Force Back In Fight Mode, Ready To Answer Bell Again

John Force had prepared for this fight.

He was in sound economic shape and was disciplined as he sought a 16th NHRA Funny Car championship. He was faithfully in the gym — and no slouch in his office, either. He had studied the companies he was going into the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series ring with in 2013.  

“I knew the things that were going on with Castrol and Ford, and I knew there was going to be change. I figured I was going to take a hit, and I even set myself for a 50-percent hit by both,” Force said.

But first Ford and then Castrol delivered a 1-2 adios punch that he said “knocked the wind out of me. We lost 45 percent [of John Force Racing’s income].”

Reeling, he staggered to his corner and assessed his wounds. And then he came out swinging.

Force finalized deals with Traxxas and the Auto Club of Southern California to extend sponsorship for four and five years for daughter Courtney Force’s and son-in-law/JFR president Robert Hight’s Mustangs, respectively. He signed a multiyear agreement with motorsports marketing firm JMI to find funding for his own Funny Car and for daughter Brittany Force’s Top Fuel dragster.

He agreed to bring back an updated version of his reality-TV show “Driving Force,” and he hired Octagon Entertainment and producer Brent Travers to help him “go Hollywood” again and bring in money to underwrite the racing operation. And he hired top-drawer entertainment agency Rogers & Cowan to tell the world about the family drag-racing team.

“I can’t do it alone. I don’t have the time,” Force said of sponsorship solicitation. “The racing I’ve pretty much assigned to Robert. I run the other corporations with my other people. So what do I do? I’ve got to find an agency that can chase it every day.”

Force revealed plans for his so-called “new era” at NASCAR’s Charlotte Motor Speedway last Thursday, the day before his colorfully cluttered full-page ad in USA Today ran. The ad shamelessly told the newspaper-reading world that Force is “on the market” and ready to deal, complete with the e-mail contact information for JMI boss Jon Flack.   

“Once he got the news, a total switch went on,” Hight said of Force. And like some modern-day Angelo Dundee, Hight said, “With his personality and their expertise, I think there’s going to be a lot of doors open. We’re going to come out better than before.”

It was Horatio Alger reinventing himself, Rocky filming another sequel, that prize-fighter answering the bell for another round because that’s what he knows how to do. He showed he had fresh legs, could bob and weave and land some jabs, and didn’t care about his opponent’s size and reach and punching power. Sloughing off the double black eyes and defying a mean economy, Force got his second wind.

“We have a fight on our hands, and we got to deliver,” Force said. “I’m a fighter. I’m at a crossroad. In 2015, my life starts all over again. For the first time in 25 years, we’re on the market.

“I’ve got a lot of work to do if I’m going to stay in business. I ain’t talking a million. I ain’t talking five million. I’m talking a lot,” he said.

“If I just had race cars, I could park a race car. I could lay a team off,” he said. “But when you’ve got those other 50 guys running chassis shops and paint shops, the only income is the teams that fund them and Ford.”

He said, “In the last four years I’ve kind of lost myself. Running around, chasing Corporate America, that’s a full-time job. I’m going to leave it to the experts. I want to get back to winning championships. I want to go back there.”

Both Force and Flack have said they won’t announce any new deals until the 2014 season ends, out of respect for Ford and Castrol and the fact each gave JFR plenty of time to seek new marketing partners.

“I never thought they would walk,” Force said of Ford, which he said had expressed “issues” about “the value of NHRA.” Castrol’s pullout made him worry even more for the sport.

He said he asked himself, “What do I do to help the sport grow? What do I do to grow my children’s brand? What do I do for all the people who invested? If I’m going to quit — and I’m not saying I’m the only guy out here, but I’m a big name — and I can’t make it . . . ?”

He said he concluded, “I’ve got to stay in this business . . . and I want to stay, anyway, because I just love it. I’m hooked on it.”

With his self-imposed burden to save the sport, Force found extra motivation not to sulk in his corner.

“I’m saving myself, because I am addicted,” Force said. “I love it. I’m in love with it to the point I’m just stupid. I owe the sport of drag racing. I will stay here till I drop.

“My family knows this is all I know,” he said. “But I love it. I don’t golf. I don’t fish. This is what I do. It’s fun every day I go to work. And Robert, he’s the same way. He’s worse than me.”

Besides, he said, “If I left this sport, in six months I’d be as big as Marlon Brando [was], and I’d be sitting on a curb, because that’s the only thing I think about. It ain’t a job to me. I love this sport — and I know all the issues. And I don’t fight issues. I fight to help better it.”

So, he said he told himself, “Quit your whining. You took a major hit beyond what you believed. Now get up off your ass and get a game plan. That’s the John Force [everybody knows]. Now I’ve got a job. And there is no option to fail. If I fail, I fail my children, I fail my grandchildren, and I fail the fans. I don’t want to hear, ‘Where’s John Force? Did he just not care any more?’ “

Said Force, “I can’t let my kids down, because they just believe I’m magic. And I’m not. I’m fighting it, like you guys do every day, to survive. I’ve got over 110 employees. I owe these people.”

“It isn’t just getting race car sponsorship for Brittany and me. It’s getting a manufacturer,” Force said. “I have two options: I either find a manufacturer or I sell to the competition. Trust me, the meetings have been going on for weeks. I met with a lot of the major teams. I started talking to people in NASCAR and IndyCar and outlaw racing in our vicinity over there [in Brownsburg]: ‘Can I anodize for you? Can I make any parts for you? Can I paint for you?’ — to keep that ship afloat.

“The gravy funded Indy and four teams ” he said. “Now I have only two teams [funded]. I own everything, my equipment. It ain’t like I got a big overhead. I pay the taxes — my rentals do that. All I got to do is buy materials and keep the payroll.

“I’ve had the gravy years. I’ve built a huge company. Now I have to evaluate,” Force said. I might have to look at certain things that in time, if the money doesn’t come back, closing down to keep the value of racing. And that’s why Hollywood.”

Overall, Force said, “financially I am strong.” As proof was his announcement that he just had exercised his option to purchase the remaining portion of the Snake Racing property at Brownsburg, Ind., that’s across the street from the JFR headquarters.

“Who knows what could come out of this? Change is good,” Force said. “It opens up a lot of new avenues. That’s my story, and I’m going down swinging,” Force said.

The ultimate scorecards will show he’s probably the toughest knockout in the sport.