History just made!

[guest hs]

John Force 150th win. We will never see this again our life times. A few F bombs a kiss on the lips to Caps and call out to Austin Coil. Wow what a great day for drag race fans.

 

[monkeyswrench]

That's a whole lot of Wallys!
Glad there was a shout out to Coil too!

 

[MSum661]

Glad you started this!!!!
I counted 2 f Bombs. The Austin Coil mention stopped me in my tracks with a Cold Coors light in hand.
I'm going out on a limb bigtime right here, right now and calling it now.....This is John Forces last season.
I can feel it coming.

There is no Boat driver, no Nascar Driver, no Indy Car Driver...no driver on the planet that will ever match John Forces record.
He will be known as theeeeee Best ever known in the history of all motorsports.

Amazing Human being.

 

[SpeedyWho]

I always love post race interviews with John. I’m sure this one was a riot. Congrats on 150

 

[guest hs]

He’s not goi g to retire yet no way!

 

[rivrbrat]

Glad you started this!!!!
I counted 2 f Bombs. The Austin Coil mention stopped me in my tracks with a Cold Coors light in hand.
I'm going out on a limb bigtime right here, right now and calling it now.....This is John Forces last season.
I can feel it coming.

There is no Boat driver, no Nascar Driver, no Indy Car Driver...no driver on the planet that will ever match John Forces record.
He will be known as theeeeee Best ever known in the history of all motorsports.

Amazing Human being.

I have been thinking the same thing. But I do believe he wants number 17. He said he doesn't like sound of Sweet 16. lol

 

[Moneypit]

He also praised Bernie Federly who, along with Austin Coyle was a key player in John's record setting success.. The man has 16 NHRA Funny Car National Championships, another number that will probably never be matched.. Let's not forget the NHRA has changed their Championship format to a re-start of points 2/3rds through the season, like NASCAR, (IMO the point re set in any of these motorsports sucks). Anyway, F bombs and all, Force is one of a kind and the best known driver in the world of motorsports.. As called, I don't see Force quitting until maybe after the 2020 season and that would depend on Championship# 17...
Ray

 

[2FORCEFULL]

if he keeps try'n to jump fences he's gonna be in a wheel chair...

 

[thmterry]

Great day for Force and JFR!!!!!!!!!!! I also think John is done after this season. He gets out of the car slower after every race. It looked like the staff was holding him up from exhaustion after he jumped the fence and ran through the stands.

Then Prock with a .275 reaction time wins the race against Torrence LOL,

 

[MSum661]

He’s not goi g to retire yet no way!

Bookmark it.
He's 70 years old. People in their 30's or 40's feeling good and strong can't wrap their head around the pull and G's of ANYTHING eating Nitro Methane set on kill sitting in the seat traveling as fast and quick as it could possibly be tuned to go year in and year out as John Force has. I cam easily understand someone saying "He’s not going to retire yet no way". But your not in the seat, hitting every event on the NHRA schedule year in and year and trying to keep your focus on the track without eating shit at 70 years old.
Its truly amazing He has toughed it out this long! Respectfully.

Don;t take any of this the wrong way.

 

[Dirtbag]

hes a piece of work ood dude. Him and my dad are cousins grew up in Bell Gardens together. Actually lived with us when i wwas a kid. Crazy how they both moved from Bell gardens to Yorba Linda. His grandson and my son played little league together. First game I show up to hes there and I go reintroduce myself and before I did he said godamn you look like Mark Jones(my dad) haha. Pretty cool family and dont just mean the force family. the whole shop would show up to his grandson's games. Pretty cool to see him win 150. I actually got to sit in one of his cars on the way to the line when i was 10 years old.

 

[boatdoc55]

There isn't ANYBODY in Motor Sports that has done what John has done to anything that burns some kind of fuel. It could be bikes, cars, boats and airplanes but no one has done what he has done to promote burning fuel. God broke the mold when John was hatched and there isn't anybody going to come close to him EVER in Motor Sports racing.
Congrats John Force, the one and only!!!!!

 

[was thatguy]

Did you see him Fosbury flop over the fence and wade into the stands?
You can’t fake that shit. The man IS drag racing.
Threw his victory hat into the stands!
Could not believe how bad both Torrence and Prock blew the tree.
Can’t imagine what happened to Steve at the tree but I can imagine Austin was shitting himself.
When Steve smoked I could not believe it.
A truly spectacular day for JFR!!!
John gets 150 and Prock gets a Wally!

But know this...Torrence has 38 Wally’s and he isn’t anywhere near done. He’s got 8 this year SO FAR.
He swept the countdown last year.
And he’s nowhere near 70 years old.
Torrence can beat the 150 mark if his career keeps going as is.

 

[was thatguy]

I was there when he won #16.

When they show him on the NHRA commercial running down the return road at the fairplex Debs in that clip as he high fives her.

 

[monkeyswrench]

I was there when he won #16.

When they show him on the NHRA commercial running down the return road at the fairplex Debs in that clip as he high fives her.

First off, That's bitchin^

I think to me what's most impressive about JFR is the longevity of the career, and that it hasn't always been Wallys and podiums. He got bigtime when others may have given up. Running on second hand blower belts and borrowed barrel valves. To start out at that time, and reach this level, is a serious accomplishment. At 70, he could still run if he wants to. Also, at 70, he could step down and be the face of his brand, and a kick ass grandpa to his family.

 

[was thatguy]

First off, That's bitchin^

I think to me what's most impressive about JFR is the longevity of the career, and that it hasn't always been Wallys and podiums. He got bigtime when others may have given up. Running on second hand blower belts and borrowed barrel valves. To start out at that time, and reach this level, is a serious accomplishment. At 70, he could still run if he wants to. Also, at 70, he could step down and be the face of his brand, and a kick ass grandpa to his family.

He’s the man, no question about it!
I’m JFR through and through!
Having said that, the best day of Johns career was when Bernstein went to top fuel!! Lol.

 

[rrrr]

Some 15 years ago I was at DFW to catch a late flight to LA. I looked over at the guy next to me, leaning on a column, and it was John. I asked him if we could talk a little racing, and he said "Sure". No one else noticed him.

For the next thirty minutes we talked, and he was incredibly nice to do that. Anyone at the airport around midnight has had a long day. He told me a little about the early days and the struggle to keep going, which was cool to hear.

This was around the time they built the shop in Brownsberg (Indianapolis), and I told him I had watched it go up because I was working on a car at Pancho Carter's shop nearby. So we talked a bit about IndyCar too.

It was way cool talking to one of my racing idols.

 

[boatdoc55]

Some 15 years ago I was at DFW to catch a late flight to LA. I looked over at the guy next to me, leaning on a column, and it was John. I asked him if we could talk a little racing, and he said "Sure". No one else noticed him.

For the next thirty minutes we talked, and he was incredibly nice to do that. Anyone at the airport around midnight has had a long day. He told me a little about the early days and the struggle to keep going, which was cool to hear.

This was around the time they built the shop in Brownsberg (Indianapolis), and I told him I had watched it go up because I was working on a car at Pancho Carter's shop nearby. So we talked a bit about IndyCar too.

It was way cool talking to one of my racing idols.

That's a cool story so I guess I should share mine! I was in the 7th or 8th grade and one night my mom answered the phone, talked for awhile and hung up. She mentioned I should ride my bike to my buddies house as usual in the morning for school but be there earlier than normal. When I rounded the corner going down his street I couldn't believe my eyes, there's the "snakes" flatbed hauler parked outside my buddies house. Turns out his folks were good friends with the driver and we got a ride to school in the hauler with the car and all on the back. Talk about being in heaven. Buddy and I rolled out of the cab of that truck at school and were the talk of the school for anybody that followed drag racing. Holy Crap was that a long time ago!!!!!

 

[rrrr]

That's a cool story so I guess I should share mine! I was in the 7th or 8th grade and one night my mom answered the phone, talked for awhile and hung up. She mentioned I should ride my bike to my buddies house as usual in the morning for school but be there earlier than normal. When I rounded the corner going down his street I couldn't believe my eyes, there's the "snakes" flatbed hauler parked outside my buddies house. Turns out his folks were good friends with the driver and we got a ride to school in the hauler with the car and all on the back. Talk about being in heaven. Buddy and I rolled out of the cab of that truck at school and were the talk of the school for anybody that followed drag racing. Holy Crap was that a long time ago!!!!!

I have a story related to the funny car always seen on the restored hauler. That car was never raced, it was built as a show car. In 1970, Plymouth made up a tour of the funny car and three or four customized MoPar vehicles. When I heard the tour was coming to Lloyd McKee Plymouth in Albuquerque, I circled the date and started bugging my mom to take me. I was 13 at the time.

I have an album of Polaroid shots taken that day, which probably would have been tossed out if my mom hadn't saved it for forty years and sent it to me before she died.

A story about the show car:

And, finally, ‘the Snake’ weighs in
22 Jul 2011 Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
DRAGSTER Insider

I use the word “finally” in the headline not as a measure of time – as in, “Well, he finally speaks about the subject” -- but to let Don Prudhomme himself bring a close to the subject of his early Barracuda Funny Cars. “The Snake” has been following with interest the discussions here in the last few weeks and wanted to help clear up a few topics we’ve discussed recently.

First off, he (like me) is really impressed with the depth and breadth of the knowledge and information we share here, and although he didn’t use the word, it’s pretty clear that he’s flattered that anyone still cares about the trivial details of a 40-year-old race car. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?” he marveled.

Prudhomme and Skip Allum also added some interesting new meat to the meal by sending a couple of the images at right, which came out of a 1970 Plymouth press kit. As we’ve already established, Ronnie Scrima at Exhibition Engineering built two matching Funny Cars for “the Snake’s” 1970 Funny Car debut.

He ran one, and the other was used by Plymouth in its Rapid Transit rolling display. Prudhomme sold his car to Sammy Miller and Ken Poffenberger, and the car was heavily damaged or destroyed a few years later. Prudhomme and Willie Wolter found the Rapid Transit version and restored it, which is the car now in his possession, most usually strapped to the back of the yellow ramp truck.

The first thing you will note in the photos is that the Rapid Transit car does not exactly match the paint scheme of the race car, especially the “Snake” lettering.

“They built both of the cars at Scrima’s, and I didn’t really know much about what they were going to do with the other car,” Prudhomme admitted. “All I knew was it was a spare car. The next thing I knew, they shipped it to Detroit, where all of the Rapid Transit stuff was going together, and they painted it there like my car, probably off of photos they’d seen of my car.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the exact same paint scheme, more like the theme. Someone obviously used their imagination a bit. You can also see it has a flat grille where my car had a molded grille. I don’t know why they filled it in. The car went on the tour, and I never did ask them to change it. I never really gave it much thought because the cars just didn't cross paths. We were racing, and the other car was pretty much going to dealerships.

(The story continues in the link)

https://www.nhra.com/news/2011/and-finally-snake-weighs


A story about the Plymouth Rapid Transit System tour, with photos of the funny car and the customized Plymouth street cars:

http://www.wwnboa.org/prtsc.htm

 

[Keymyster]

Have been a fan of John's for a long time. Great achievement .

 

[playdeep]

Force&Coil...
Back in the day.