It’s already been a career best season for Courtney Force, driver of the Advance Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro Funny Car, with four event wins and 11 No. 1 qualifiers, not to mention leading the Funny Car points for 12 consecutive races. However, the team, headed by co-crew chiefs Dan Hood and Brian Corradi, is looking to end the season on a high note with a win on the last day of the 2018 season at the Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona.
“I love being at this track. Our Chevrolet Camaro Funny Car has run really well here. It is fun to be racing in front of the home track fans with a lot of family here too. We started the season here on a rough note,” Force said, referencing her father, John Force’s first explosion of the season and her sister, Brittany Force’s, intense crash, “But I am looking forward to putting that behind us and closing out the season on a high note. My team has had an incredible season we are looking to wrap up the season with one more win.”
While the championship title may be a stretch for the 12-time race winner, picking up a Wally at the Auto Club NHRA finals this weekend could land Force in the top-three. Force, currently sixth in the standings, raced to the final in the finale of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series in her rookie season.
For the last two consecutive years Force raced her way to the semifinals and her Advance Auto Parts team has historically qualified well at the venue with positions inside the top-five seven times including four times in the fall event.
“Our Advance Auto Parts team is really excited to close out the season at my home track in Pomona California. This is a track where the past two seasons I have raced to the semifinals and we have had a lot of luck at this track. I went to the final at Auto Club Raceway in 2013 after my rookie season. I love being at this track,” Force said.
Coming of a quarterfinal finish at the most recent race in Vegas, Force will finish the season inside the top 10 for the sixth time in her seven-year professional career.
Force picked up her first victory of the season at the Arizona Nationals where she was also the No. 1 qualifier, she went onto win the Southern Nationals in Georgia, the rain delayed race in Topeka that ended on a Monday afternoon and the renewed event in Richmond, Va., where she had last celebrated in the winner’s circle with her dad on her seventh birthday. Force added an impressive 11 No. 1 qualifiers through the 23 races, just two shy of the 13 record held by her father.
Force will begin her fight to win the Auto Club NHRA Finals with four qualifying sessions, two on Friday at 1:30 and 3:45 p.m. and two Saturday at 12:30 and 3:30 p.m. She’ll race for the Wally on Sunday beginning at 11 a.m.
JFR PR/Photo Credit: Gary Nastase, Auto Imagery
