As the NHRA’s Mellow Yellow Drag Racing Series returns to Atlanta Dragway in Commerce this weekend for the 36th Summit Southern Nationals, the women drivers on the NHRA’s professional touring series are on quite a roll.
Entering the seventh event of the season, there has been at least one female winner in the top two classes, Top Fuel and Funny Car, for the past six races.
Brittany and Courtney Force, the daughters of Funny Car icon John Force, are leading the group. Brittany has two victories this season, coming at the Gator Nationals in Gainesville, Fla., and the Four-Wide Nationals at Charlotte, and she is atop the points standings in her division.
Courtney Force, with a win in the most recent event in Houston, is tied with Tom Wilkerson for the points lead in Funny Car.
Alexis DeJoria won in Funny Car in Las Vegas and Leah Pritchett, last year’s runner-up at Commerce, defeated Brittany Force in Phoenix, the first time two women ran in a Top Fuel final since the retired Shirley Muldowney beat the late Lucille Lee at Columbus, Ohio, in 1982.
The current group of women is headed to a track that has seen females winner in the past. Muldowney won the first-ever Top Fuel race at Atlanta Dragway in 1981. Lee won in 1982, her first national event victory, and the retired Lori Johns won in 1990.
A third Force sister, Ashley Force Hood, won in Funny Car at Atlanta in 2008, becoming the first of her gender to win in that division.
The achievements of the women drivers of an earlier era set the precedent and the current group is carrying it forward in a big way.
“I’m really excited to be a part of something that’s so unique,” said Courtney Force, who is married to IndyCar racer Graham Rahal. “It’s so cool to be a part of it because it’s never been done before. It shows what our sport has become and how the NHRA is growing and how good the females are doing.”
Force said women are having success for the same reasons as their male competitors.
“Our cars don’t know whether it’s a male or a female driving them,” she said. “We all just do our best to perform well and try to outrun these guys.
“Just like in NASCAR and other types of motorsports, it’s the crew chief, the tuning on the car, getting the right tune-up and having a fast race car to outrun your opponent.”
Force said she’s looking forward to returning to Commerce, where her father has seven event wins and her brother-in-law, Robert Hight, has three.
“It’s always a hot track,” she said. “When you have a cool track and cloud cover, a lot of people can lay down crazy numbers. Our team over at John Force Racing seems to do pretty well when we have a hot track.
“My mom’s (Laurie Force) the one who brought it to my attention. We’re always worried about pushing the car too hard on a hot track and she said there’s no need to worry because we always do well in the heat.”
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