Celebrating its 52nd year, the March Meet at Auto Club Famoso Raceway in McFarland, Calif., has always been a hot spot for drag racing. As a child, 14-time NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car world champion John Force remembers peering through the chain-link fence as merely a spectator. In 1984, he found himself on the other side of the fence, living his dream and capturing his first, and only, March Meet championship. Fast-forward to 2010, and Force finds himself wearing yet another hat as the grand marshal of the storied event this weekend, March 5-7.

“The March Meet is and always has been a great place for entertainment. I will see a lot of my old race buddies that I started with and raced against there,” said Force. “I have wanted to come back for a long time. 2009 NHRA Funny Car champ Robert Hight has come up here with Tom McKernan, Auto Club CEO, and they always tell me the fun I’d have. It is an honor to have the Auto Club, Blake Bowser, and Famoso Raceway invite me to be the grand marshal.”

2010 will mark the first return of Force to the event since that 1984 win.

“It’s great to see the transition from where the sport was to where it is today. I saw it as a driver. So much has changed, not better, not worse, just different. It will be a great time, and I encourage everyone to come up and enjoy it,” added Force.

“We’ve had some big names as grand marshals at the March Meet,” said Bowser, vice president and general manager of the Kern County Racing Association, operator of Auto Club Famoso Raceway and producer of the March Meet, “but John Force is in a class by himself. He’s a living legend and the greatest Funny Car racer of all time. This will be a real treat for fans.”