe and slippers, too," she laughed. "So maybe he won't seem quite as intimidating to me as he does to a lot of guys out here."
The 2007 drag-racing season opens Feb. 8 in Pomona, Calif., and ends there in early November. Somewhere in between, at one of the nearly two dozen tracks where the NHRA Powerade Series puts down stakes for the weekend, 14-time series winner and defending champion John Force and rookie Ashley will wind up waiting at the same traffic light.
Once it turns green, each will be trying to keep a funny car traveling at speeds over 300 mph glued to the center line of the quarter-mile road stretched out before them. They will be part of the four-car team John Force owns, but they won't be teammates, at least not for the 4.5 or so seconds it takes to reach the finish line.
more... (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070118/ap_on_sp_au_ra_ne/car_jim_litke011707)
http://www.draglist.com/artman/uploads/daily_stories/nhra-gjg-5931.jpg
Wed Jan 17, 8:11 PM ET
We've seen men named Earnhardt and Andretti build auto racing empires with an eye on the horizon, trying to picture the day when one of their sons would go zooming by.
ADVERTISEMENT
John Force did the same over the last two decades, but with a twist: On Tuesday, the biggest name in the drag-racing game handed the keys to one of the family cars to his 24-year-old daughter, Ashley.
"A lot of people want me to say, 'I'll kick dad's butt,'" Ashley said over the telephone from California, taking a break from her daylong media blitz. "Not so fast.
"I've been around long enough to know he's won dozens of races he had no business winning. So the only thing I'll say about that is I've learned from the best."
Pause.
"But I've seen him acting all goofy in a robe and slippers, too," she laughed. "So maybe he won't seem quite as intimidating to me as he does to a lot of guys out here."
The 2007 drag-racing season opens Feb. 8 in Pomona, Calif., and ends there in early November. Somewhere in between, at one of the nearly two dozen tracks where the NHRA Powerade Series puts down stakes for the weekend, 14-time series winner and defending champion John Force and rookie Ashley will wind up waiting at the same traffic light.
Once it turns green, each will be trying to keep a funny car traveling at speeds over 300 mph glued to the center line of the quarter-mile road stretched out before them. They will be part of the four-car team John Force owns, but they won't be teammates, at least not for the 4.5 or so seconds it takes to reach the finish line.
more... (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070118/ap_on_sp_au_ra_ne/car_jim_litke011707)
http://www.draglist.com/artman/uploads/daily_stories/nhra-gjg-5931.jpg