Gymkhana, If Ya Don’t Know – Now Ya Know

Gymkhana Racing – The Next Big Thing?

Gymkhana may sound like a name of some small third world country, but its actually a type of auto racing that’s beginning to take solid shape in the United States. With the popularity and influence gained from Autocross, Drifting, and Rally racing, Gymkhana’s attempting to be the next big motorsport trend for the coming years.

Currently, there is one man in the United States that holds the key to the sport’s popularity votes, and it seems as though he’s on the right track. Ever heard of the Rally driver Ken Block?

Ken Block has all the tools he needs to make Gymkhana a success and perhaps even re-write the entire definition of the sport.  So far, with huge corporate backing from DC Shoes/Monster/Ford, Ken Block’s Gymkhana videos have made the list as some of the most viewed, viral video in the entire world simply because car stunts are awesome to watch. The automobile acrobatics, cinematography, creative editing, the sounds, all in HD goodness!! I suggest going to Full screen mode, crank up the sound, and enjoy the intensity of what a high powered AWD car driven by a pro can do. Block has also captured the extreme sports audience as one of the founders of DC Shoe Company which can be seen all over pop culture media today.

So lets see, he has the attention of the skateboard industry, the rally industry, the fashion industry, and the youths all over the world… I have a feeling all eyes are going to be on his next move in 2011.

So what is Gymkhana?
Gymkhana sure doesn’t sound like an English word, and upon further research its actually an Hindi-Urdu word which means an area set aside where sporting activities take place, basically derived to the word Gymnasium. The original form of Gymkhana was practiced with horses, where people would ride their horses in a fenced off perimeter and perform tricks for points.

It is still widely popular today, and if there were no cars in the world today, this is the type of racing I’ll definitely be doing!

The automobile version is the same, except that the competition consists of any motorized vehicle, even motorcycles, attempting to go around set track obstacles as fast as they can. The good thing about gymkhana in cars is that there wont be any horse poop to run over out on the course!

There are cones, barrels, and barriers drivers have to maneuver their cars around in any way they can.  This motorsport tests the drivers ability to grip, drift, steer, accelerate, and brake, all while requiring a high level of concentration and memorization of the track layout. The track sometimes includes small boxed areas with a single cone in the center where drivers must spin the car 360 degrees and some courses require the car to be piloted in reverse! Very tricky. Here’s a sample track layout. See the traditional slalom between 6 and 7 and the 360 degree E-brake enhanced turn after 9 near the end.

Japan and Europe currently have sanctioned Gymkhana events every year with different classes separating the competitors. The Japanese take this sport very seriously and even has the FIA governing their series with “professional Gymkhana drivers” too.

Gymkhana, the next big motorsport trend?:

In the 1990′s there was a huge trend of import drag racing that eventually settled within the dust storm to uncover a new trend called “drifting”. Now that drifting is slowly dying, more and more younger auto enthusiasts are looking for the next big rush.  Rally and time attack (autocross) racing are fun to watch on video, however, can be pretty boring to see firsthand since the courses tend to be HUGE and only a portion of the race is visible from a single standpoint. (Remember the X-games Rally? The audience was only able to see one part of the race inside the arena and the rest on the Jumbotron.)

Even with the substantially increasing Subaru and Mitsubishi (AWD fanatics) following the US has gained over the years, WRC Rally is still in a so called “under-appreciated” state in this country. Maybe it’s because American motorsport is saturated with NASCAR’s boring turn left, turn left again… car of tomorrow crap? And too bad for F1 racing… despite the 20,000 rpm rocket ships they race, its popularity will probably always be limited since they rarely race on US soil.

Therefore, its pure speculation but Gymkhana might be the next big thing! Here’s why:

• From an audience and media point of view:
  • Lots of action that’s thrilling to watch live
  • Audience can watch from fairly close to the action and see the whole race track
  • Which makes for great videos and pictures
• Then for gymkhana drivers:
  • Ultimate skill of vehicle control: drifting, braking, steering, throttle work
  • Races can be done in a head to head manner
  • Only thing to hit is a harmless cone
  • Test of memorization and concentration
  • Can be practiced in any wide open space
  • Any type of vehicle can participate (ie: FF, FR, AWD, MR, etc)
• For the racing parts manufacturers:
  • See first hand: Your parts work well or don’t
  • Great opportunity for racing exposure
  • Instant feedback from drivers after run
• For the organizers:
  • The event is easy to set up with minimal equipment needed
  • All that’s needed are a parking lot and cones
  • Less crashes since only one car is out on the track
    

I would say to keep an open mind about this sport, and go see for yourself to say how successful gymkhana will be. Don’t knock it until you try it, that’s for damn sure!  Be on the lookout for Ken Block’s events in the future! Avid Gymkhana participants might fear that their sport is becoming mainstream now, but is that such a bad thing? What do you think?

And just so you don’t start thinking Ken Block is the only gymkhana participant, dig this crazy display of vehicle control in forward and reverse! You’ve made it this far, spend another 1:13, you’ll be glad you did!

New Technology Keeping Nitro Funny Car Pilots Safe

Couresty of Ford Media and PCGCambell

Two years ago this month, the drag racing community lost John Force Racing Mustang driver Eric Medlen in a tragic Funny Car testing accident. In the aftermath of that accident, John Force Racing and Ford Racing banded together to form The Eric Medlen Project, with an eye on finding and improving safety innovations for the sport. Along with the NHRA, John Force Racing and Ford Racing have instituted a series of safety measures ranging from significant Funny Car chassis modifications to the instillation of the Ford Blue Box (crash data recorder) on all nitro cars. This important work continues and This Week In Ford Racing recently caught up with 14 time Funny Car World Champion John Force and with Pat DiMarco, Ford Racing Vehicle Dynamics and Electronics Supervisor, for an update on The Eric Medlen Project and ongoing safety developments.

JOHN FORCE – GTX Castrol Mustang– CAN YOU GIVE US AN UPDATE ON THE ERIC MEDLEN PROJECT?
“Our shop is out here in California, 50,000 square foot, but most of the race teams are out in Indy, the Ford Motor program is in Indy, the Eric Medlen project is in Indy, everything now is housed under 50,000 square foot. You can see everything that we have developed working with NHRA, working with Ford Motor Company and their technicians. You can go there because we built a virtual reality tour and you can walk through and see it, what we’ve done. If you don’t want to believe us you can read the documentation that Ford has provided us that you can walk through it and get an education. When we do our car shows that’s where we are going to educate the people, to show them what we created from the crash of Eric, the loss of Eric something has to come out of that, and it has, a better and safer race car and it will still run for the title.”

THE 1,000-FOOT ASIDE, WHAT’S THE BIGGEST CHANGE YOU’VE SEEN IN THIS SPORT SINCE YOU’VE COME INTO IT?
“You know, in the sport, the biggest change was the technology of computers. That you can get the data after the car had made a run, that is, over my career of over 30 years. That was big, but to see the change to what made this car run faster. Now, the computer couldn’t run anything but it could to tell the crew chief what the fuel pump was doing, what the blower was doing, everything it was doing they could make that happen. So the computer was important, but the one thing we did wrong in the 50 years of our sport, as much safety as we evolved with, one of the biggest changes I believe is what we did with Ford Motor Company and NHRA. We evolved the chassis.

The chassis, if you look at the car I drove 30 years ago, was the same car that Eric and I crashed in ’07, and the new chassis evolved from a four-rail to a six-rail where the driver’s cockpit that protected the driver with the tub around him, and we got that through the Ford technicians and all of those guys were able to study those cars. This has been an on-going process since March of ’07, since we lost Eric, and all of ’08 and it’s not going to stop. We’re working on helmets with the impact and testing, all of that stuff is going to continue to grow. But Ford came up and got the idea to put a black box, we call it the blue box. They paid for it, it was put in by Delphi but it was put into every car. Ford said put it in the GM cars, put it in the Toyota, put in the MOPARS, let’s find out what happens when something goes wrong, and that is a big change. We’ve always been about horsepower, well, now, safety and that’s the biggest change in the sport.”

PAT DIMARCO, Ford Racing Vehicle Dynamics and Electronics Supervisor — IT HAS BEEN TWO YEARS SINCE THE PASSING OF JOHN FORCE RACING DRIVER ERIC MEDLEN IN A TESTING ACCIDENT FOLLOWING THE GAINESVILLE NHRA EVENT. THAT ACCIDENT REALLY TRIGGERED A NUMBER OF JOINT SAFETY INITIATIVES BETWEEN NHRA, FORD RACING AND JOHN FORCE RACING, MOST NOTABLY THE ERIC MEDLEN PROJECT.
“Yes, and I’d go as far as saying the NHRA has been involved in these safety initiatives as well. [The NHRA] has implemented a lot of things that we have started: the Ford Blue Box program, as well as the chassis changes, were all a combination of our work, John Force Racing and NHRA. Last year was the Blue Box implementation for all nitro cars, as well as the new chassis design. This year, we’re also moving forward with some of our production car technology and personnel. We’re modeling the occupant within the computer to simulate accidents similar to Eric’s, as well as a crash similar to Scott Kalitta’s. We can evaluate anything that the body can touch, as well as any vibrations that are put into the body on the computer, as well as a physical test, that’s being replicated as well.”

UP TO THIS POINT, THE CHASSIS CHANGES HAVE COME FROM EVALUATING NOT ONLY THE ACCIDENT WITH ERIC, BUT ALSO THE SIGNIFICANT ACCIDENT JOHN FORCE HAD AT DALLAS AND LOOKING AT WAYS TO REINFORCE THE CHASSIS. YOU’RE SAYING THERE ARE ADDITIONAL INOVATAIONS THAT CAN BE FOUND IN THE CRASHES?
“Definitely. Maybe not so much in the chassis itself, but innovations in the padding, the helmets, the surrounding areas and what the driver can physically touch. That is where we will be looking at for improvements. It’s things like that where the occupant model will help us evaluate.”

TAKE US THROUGH THE EVOLUTION OF THIS PROJECT AND HOW IT’S GONE STEP BY STEP.
“After Eric’s accident, the first thing we looked at was the area surrounding the driver’s head, which was the cause of Eric’s injuries. By widening the surround and putting more padding in there, it helped reduce some of the loads on the driver’s head during a similar accident. Those changes were instrumental in saving John Force’s life in his crash at Dallas. The next step was to look at the chassis and why it broke, and John’s chassis broke in the same places that Eric’s chassis broke. That allowed us to focus on looking at those hot spots and how to remove them from the chassis. Or, in the case that we have now, they’re completely out of the chassis for a torsional event that was seen in Eric and John’s accidents. In order to do all that, we needed data, and the Blue Box data that is running in all of the Nitro cars now was very instrumental in gathering data for all the chassis that have cracked on the track. The data collected from the boxes also helped us reproduce the accident from Scott Kalitta last year.”

WHAT’S THE NEXT STEP? WHAT DO YOU SEE ON THE HORIZON FOR THIS INITIATIVE?
“There’s various production car technologies that can be applied going forward. Although nothing is finalized, there could be things like automatic shut offs, seat belt pretensioners, air bags around the head … just about anything that’s already in the production car. We are working closely with the Ford safety office to see what we can physically put in the car, as well as what’s feasible from a racer’s standpoint with the NHRA.”

WHAT COMES OUT OF THIS PROGRAM THAT CAN GO BACK INTO PRODUCTION CARS?
“We’re pushing the limits on the models that we’re using from the standpoint of the head and the brain models. Production cars don’t usually look at vibration as significant as we’re seeing in the Funny Cars, so they’re evaluating their models using our data to improve our production car safety as well. That’s important for the racers, as well as for our consumers.”

Funny Car Chief Austin Coil on Drag Racing Today

If you’re a fan of NHRA drag racing, then there’s a great chance you’re a fan of John Force Racing and his team. As a Ford fan, (don’t forget, Pop’s was a Ford Mechanic for 25 years) I’ve been following Force for as long as I can remember so when I got the chance to interview co-crew chief Austin Coil, I jumped at it.

Meeting with Austin Coil in the small town the John Force Racing trucks make was awesome. Cruising past the beast Force pilots down the strip as his crew finished prepping for Saturday at the Firebird Race, then stepping into the trailer you often see on TV was unreal. I carefully tried to keep my grin from extending past my ears as I sat down with Coil.

Without his trademark toothpick, Coil smiled alot and seemed to be winding down from Friday’s session that saw all of John Force Racing cars in the top half of the field. Coil’s easy going manner and obvious passion for racing and technology made this interview a breeze. I just had to keep up…

WHAT’S CHANGED THE MOST ABOUT FUNNY CARS SINCE YOU’VE BEEN RUNNING THEM?
Everything! In the last few years, there’s been an extraordinary push for safety and these cars are tremendously safer then just a few years ago… and it’s a damn good thing cause we’ve lost a few of our brothers and it was necessary. John Force Racing has spearheaded a lot of this and Ford was instrumental in making those changes.

(When thinking about safety equipment…)
These race cars are really archaic compared to what’s on the road now. If you drive your Ford Flex in the rain and snow and ice there’s all kinds of electronic wizardry to protect you, let alone what’s being developed. Up until this campaign started (2009′s Full Throttle Season) we’re not allowed to run anything to protect you.

Currently, we have an electronic shut off system that can sense if we blow the blower off or it can sense a burning pistons or if the fire bottles have been activated and it automatically turns off the fuel and pull the chutes in case the driver isn’t able.

One of the questions I wanted to ask Austin was about a safety system that could remotely turn off the fuel and pull the chutes. He said that a team was planning a test of a system exactly like that at the Firebird Race. Testing during race day might a bad idea, but with today’s economy and the existing ban on testing during the season, there’s no other choice.

Things have to be tested during the race, but for the majority of people who were gonna race, they’d use their test days on something that’s going to help them win.

WHAT ABOUT NEW TECHNOLOGIES LIKE DIRECT INJECTION? (Injecting fuel directly into the cylinder instead of before the intake valve.)

No, it’s not allowed…
Everything new is prohibited unless it becomes approved. We’ve been racing under a moratorium for about 4 or 5 years now to prevent any technological break-thrus to help control cost. And the Association (NHRA) is vehemently against any type of closed-loop controls. It would be pretty simple to have clutch and/or engine controls that would sense tire spin and keep cars from smoking the tires or prevent tire shake, I mean, your Ford Flex has got it, so why can’t our race cars? Well, cause it’s not legal. It does add some drama and excitement to the sport, but by the same token, it keeps there from being as many side by side races as there could be. I don’t claim to know what makes the best show and the best popularity and the most likelihood that our vocation will be as successful as it could be throughout the years and the Association believes it’s better that even the best cars don’t go down the track all the time to give the underdog a better chance of winning once in a great while. Maybe they’re right, I don’t know.

THAT WOULD SEEM TO HURT THE BEST FUNDED TEAMS LIKE YOURS.

You know, our team is certainly very well funded, but everyone is feeling the crunch of the economy so you gotta be careful you don’t waste any money and it probably wasn’t like that a few years ago. You know, a number of years ago Force used to have meetings will the crew chiefs to figure out how we could spend the money we have effectively to increase our chances of winning. Now, we have meetings about how we’re going to survive this economic crunch because all of the income we had in the past years is not there now. We’re still in pretty good shape and all our major sponsors are all strong and with us and things look pretty good, but there’s lots of little affiliates that added the gravy to the team’s finances that have fallen by the way side.

AFTER DRAG RACING FOR 25 YEARS, YOU STILL LOVE IT?

Yea! Yunno, Its’ what I do. I’m 63 years old now, I’m not likely to pick a new career! I’ve been running a race car, soley for a living since 1968. I ran my own team for 18-19 years before I tied up with John, so that’s what I do. I don’t know nothing else. I make a really good living and I’m glad it all worked out!

With the Direct Injection or other engine TQ technology, the injectors wouldn’t stand up to the 15k lbs of cylinder pressure (we measured it!) and the volume of fuel needed would be prohibited. Many cars run 100 gal/min fuel pumps. Just idling on the starting line, waiting to go, the typical fuel car uses 5.25 gal/min… better not let it idle too long or you’ll be out of gas!

A FEW YEARS AGO, JOHN FORCE RACING DOMINATED. WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, HAVE YOU GUYS SLIPPED A LITTLE OR HAS EVERYONE ELSE CAUGHT UP?

You know, the biggest method that caused us to win over all the years… if you look back in time we’d win 10-12-13 races per year just with John’s car alone, not to mention the team cars, but the way we did that is we’d create something that everyone else didn’t have that was an advantage to get down the track more consistently… or just plain be faster! And every year, NHRA has made rules against something… the Association really dislikes any one guy winning all the time. Essentially, they’re out to get’cha! And I don’t blame them. The idea is to levels the playing field. When you go to the races knowing Force is gonna win, you’re not as likely to draw as many spectators as you might if the fans are wondering if Force is gonna beat Capps. At any rate, they continue to make rules and now there’re so damned many rules, your hands are tied in almost every aspect.

And then, in the last couple years, we’ve spent the majority of our time focusing on keeping our drivers alive and healthy and even the rest of the sport whether they like it or not. Everything you do to a race car to make it safer makes it slower. If you’re the one initiating all of that, for a period of time you’re running all that safety equipment before it’s required and you’re determined to run it cause you don’t want to see another Eric Medlen or John Force incident, and so you do those things. And many of the racers out there are not as concerned, they just believe in destiny where I tend to believe you can control your own destiny. The Association has worked well with us and many of the safety things that have come along are being required, more every year, and it’s getting closer to being a level playing field.

But for instance, right now, our cars are 50 lbs heavier then legal weight. We have every titanium, magnesium, carbon fiber, light-weight component that money can buy! But because our cars have a number of safety features that everyone else is not yet required to have, they’re heavier. That’s a little disadvantage. That’s certainly not everything, the biggest thing is, as I said, innovation has been stymied by the rules so the only way you can be faster than everyone else is to be better at every-single-facet of the hundreds of points of running the car and that’s very hard. The way we played it in the past decade is we’d create something that everyone else didn’t have that actually mattered and put it to use and waltz through the field. All those days are gone now cause they actually have rules on everything where they didn’t 10 years ago. You used to have the freedom to create a lot new things.

WHAT HAVE THEY RECENTLY TAKEN AWAY?

It’s not that they’ve taken anything away, they just prevent new technology. Eventually, everything leaks out to where you will not have anything in drag racing that everyone doesn’t know about in a couple years. For example, we did development on supercharges a number of years ago where we improved them 10% over the winter. It’s all legal, to go further is easy but not legal! (he said with a smile) The pro-mod guys run blowers similar to ours but they were allowed to move ahead where we were forced to stop. For a year, no one knew what we had, but now everybody has it, if they want it, its out there you can buy it, that was the most recent development.

Going back 15 years ago, no one had any adjustable timing controls on their motors… you just set the timing when you started the motor and that’s how it’d run down the race track. Well, we developed a system with air cylinders that you could move the timing around. To have it and to learn how to use it was a real big thing. Within a couple years everyone had it and then it became electronic and got better and now the box that controls the timing is state of the art where you draw maps and put it in there and not only can you have it, everyone has to have it, it’s part of the required ignition system. Years ago when we all had like 5 amp magnetos. Well if you can figure out how to build a 10amp magneto, you’d have an advantage. Well, not any more, you must run a non-modified MSD ignition system of this part number period, if you’re not you’re cheating. They’re very good and in a way it’s kind of a nice thing, but MSD says, ‘boy, we could make one twice that powerful!’ NHRA says, ‘No you can’t we don’t want anything better.’

So it goes on and on and on to where the potential development is halted by the Association as it is in NASCAR. They have the brakes on virtually everything. Just ask any of’m… those Cars of Tomorrow ain’t any-wheres near as quick around the race track as they used to be, but they all gotta run’m, and you know what? When they crash, they don’t die. So it’s a good thing and we’re undergoing all that. But it’s not as conducive to having a situation where you can dominate the way it was 10 years ago.

DO YOU SEE DRAG RACING GOING TO A ‘CARS OF TOMORROW’ LIKE NASCAR?
I do see that. We’re undergoing constant development on building better, safer chassis with driver’s tubs and compartments. The cars we have here have tubs in them but they’re not a total driver’s capsule. The next iteration will probably be a total driver’s capsule to where even if the chassis were to break apart the driver would still be protected.
KIND OF LIKE A NITRO BOAT?
Something like that… but all that adds weight, weight adds the problem that you have to stop it at the other end, so there’s lots of problems with all that development. The cars we have right now, we believe, are 4-7 times safer then the car that John crashed at Dallas two years ago. We’re hoping that’s safe enough, but you never know. We’re doing all we can.

Special thanks to Elon Werner – JFR Public Relations – for the interview. Best of luck to all the John Force Racing Team for 2009!

Follow John Force Racing at www.twitter.com/jfr_racing

Holman & Moody Boss 429 – (you should read this)

The first step in fixing a problem is admitting you have one. Hi, I’m Craig, I don’t know crap about bodywork. (Hi Craig). With that out of the way, I moved onto the next step. That’s seeking help. I turned to my new friends over at Squeeg’s Kustoms in Mesa, Arizona. Squeeg’s has been turning out show quality paint and bodywork since 1964 and Doug Jerger, the owner and Squeeg’s son, has kept the business rolling. One of Doug’s latest paint jobs was for his America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR) contenting 32 Roadster. I was in good hands for my shotgun lesson in body work to support the 63 Falcon Wagon project.

When hot rods and custom car building’s in your head nearly every waking minute, hanging out in a shop like Squeeg’s might as well be Disneyland. When I pulled up, Doug and the Jerry Courlton were standing out front marveling at the fresh custom paint on Jerry’s Corvette super gas race car body. Wow. It’s tough to put down this many colors without having that, “I’m stuck in the 80’s” look, but Doug nailed the graphics and stripes, as he said, “Right out of my head.” Then, as if it weren’t one-of-a-kind enough, Doug laid a custom purple to burgundy paint pattern or “paint effect” down the center of the car, including the pro-stock style scoop. “You’d shit if you saw how I did that,” he said, “painters use all kinds of tricks to make effects.” Needless to say, the Jeffy was thrilled and if the rest of the car is half this nice, he’ll have one of the baddest race cars at the track.

There was more! No need for a park hopper pass to find the nearly finished 40 Ford Coupe in full hot rod trim in the next room. Owned by Bill Cromling and sporting custom mixed blue paint and classic orange-yellow flame job with a 500HP/500 Ft-lbs Roush 402IR fuelie motor. This car’s gonna be a real modern-day hot rod. I should have shot more pictures of this car to show the detail you get from a professional build shop. Even parts of the car that will be hidden by upholstery or other panels are neatly detailed to the point it’s almost a shame to cover them! I’ll have to hook up with Bill later to shoot the finished car (Before it’s featured in several magazines…)

Later in the day a trailer pulls up driven by Eric Peratt from Pinkee’s Rod Shop in Windsor, Colorado. Doug’s so busy doing paint and body, he farms out some work to other shops. For this Daryl Wolfswinkel owned super custom 32 Roadster he’s building, Pinkee’s fabbed the rolling frame, suspension and powertrain setup, then the cars on the way to Marcel’s Custom Metal Shaping in Corona, California for a hand made body. The frames as beautifully made as it is stout. The beauty’s most obvious in the motor mounts. Check these out!

That’s why I love shooting a car as its being built. These details, the kind car builders really get into are going to be hidden once the car’s put together. Those mounts hold a beast. With all the custom touches, what else would you expect then a NOS, aluminum headed, Holman and Moody NASCAR Boss 429. This engine has all the Ford tricks available in 1968 and was built for the new “aerodynamic” Torino Talladega. Those tricks include: revised oil system, o-ringed block, special hemi head design, and much more (could be an entire blog!) (More info: LINK, another LINK), Topped by an experimental dual 4 barrel low-rise manifold (maybe-like 1 of 3 made), this motor’s an E Ticket ride waiting to happen (not recommended if you have a heart condition or are expecting).

Last but not least, the one-off wheels are, believe it or not, almost as cool as the engine. Made by Mike Curtis (the machinist you know from Boyd’s TV show and Overhaulin’) conceived and rendered by Jimmy Smith and then designed by Mike with a Halibrand-like twist. Doug put on the finishing 5 extra ribs and requested real knock-offs. These wheels are the perfect combination of high tech and hot rod. I’d leave them just as they are, with the ball mill tool marks, but they’ll be polished. Too cool. (more on these wheels and Mike’s new line of wheels soon)

This won’t be my last visit to Squeeg’s. They’re so busy though, I’ll have to come back at least every other week to catch the latest builds. But, I’ve got a lot more to learn about bodywork, so I’ve got the perfect excuse!

Ashley Force leads NHRA Funny Car Standings

Lead and some content for this story courtesy of Ford Media.

Without a doubt, John Force Racing is the team I’m routing for on Sundays. 3 of the 4 Force teams are in the Top 10 with Ashley Force at #1!

Ashley made history Sunday at the NHRA Funny Car race in Las Vegas, Nev when she drove her Castrol GTX Mustang to the final round and jumped up four spots in the standings to #1. She’s the first woman to ever lead the Funny Car standings after an event.

It was Ashley Force’s second appearance in an event final in as many weeks and the third appearance in her last six starts. She remains the only female driver ever to reach a Funny Car final.

I hope this made John Force feel a little better after failing to qualify for the Vegas race. I wonder if John’s thinking of gambling instead of racing. He ended his streak of qualifying at 393 in Vegas. That mark will never be broken. John, you’re still my man!

In case you didn’t know, Ashely’s ROLLING!

She was the 2007 AOL Hottest Female athelete (info here)

Ashley and the whole family were on the Tonight Show (LINK)

And yes, she’s got a Myspace Page (LINK)

Ashley and my relationship ends at me waving at her and playing with her Barbie Doll, but still, I’m pulling for her and I wish her all the best.

So check out her official site by clicking on the link below. Good luck Ashley and all of John Force Racing! (photos are copyright of Ford Media and AshleyForce.com)

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