August 7: I was there

Imagine a big time racing series. It attracts the best drivers. The best teams. Also the best sponsors. The bigger the series, the harder it is to win at that level. When you get your trophy, you know you've beaten the best. So when something like this happens this past weekend, it is rather incredible.........

This feat took thirty two years. Thirty two years! That alone is amazing. How many other racers or anyone else has been at the top of their game for that long?

I was there at the beginning of his run for the history books. Back in 1987 at the NHRA Grandnational event just outside of Montreal. The Sunday finals had been rained out, so I went back Monday morning with my wife, my brother and his wife. All three were not drag racing fans, but the finals were free, since it was only going to take about an hour or less to wrap up this event. Barbara had never seen or more importantly heard a fuel funny car, so when Force pulled to the staging area and started up, she jumped, covered her ears and swore never to come to another drag race. Minutes later, John Force finally won a big event after many runner ups........

John Force. Perennial loser, but a great promoter. Check out all those big time sponsors on this "loser's" car. He may not have won before, but everyone knew that he was there. Now all these years later, he notches that milestone win total..........

John Force is seventy years old. Think about that. These cars, with their 11,000 HP (also think about that for a second), are all about reaction time. A millisecond makes all the difference, when you are covering the track in 3.97 seconds with a top end velocity of 320 mph. I'm that age and by the time I think about pulling away from a traffic light, three seconds are already up. I bet he can grab flies in mid-air.

At the beginning Force was a down on his luck truck driver putting any spare cash into his low buck funny car trying to make a name for himself. Having a name like Force helped.........

That was in an era, when you would work on your car in your garage. Times change, but Force still has the work done in his garage. It's just a little bigger.........

......and he has two, one in California and one in Indianapolis. He also has a couple of funny car teams and a couple of top fuel dragster teams. Big changes for this one time lowly truck driver, now a multimillionaire.

Has it been easy? When you've raced for that long, you have the hard times along with the good times. For instance, twelve years ago the crash below broke his wrist, ankle and several fingers. Told he was never going to race again. Seems he proved them wrong.

 Seventy years old and not finished yet. Reads like the American dream. From this very low buck, old funny car.......

 .......to these modern facilities (times two)............

Next time someone says you're too old. Think of John Force, as you ease your walker up to the starting line.

Until next time.......