Off Track Tale Story by Dwight Drum Digital Images by Gary Larsen
Champion Field, Champion Force
Questions by Dwight Drum Web work by Gary Larsen and Dwight Drum
Championships have to be about numbers, tallied points and total of wins. John Force has winning numbers like no other in his sport. It’s appropriate that Force showed up at pre-game Super Bowl XLIII festivities for his long – time sponsor Castrol to sign autographs in the ESPN Consumer Village in downtown Tampa, Fla. The NFL has hosted 43 national championships featured in its Super Bowls and Force has won 14 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series championships on many storied drag strips. Big numbers have a way of counting.
Teams win Super Bowls and although it appears in motorsports that drivers win championships, it’s really never one person winning. It’s no secret that teams win it all. Force and other winning drivers are quick to regard their teams as the biggest factor in racing. Yet counting everyone who contributed usually doesn’t make it to the news.
Force’s 2009 ford Mustang Funny Car was on display in a Castrol corner of ESPN’s pavilion in the Channelside area a few miles from Raymond James Stadium where the a kickoff and four quarters determine the biggest football game of the year.
While on site Force was animated and vocal as usual even though there wasn’t a racetrack for miles in any direction.
Before the NHRA starts its 56th season and months before the NFL starts its 77th season Force used learning from 32 seasons to describe the essence of winning.
As many fans know about Force as he heads into his 33rd season, he speaks beyond numbers.
What advice you got along the way worked the best for you?
"What worked the best? Don’t do any job that you don’t love. Don’t do it for the money. Don’t do it because you want to be a super star. Do it because you love it. Especially in motorsports, it’s a long haul. It’s not just the racing at the track. It’s the shows and the airplanes and living on the road. It will wear you out. That’s why I changed my lifestyle -- physical fitness, working in the gym, eating right, keeping my weight down. So I can continue to win. Don’t do anything unless you love it, otherwise you are wasting your time.”
Was there a point in your career when you thought I can really do this and was there another point when you thought this is really tough?
“No. Let me tell you even in the beginning when I was losing. I’ve had over 100 wins with Castrol and 14 championships, but from the day that I walked away from high school and got in my hot rod I always believed that I could win. It didn’t matter to me that I didn’t. That was just the way I went. If you don’t believe you can win, then you are wasting your time.”
Cameras can ride with you during a race, fans can’t. Can you describe to a fan what the camera can’t convey?
“It’s hard to explain. You can watch it on TV. Even as great a job as EPSN2 on TV does and what they capture of the racing and what it’s all about. Until you stand there. Until you attend an NHRA event. Until you have felt the ground shake underneath you. Until you’ve seen 8000 horse power and smelled Nitro Methane. Until you’ve seen a car go over 330 down that racetrack side-by-side. It’s not just the pros, the Funny Cars, Top Fuel dragsters, Pro Stock, it’s the ma and pas. You might see a 70 year-old granny out there dragging her car on the weekend. I can say that cause I’m almost a granny. Maybe I am. But at the end of the day there’s nothing like being there and experiencing side-by-side racing. We race on a 1000 foot racetrack now and we cover that in less than four seconds. It’s unbelievable.”
Race car drivers appear fearless. Is it all experience overcoming fear or do you feel that good racers actually feel less fear than most people?
“That’s a lie. Anybody who is fearless is just stupid. These race cars can take your life. I lost a driver two years ago in 07, Eric Medlen, the next generation of drivers and a kid that loved it with all his heart. But he knew the risks. I was in a crash later that year that hospitalized me for three months in Dallas, Texas. That’s when I really got into football, the Cowboys. I was rooting for Tony Romo, didn’t make it. I’m not a guy who believes in destiny. I believe you make your own destiny.
“Did I answer your questions?”
Enough said.
Digital Tales
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