Susan Wade: Funny Car Race Takes Dramatic Twist With Prock Defection

forceprock

NHRA crew chief Jimmy Prock spent his formative years in Michigan as a hockey goalie.

So volunteering his face and body as targets of frozen rubber disks flying at him at 90-100 mph might explain something.

It might explain how he has survived so many years at John Force Racing, with a frenzied boss darting all over like a puck in an opponent’s 1-3-1 power play. It might explain why Prock always has excelled in a team environment. It might explain why he has been the definitive blend of pit bull and cool customer.

DSC_3588Mind you, Prock never has exhibited acute goaltender goofiness. He’s nothing like notorious former New York Rangers netminder Gilles Gratton, whose belief in reincarnation prompted him to say, “In my last life I was a Spanish Count and one of the things I loved to do . . . was take all the commoners, line them up against a wall, and throw rocks at them.” Gratton, who acknowledged that earning a living as a pro hockey goaltender was his penance for such wickedness, also once claimed his abdominal pain was déjà vu from his life as a soldier during the Spanish Inquisition: “I was killed when I was run through with a lance.” A point in Gratton’s favor: Evidently he could enter a room, make a beeline for a piano, and play classical concertos – without ever having had a lesson. But of course, in the next moment, he could refuse to take his place in goal because the moon and stars were out of alignment.

Prock, by consensus, is a quietly intense mechanical genius. He hasn’t exhibited any Grattonesque behavior, but Prock clearly marches to his own drummer. So does John Force.

And that’s how and why their agendas collided in the just-enough-time-to-get-in-trouble pause in the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series between the Reading and Las Vegas Countdown to the Championship races.

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Years ago, Prock’s previous boss, Joe Amato, predicted, “He’s your Austin Coil of the future.”

This month Amato’s prophecy came true. Reportedly like Coil in 2010, Prock decided a pay cut wasn’t for him. Unlike Coil, he didn’t retire. He told Force he’s be leaving at the end of the year, heard Force tell him “Buh-bye” immediately, and found work elsewhere.

What stings maybe the most is that Prock ran down the street in Brownsburg, Ind., and made a deal with Don Schumacher Racing. That’s the team that fields Hagan’s Funny Car. It might not be the timing Prock had planned, but it’s terrible timing nonetheless.

What makes this plot twist so juicy is the fact Prock joined the staff of Force’s keenest Funny Car rival.

It’s not enough that Force lost his tuner and key member of his celebrated brain trust with two races remaining in the season. It’s not gut-churning enough for Force that it came at a time he and his team need to focus on nothing but getting back the Funny Car lead Matt Hagan took at Reading – or even that it came when Force relentlessly has been trying to present his organization as strong as he pursues funding. (Force is on the brink of announcing 2015 sponsorship.)

What stings maybe the most is that Prock ran down the street in Brownsburg, Ind., and made a deal with Don Schumacher Racing. That’s the team that fields Hagan’s Funny Car. It might not be the timing Prock had planned, but it’s terrible timing nonetheless – and an extra slap for Force, who showed his ultra-competitive nature when he and former next-door shop neighbor Don “The Snake” Prudhomme chirped at each other about who had the larger American flag atop his flagpole. Losing something – anything – to Don Schumacher had to be a bitter pill to swallow.

DSR spokesman Jeff Wolf told Dragzine, “Matt Hagan’s team is run, and will continue to be run, by [crew chief] Dickie Venables and assistant Michael Knudsen. Jimmy [Prock] does not have a specific role with DSR. It’s uncertain if he will be at Las Vegas. There are no changes to DSR teams. Those who ran our teams at Reading will do so at Las Vegas.”

In fairness to Wolf, he might have had no idea whether Prock will be “consulting” with Venables and Knudsen. But why would Prock not do that? Why would Schumacher not expect him to do so? Prock has valuable information – and Prock has the knowledge that helped keep Force no worse than third place all season and in first place for two separate stretches as they went to 10 final rounds.

And after all, even Force said when he learned Schumacher was negotiating for 2015 with Prock, “All’s fair in love and war. You got to do what you got to do.”

Image courtesy NHRA/National Dragster

Image courtesy NHRA/National Dragster

Said Force, “I was a little surprised that we’re in the middle of the Countdown, but whatever. It’s called business. I’m a big boy, and I understand it.”

One thing that’s undeniable about Force is that he can absorb harsh blows with hardly a whimper and can rebound in superhuman fashion.

The end of the Jimmy Prock Era at John Force Racing transpired not with messy public name-calling or hand-wringing. Force set the tone with praise for Prock’s work, a declaration that he will move on and remain strong, and even a flash of his trademark humor.

I was a little surprised that we’re in the middle of the Countdown, but whatever. It’s called business. I’m a big boy, and I understand it. – John Force

He called Prock “a great kid” and “brilliant” and said, “I got no complaints.”

How it went down was this way, according to Force:

“I said, Jimmy, ‘You know where I come from. I need to know if you’re with me or you’re not.’ We danced around for a few days. Finally I said, ‘I need to know because I have sponsor contracts that have been signed, contracts that are on the table. I’m selling this powerhouse race team of power teams. You and Mike Neff lead my charge, and I need to know where I stand.’ Jimmy Prock said, ‘I’m probably going to leave at the end of the year.’ I said ‘I need to know for sure.’ He said, ‘If I have to tell you, basically I need a change.’ I said, ‘I respect that.’ He turned in a resignation yesterday for the end of the year. I met with my brain trust – Robert Hight, Mike Neff, and the group, John Medlen. I told Jimmy Prock I would accept his resignation, but I was accepting it now. I’ll take it right now.”

DSC_4015If anyone were tempted to call Force impetuous or reckless, he set them straight right away, saying, “I know it’s in the middle of the Countdown, and you think I’m committing suicide. But I’m not. I race from the heart. I’m about principle. I’m about camaraderie. I’m about loyalty. If a man’s heart is not here with me, his job is to protect his family, he’s got to do what he’s got to do, and John Force has got to do what he’s got to do.”

It was much like the speech Bob Vandergriff gave JR Todd this spring when Todd told him he had the chance for a fulltime ride at Kalitta Motorports.

Force went on: “My dad, he taught me to work together as a team with my brothers and sisters. We fought all the time. But at the end of the day we celebrated the good times, and we stayed together in the bad times. I did the same thing when I went into high school playing football. To me it was all about the love, the dream. It wasn’t just about winning, whereas in today’s game it’s about winning championships. It was about the love of the sport.”

Force said, “In the process, I’ve always been very open, very honest with my employees, told them where I stood, because I want to be fair to them even now in this conference. My employees understood that I may have to lose a few people. I may have to cut some wages. We’ve addressed that as we watched the money, where we were moving ahead. Financially I even dipped into my savings like I’ve done before, my wife and I, two and a half million dollars. Maybe I’m too honest to my employees the way I lay it out. I want to be real straight. This is about their families, about their children and their homes, how they’re going to make it.”

Image courtesy NHRA/National Dragster

Image courtesy NHRA/National Dragster

Prock’s departure left Force a bit bruised at a time he most needed to have protection.

“I’ve got about a week,” he said right after Prock left. “I’m addressing the employees. If they’re going to stay, I’ll know that, have a commitment by late in the day, if they will stay through the Countdown. If not, I’ve got a week to build a complete race team. These are good people. I have no complaints. They’ve done their jobs.”

His startlingly quick comeback from that (literally and figuratively) shattering crash at Dallas in 2007 is proof that Force has faced steeper odds – and prevailed. He said when he puts on his firesuit, he’s Superman. Will he be faster than an exiting crew chief, stronger than a loco-motive, and able to leap past points leader Hagan with a single bound?

I built my teams with an A plan, with a B backup plan. C plan isn’t pretty. That’s me tuning. You’d get a heck of a show. I’d be on fire every week. You’d see it on TV. I know because I tried it years ago. – John Force

Only time and two more events will tell. If not, it won’t be because Force didn’t prepare.

“I’ve always had an A, B, C plan in life on everything I do,” he said. “I built my teams with an A plan, with a B backup plan. C plan isn’t pretty. That’s me tuning. You’d get a heck of a show. I’d be on fire every week. You’d see it on TV. I know because I tried it years ago.”

Force added, “We’re going to come out swinging. I’ll have a good race car in the Countdown, you can count on that. The rest is where Lady Luck takes us.

“I’m moving ahead,” he said. “My job is to put three Funny Car teams and one Top Fuel dragster out there. That is my plan, and I’m going to stick to it.”

John Force Racing will survive Jimmy Prock’s exit. It’s just another shot on goal that Force has deflected. Force, incidentally, never has served as a hockey goaltender, but he has all the attributes of a classic one.

About the author

Susan Wade

Celebrating her 45th year in sports journalism, Susan Wade has emerged as one of the leading drag-racing writers with 20 seasons at the racetrack. She was the first non-NASCAR recipient of the prestigious Russ Catlin Award and has covered the sport for the Chicago Tribune, Newark Star-Ledger, St. Petersburg Times, and Seattle Times. Growing up in Indianapolis, motorsports is part of her DNA. She contributes to Power Automedia as a freelancer writer.
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