NHRA News: Force contemplative after winning his 12th POWERade championship (12/5/2002)

Force contemplative after winning his 12th POWERade championship

By Rob Geiger, NHRA.com
12/5/2002

"Somebody's gonna beat me sooner or later. It's just a matter of time."
– John Force

So what do you do to celebrate when you're Funny Car legend John Force and you've just clinched your 12th series title in the last 13 years? You've already surpassed every goal you set for yourself and the brass ring of your chosen profession seems to be permanently positioned within arms' reach.

This time around the 53-year-old from Yorba Linda, Calif., went old school and returned to his roots in Northern California's vast logging country in search of, well, even the champ isn't sure. All he knew was he was tired. He went by himself, turned off his cel phone, even ducked under the radar of his longtime PR guy Dave Densmore, just to do some thinking.

"I went back to some of the places I used to go when I was a kid," Force said. "I went to some old logging camps in Northern California, up by Eureka. I went to Redding and spent a day there. I never take vacations. I just took a few days to kinda think about life.

"I thought a lot about my mom and dad. They're both gone now but I went back to places I lived when I was a kid and they were around. I went up to a town called Korbel near Blue Lake where the logging industry was real big until Lady Bird Johnson stopped logging so the trees could catch up. I remembered where I had come from.

"I went up there to refocus and get my motivation up for next year. It's tough because I have reached all my goals but you have to keep evolving as a person. I want to evolve into a team owner in time. That's where I want to be. Right now I still have the desire to stay in the seat. I love the competition. Them guys out there, we might feud and fight, but the other night I came across [Whit] Bazemore on the radio and he said a lot of nice things about me. That was really nice.

"I got to thinking that what we're really trying to earn out here is respect. Somebody's gonna beat me sooner or later. It's just a matter of time."

Another year at the office
By his lofty standards, Force had an average season in terms of what he accomplished. He added eight wins to his resume, pushing his record total to 106 victories, posted a pair of runner-up finishes, as well as six Low Qualifier honors.

Teammates Tony Pedregon (black car) and John Force raced down to the semifinals of the last event to decide the championship.

The most remarkable thing about this title chase was the competition he had down the stretch with teammate Tony Pedregon, who pushed him until the semifinals of the last race before the championship was decided in one climatic head-to-head race. Since everything Force does is closely scrutinized, the fight with Pedregon raised speculation that team orders called for Pedregon to take dives on occasion to secure Force's frontrunner status. If anything, Force hopes the down-to-the-wire finish finally dispelled those accusations.

"Racing's what I do," Force said. "I haven't spent a lot of time looking back on what we did this year. I'm proud of the year. We won as a team and I'm excited we gave the fans some great racing like we promised right there at the end with Tony and myself.

"When I got back from my little journey I found Tony and everything was fine. We have our ups and downs like anybody else but any rumors that he's quitting because he's upset about not winning the championship are not true. If he's quitting he ain't telling me. He was over there smiling like Tony Pedregon does.

"He wanted to win but the bottom line is the team won and we paid all the bills and we'll move on. He'll come right back and he's still got a great hot rod and he'll make a run at the 2003 title from the start. His car didn't start running well until late in the year. Think about that. He'll be better next year. He's way overdue."

The future is getting clearer
In Force's mind, it's not a matter of if Pedregon will win his share of titles; it's when he'll do it. And as the animal that is his racing empire continues to grow, Force thinks it will probably be sooner rather than later.

"His time is coming," Force said. "But there's still a little fight left in me and we'll be racing just as hard in 2003 as we did this year. I'm gonna run three Funny Cars again. There are a lot of investments; I've got a new shop in Indy I'm about to close on. I'm trying to orchestrate financially how to go into the future and how to build my teams.

Force takes a breather during the Indy event.

"I'm trying to get up for the fight again, but hell, I haven't even recovered from the old fight yet. That's what I was trying to do for a few days. I haven't had time to rest or reflect or do anything really. We worked for a week after Pomona, then everyone went on vacation and I spent a week catching up with paperwork, and then I stole three days and went North. When I got back I went straight back into the fight; it's what I do.

"I have great sponsors in Castrol and Syntec and everybody's in line to do it again. It's business as usual for John Force Racing. I'm just trying to figure out which direction to go."

The direction appears to favor relinquishing his seat at some point to his daughter Ashley, who will then fight alongside Pedregon and Gary Densham.

"She's still learning what it's all about but when she's ready to go I'll be here for her," Force said. "For now I promised Ford we'd stay in Funny Car and run Mustangs, no Top Fuel deal, and we're staying with three cars plus the Super Comp dragster for Ashley.

"On the business end it's time for Tony and Gary to take more of the load off me. I have car shows and the open house deal at the shop. We're re-opening the museum and we have an apparel store with racecars hanging off the roof. Plus, there's a hotel going in across the street and I'm building a restaurant. I'm building for the future. There are a lot of irons in the fire."

Re-kindling the spark
So the business is clicking along and the trophy case is being expanded and plans for the future appear to be in place, just how will Force find motivation to get up for the battle in 2003?

"I was excited to get home and see my guys come back," Force said. "That fires me up because they all put their hearts and souls into this team. Some of them moved on, a lot to the Oakley team with Scotty. A kid I really liked, Phil Schuler, is gonna crew chief over there. He's a very talented individual and I didn't like losing him but I wish him great luck. We already have a stack of 100 resumes so we'll go on. My team runs itself in that regard. It's very well polished so I'm not in a crisis of any type.

There's no reason to think Force's Castrol Ford Mustang won't be favored to win it all again in 2003.

"Let's talk about next year. Lucky 13? Don't even start it. I don't want to talk about it. I have nothing to say. I just don't know which way I'm going in life. We just got back together the other day. I'll get up for the fight because I don't know any other way."

The frenetic pace can't continue forever, however, even drag racing's Superman acknowledges this undeniable fact.

"I went back to the doctor," said Force, who suffered gallbladder problems during the season. "I had a few things they needed to look at. I need to change my pace a little bit. I want to slow down my lifestyle and find that pace I had when I was kid up there in Northern California. I still want to get after the championship but I need to slow down outside of that a little bit. You can't run at this pitch for 30 years. It's going to catch up with you."

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