TEAM CASTROL
2006 NHRA Race Summary
Race 10 of 23
CARQUEST Nationals
Route 66 Raceway at Chicagoland Speedway
Joliet, Ill.
June 9-11
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Castrol
Highlight: John Force and the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang moved closer to
capturing a 14th NHRA World Funny Car Championship by beating teammate
and son-in-law Robert Hight in the final round of the CARQUEST
Nationals at Route 66 Raceway.
JOHN FORCE BREAKS THROUGH FOR 120TH CAREER VICTORY
John
Force rallied from a series of near misses this season to win the ninth
annual CARQUEST Auto Parts Nationals at Route 66 Raceway and move to
within 48 points of pacesetting Ron Capps in the race for the 2006 NHRA
POWERade Funny Car Championship.
In winning for the 120th time
in his legendary career, Force extended to 20 the number of consecutive
seasons in which he has won at least one NHRA national event. The
13-time series champion had come up short in four previous final round
appearances this season, losing to Capps in three of those finales.
It
was a spectacular day not only for Force, but for John Force Racing,
which advanced all three of its Mustangs to the semifinals befoe Force
dispatched protégé and son-in-law Robert Hight in a final round in
which both drivers were slowed by broken supercharger drive belts.
Force,
drag racing’s biggest winner, won for the first time since last
September by pushing the Castrol GTX Ford through the quarter mile
timers in 4.930 seconds to beat Hight’s slightly quicker 4.890. It was
the first all-Castrol final since last August when Eric Medlen beat
Force in the final round at Brainerd, Minn.
Appearing in the
192nd final round of his career and his fifth of the current season,
Force beat Tony Bartone in round one, evened his career record to 8-8
against Phil Burkart Jr. In round two and beat teammate Eric Medlen,
driver of the Castrol SYNTEC Ford, in the semifinals.
While the
Team Castrol Funny Cars were advancing the to semifinals and beyond,
Ashley Force recorded the quickest quarter mile of her brief career
(5.229 seconds) before losing to Sean O’Bannon in the Top Alcohol
Dragster semifinals.
For the first time this year, neither of
the Team Castrol Fords started from the No. 1 qualifying position.
Medlen was the highest qualified of the three, starting from the No. 3
position while Hight starter fourth and Force seventh.
Funny Car Race Winners At-A-Glance:
John Force, Yorba Linda,
Calif., Castrol GTX Ford Mustang, 4.930, 233.60 mph, def. Robert Hight,
Anaheim Hills, Calif., Automobile Club of Southern California Ford
Mustang, 4.890, 244.56 mph.
* * * *
TEAM CASTROL Details:
JOHN FORCE, 57, Castrol GTX Ford Mustang
Qualifying position and performance: 7th at 4.731 seconds, 320.97 mph.
Race results: Beat Tony Bartone, Phil Burkart Jr., Eric Medlen and Robert Hight.
Notable:
With the win Force extends his streak of winning at least one NHRA
national event to an unprecedented twenty years…this was the 26th time
Force owned Funny Cars have squared off in a final round…evened career
record to 8-8 versus Phil Burkhart with second round win.
Quotable:
“We’ve had a good race car all year we’ve been qualifying great but not
winning. I was almost not wanting to be a low qualifier to see if I
could come from behind and win a race. We had three good cars. We moved
up in points. To get a win gets us right mentally. It is good to get
that mental thing out of your head. Robert (Hight) said he was going
for the national record and I told him I was going for the win.” – JOHN
FORCE.
ERIC MEDLEN, 32, Castrol SYNTEC Ford Mustang
Qualifying position and performance: 3rd at 4.681 seconds, 327.51 mph.
Race results: Beat Del Worsham, Tony Pedregon; lost to John Force.
Notable: Ran his career best time in qualifying at 4.681 seconds.
Quotable:
”The car is coming around. When you try and run real hard you want to
make sure the motor will stay together and we were able to do that on
Friday. We played the consistency game today on Sunday and it might
have bit us. I think we might have had a small fuel leak. Just past
half track it was blowing fuel all over the windshield. I could see him
(John Force) out the window and with these Mustangs if you can see them
they’ve got you beat. We got another semi-final finish and we are real
proud of that. We are proud of how all our hot rods are running and
we’re getting them down the track.” – ERIC MEDLEN.
ROBERT HIGHT, 36, Team Castrol/Auto Club of Southern California Ford Mustang
Qualifying position and performance: 4th at 4.685 seconds, 328.06 mph.
Race results: Beat Gary Densham, Ron Capps, Gary Densham; lost to John Force.
Notable:
Defeated points leader, Ron Capps, in second round… defeated reigning
POWERade Funny Car World Champion Gary Scelzi in semi-final round…ran
the lowest ET of every round during eliminations.
Quotable:“I had
low ET ever round. We tried to go for the record in the final. We
didn’t have anything to lose. (Crew Chief) Jimmy (Prock) thought he had
some of our problems worked out and it was on a great run at 330 ft. It
had everything in it but it was hurting before half track. I still
stayed with it. It wasn’t until my blower belt came off that he (John
Force) got around me. It was kind of an odd race.” – ROBERT HIGHT.
ASHLEY FORCE, 23, Castrol Top Alcohol Dragster
Qualifying position and performance: 1st at 5.229 seconds, 272.94 mph.
Race results: Beat Noah Condo, Jeff Hamelink; lost to Sean O’Bannon
Notable: Ran her career best time in qualifying at 5.229 seconds to qualify No. 1 for the first time since June, 2005.
Quotable:
“You always want to win races but if you can be consistent you can go
rounds. The best thing about this weekend is the car has been running
better than it has all season. We ran the quickest time I have ever run
in the dragster. It was really exciting and really exciting for the
team. I know we have the car and I know I can drive it so we just have
to get everything together. We’ve had a few wins this year and we’ll
get some more.”– ASHLEY FORCE.
* * * *
NEXT EVENTS:
June 16-18 K&N Filters Supernationals Englishtown, N.J.
June 23-25 O’Reilly Auto Parts Midwest Nationals Madison, Ill.
July 14-16 Mopar Mile-High Nationals Denver, Colo.
July 21-23 Schuck’s Auto Supply Nationals Seattle, Wash.
July 28-30 FRAM/Autolite Nationals Sonoma, Calif.
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