John Force
Few success stories are more compelling than those of John Harold Force, who overcame childhood polio to become the most prolific winner in professional drag racing history. The youngest of five children, his youthful dream of a having a pro football career was dashed by the effects of having polio. He could pass the football like a pro, but with one leg markedly shorter than the other, running was a problem that ultimately drew him into drag racing “where the car does the running for you.” At the outset of his racing career, with mismatched equipment and part-time crew members, he and his “Brute Force” entries were little more than fodder for the Funny Car stars of the era.
That all changed in 1985 when Force hooked up with Austin Coil in one of the most unlikely and successful collaborations in motorsports history. However, success, even with Coil, who had won two NHRA series championships with his own “Chi-Town Hustler” Funny Car, was not immediate. It would be two years before the duo finally won its first NHRA tour event at Montreal, Canada, and it would be three more seasons before Force would win the first of his remarkable 16 individual NHRA championships, a record 10 of them in succession (1993-2002).
Prior to teaming up with Coil, John was runner-up at two NHRA national events in 1979 and finished eighth in season points. In 1983, he finished fourth after two more runner-up finishes and, just one year later, was crowned Funny Car Champion in the AHRA Grand National Series. Nevertheless, it was with Coil as his crew chief that he won the first 126 of his unprecedented 155 NHRA tour titles.
At the outset of the 2023 season, his 47th on the NHRA pro tour, Force is the drag racing record holder in almost every imaginable professional category including championships, final rounds (264), race wins, round wins (1421) and No. 1 qualifying performances (165). He has at least one tour victory in 34 of the last 35 seasons including a wire-to-wire triumph in last year’s 4Wide Nationals at Charlotte, a race in which he also prevailed when it debuted in 2010. He is a five-time U.S. Nationals Funny Car Champion and the winner of 13 NHRA All-Star events including the 1998 Winston Showdown at Bristol, Tenn., in which he won a record $210,000, five Big Bud Shootouts and a pair of Traxxas Shootouts. Notably, he was the first drag racer ever named Driver of the Year for all American motor sports after winning 13 of 19 races and the championship in 1996.
For the 1996 season he expanded his team to include a second car driven to a second-place finish by Tony Pedregon. Still part of John Force Racing, Pedregon won the NHRA World Championship title in 2003 before moving on. As a result of this, Force introduced a Next Generation initiative that ultimately would develop a host of young drivers including Eric Medlen, three-time series champ Robert Hight, Force’s daughters Ashley, Courtney and Brittany, Mike Neff and, most recently, Austin Prock.
It was during his daughters’ initial involvement in the family business that Force became a reality television phenomenon as the star of the A&E series “Driving Force.” Tragically, at the height of its popularity, production on the series was suspended when Medlen, who had been prominently featured in several episodes, was killed in a 2007 testing accident at Gainesville Raceway
Force responded to Medlen’s death by leading a movement that compelled design changes to Funny Cars and Top Fuel dragsters and the implementation of new safety guidelines that reversed what had become a disturbing trend. His greatest personal triumph, however, may have been his return from life threatening injuries in a crash at the Texas Motorplex in Dallas. Despite doctors’ belief that he never would race again after his injuries, Force endured four months of intense rehab and was back in a race car to start the 2008 season. Little more than three months later, he hoisted the trophy at Topeka, Kan. He would go on to add two more series championships 2010 and 2013.
The most decorated drag racer in history, his induction into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame completes a unique Grand Slam for the grandfather of five who was inducted into the International Motor Sports Hall of Fame in Talladega, Ala., in 2008, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2012 and the California Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.