Courtney Force – the younger daughter of NHRA Drag Racing legend, John Force – will embark on her first full NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car campaign in 2012 with the family race team under the TRAXXAS banner.
23-year-old Force is a national event winner in the Top Alcohol Dragster division and will take the next step forward into one of the Castrol GTX-backed 8,000 Horsepower Funny Cars. Nevertheless, stepping behind the wheel of the Funny Car is not a daunting task for the stunning blonde, having tested post-events throughout 2011.
She will join her father – a 15-time NHRA Series Champion – Robert Hight and Mike Neff in the team and picks up where her elder sister, Ashley Force-Hood left off. She is being backed by TRAXXAS – a manufacturer of drive-ready radio-controlled cars.
“This is what I’ve always wanted to do and to have had my sister Ashley, my dad, brother-in-law Robert Hight and Mike Neff teach me makes it that much better. I have had the best teachers. I’m just going to learn all I can and see where it takes me.”
As for the differences between the Top Alcohol dragster and the Funny Car:
“Steering the car was one of the biggest changes for me,” she explained. “You don’t want to over-steer in a dragster (but) then you get in a Funny Car and you almost have to over-steer to keep the car going straight. There’s just a lot more manhandling of the Funny Car than there used to be in the dragster, but it’s definitely been fun.”
The NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing season begins with the Winternationals at Pomona, February 9-12.
