John Force Racing had a successful day of testing at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Most notably Ashley Force Hood renewed her NHRA Funny Car license driving Courtney Force’s Traxxas Ford Mustang Funny Car. She made four passes posting times of 4.11, 4.04, 4.01 and 4.05 seconds. There is no timetable or schedule for Force Hood to return to full-time or part-time racing. The goal of the test session was not just to renew Force Hood’s license but to also provide the 18-time Funny Car championship team with an in-house experienced driver in the event a current driver was unable to participate in an NHRA national event.

Photos courtesy Gary Nastase Photography

“The hardest part was when I was starting out my team was brand new so we were all kind of messing up and learning together. Getting in this Funny Car all these guys are established and have a routine with Courtney. The spotlight will be on me if I mess up. I just wanted to do everything right and not mess them up or mess the car up,” said Force Hood, a two-time U.S. Nationals Funny Car winner. “It was weird to be in Courtney’s seat and get tips from her. My husband, Dan (Hood) the last few weeks has been walking me through the routine. He was letting me know what was different. For the most part it is not that much different from when I drove. I know when I got done with the burnout I went over all my routine about three times because the reverse and the fuel are close together and I was just so scared I was going to grab the wrong one. You just don’t want to make one little mistake that will ruin the whole run.”

In addition to Ashley, John Force and Robert Hight made Funny Car runs today running consistent low 4.0s with Force posting the quickest run of the day in his Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang a spectacular 4.007 second pass at the end of the day.

Brittany Force and the Castrol EDGE dragster made five runs getting quicker with every run as they continued to strengthen their clutch program and give Brittany more seat time to advance her development as a driver. She was consistently in the low 3.80s along with a number of other Top Fuel teams as high winds ruled the day in the desert.

In between test runs The Travel Channel’s Extreme RV television show was on-site filming a show on the new John Force Racing media center and lounge. The show interviewed all the drivers as well as Laurie Force on the new addition to the JFR pit area. The new 53 foot trailer features a small bedroom with play area, two bathrooms, lounge with kitchen area, and a media center with multiple TVs and workstations for JFR marketing and PR staff as well as invited media.

John Force Racing will back in action at the 5^th annual Four-Wide NHRA Nationals at zMax Dragway in Charlotte, April 11-13.