David Woo photo

Ashley Force Hood and her cat, Simba, were the focus of a photo shoot by noted photographer David Woo for his upcoming book, Top Dogs and Their Pets. The NHRA Funny Car star posed in her trademark Castrol GTX firesuit along with a freshly bathed Simba for the coffee-table-style book featuring celebrities and their pets. Simba, always right at home at the races, kept the entire John Force Racing family on its toes before the photo shoot, running and hiding throughout the Yorba Linda, Calif., shop.

“At first, Simba just wanted to run around in the front lobby of our shop. There are so many bright colorful things up there, he was just having a heyday running underneath Funny Cars and jumping over couches. He just didn’t know where he wanted to go. We had to keep searching for him and climbing under the race cars to coax him out,” said AOL’s Hottest Athlete of 2007. “Once he got into the swing of things, he tired out a little from running around. That worked out pretty good because we were all getting a little tired from chasing him all over the place. It was a lot of fun.”

Simba’s ability to get underneath the Funny Cars on display surprised the 2007 rookie of the year. The always-playful Simba kept a number of Force Hood’s family members at bay, but he was unable to elude her 14-time Funny Car world champion father, John.

“I didn’t realize he could squeeze right under the body of a Funny Car,” said the newlywed driver. "I did not think he had enough clearance. He somehow managed to pull that off. That took a good 10 minutes to somehow coax him out. He just thought we were playing with him. We would try and get him to chase after one of his feather toys, but he would just run from one end of the Mustang to the other. He stayed just enough underneath the body that we couldn’t reach him. We finally tricked him as four of us positioned ourselves around the car, and Dad was actually the person that caught him.

"Of course, Dad is also the only one of us who is allergic to cats and he is the one that grabs him."

In addition to shooting a number of poses for the book, Woo shot a number of poses featuring Force Hood, Simba, and a 7,000-horsepower nitro Funny Car. Since Simba’s television debut on ESPN2, the John Force RaceStation souvenir and collectibles store has been swamped by requests for a Force Hood and Simba poster.

“We posed by Dad’s Castrol GTX High Mileage Mustang but cropped it so just the Castrol GTX showed. My car was at the L.A. Boat Show from a weekend appearance. I was leaning beside the Mustang, and Simba was on the injector. We think we got some good shots for a poster. It is a neat photo. It just looks like we are hanging out by my Funny Car,” said the proud owner.