Thread: A Force ??

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First let me do the prelim statement that she's got more gonads than me to sit in a fuel FC and im even a fan of hers (sort of)

BUT

With her latest interference fit with chassis/wall by not waiting until that missle was pointed in the right direction and her previous 'experience' of abusing center cones, crossing center lines, holeshot losses, other wall slappers AND (if I heard this right yesterday) That her holeshot win over Capps was the FIRST time that she left first on her competition this year?? I find that one hard to believe but I think thats what they said.

I say that if she wasnt family she'd be sent back down to the minors for a while. I think in a typical hired driver situation she wouldnt get nearly so much rope and would be getting the hook right off that stage.

thoughts?

You're probably right.

I may not recall correctly, but I seem to remember that Kurt Johnson had trouble handling a pro stocker his first year too, but he's turned into a pretty fair driver. Likely there are others that have both benefited by nepotism, and then blossomed.

What I thought looked good was she seemed to shake off what was a pretty bad crash in fairly short order. Tough, naieve?.............not sure.

Oh one things for sure, that girl doesnt lack guts! Fear doesnt seem to be one of her faults.

With team funding and dads patience I think she'll probably make it. She's packed a bunch of experience into a short time and im sure all that will pay off in the long run. Assuming she doesnt run through all the house cars first.

If she took Capps, she can't be totally inept.

I don't quite understand fully Dad's reaction. 1) That crash was not that bad, relatively speaking (from the comfort of my easy chair ). 2) He and the family made the decision to race knowing fully the risks. 3) What's he gonna do if she has a real bad accident? Watching him is worse than the accident itself.

Kitz

She'll do all right. Maybe she might have gotten set down if it were not for family and plenty of money, but I have to hand it to her for just trying. I don't think I would voluntarily sit inside of an 8000 HP missle and try to keep it straight for a quarter mile at maximun velocity. Things can go horribly wrong regardless if you are a rookie or an old pro. She may be a rookie to FC but not to racing. Besides she's a helluva lot prettier than her old man.

Hell, she can drive my sedate little hotrod any day.

I think most of us who have kids that race have gone through the same emotions. When my boys first jumped into the dragster I was scaraed s%$less on every pass. My wife wouldn't even watch them make a pass. Even now, 20 years later, I worry about them when the race.

Now it is my grandkids. Every time the little ones get into the go-cart or the bigs ones take the car out, I worry about all the "whatifs".
My grandson had his first accident with the family car a couple of weeks ago. It brought back up all of those feelings again.

But we can't protect them frome everything forever. We have to make sure we give them the best and the safest rides possible.

I say, Good for John, he has got a lot to worry about with three of them in race cars.

Kids! tell me about it! Ive watched my son race mototcross and go over the bars so many times and get ran over that It started to seem normal?



As far a John's reaction I also questioned if it was drama laced for TV but then thought about how it must feel to have your kid crash shortly after one of your young drivers died. I think it was all real feelings coming up.

Just because she's Ashley Force, she's still a rookie and therefore will make rookie mistakes.... The most impressive part was that she knew what she did wrong and probably won't do it the same way next time...

It all looks so easy from the living room, but when them tires are shaking so hard you can't even see, and the car is jumping from side to side......

When Ashley hits the wall, everyone is on her case. When Brandon Bernstein got up on the wall in his rookie season, it was just a racing deal!!!! Hmmmm.

Rookies make rookie mistakes.... Always have, always will. With what Force and family have been through this year, the majority of others would have packed it in and gone home after Erik got killed.

Another note, the clutch, burnout, and launch procedures are quite different from a Top Alcohol car to a Top Fuel car, as well as a huge horsepower difference!!!! NOTHING can train you to drive one of those monsters except driving one of those monsters!!! It's a steep learning curve when it has to be done in under 5 seconds at over 300 mph and 90% of those watching are ready to second guess and condemn your every action.....

Okay, enough of the serious stuff, how about some gossip that should contribute a little levity. Could be rumor, but a neat story anyway;

Steve Gibbs wrote:

With all the rain here in Seattle, there was ample time to b.s. with the troops today, and the big story going around involves the Jerry Tolliver/Rockstar funny car body fiasco. Goes something like this... Tolliver damaged the body last weekend at Denver when he put it in the sand trap. He makes arrangements for someone to come to the track and pick up the body, and take it to Roush's for repair. Leaving the body in their pit area, the team packs up everything else and heads for the hotel to clean up, with a couple of the crew guys planning on going back to the track to help load the car. During the ensuing time, a coup le of Warren Johnson's crewguys see the thing sitting all by itself and think the body has been abandoned. They proceed to field strip it, taking all the titanium pieces and other trick stuff. Then they decide that parts of the car would make good souvenirs to sell on E-Bay, and cut off the roof, nose section of the car, and a big piecc out of the door area. Well, when Tolliver's guys get back to the track and find out what's happened all hell obviously breaks loose. Cops get involved, and when it's determined W.J.'s crew are responsible, an APB is put out and they are stopped enroute to Seattle. You can imagine what Tolliver's phone call to W.J. must have been like. Anyway, it looks like one of the big name Pro Stock racers just bought a 40k Funny Car body.

That's a hoot and a half!!!!! Can't think of anything kewler then having WJ buying a flopper body cuz of his crew guys. Thanks for that one Uncle Bob, haven't heard a good laugher all day!!!!

Thats hilarious.

Like ive said before, i do not know a whole lot about drag racing, but i think she is doing real good for a rookie, she`s qualified almost every race, made it in the second round on a couple, everybody wants to point out the flaws, but what about the good stuff? Im rooting for her.

Well lets not forget that she is HOT and the NHRA and JFR love the fact that she is out there.
She has made mistakes but everyone does as a rookie in every class. The job she did driving when she beat Capps was great, even her dad said so , I am sure after legging it to the end on that run she thought she could do anything.
Just in the past 10 years or so the big name rookies that have crashed are a whos who of NHRA including Brandon Berstien, Ron Capps, Curt Johnson, Richie Stevens, Robert Hight, Larry Dixon, Whit Bazemore ( many times), Jason Line and I am sure many others. Some the drivers could not do anything about but the fact remains everyone wrecks you just have to learn

Originally Posted by Mike in Motown

First let me do the prelim statement that she's got more gonads than me to sit in a fuel FC and im even a fan of hers (sort of)

BUT

With her latest interference fit with chassis/wall by not waiting until that missle was pointed in the right direction and her previous 'experience' of abusing center cones, crossing center lines, holeshot losses, other wall slappers AND (if I heard this right yesterday) That her holeshot win over Capps was the FIRST time that she left first on her competition this year?? I find that one hard to believe but I think thats what they said.

I say that if she wasnt family she'd be sent back down to the minors for a while. I think in a typical hired driver situation she wouldnt get nearly so much rope and would be getting the hook right off that stage.

thoughts?

I said the same thing a while back and got flamed by pretty much every one here. No matter how pretty things look on TV she does not have the experience and IMO!!! is being PUSHED by her dad. I also dont think every one ,or me at least, is trying to take advantage of every little smack on the wall to start flaming her. I think they are concern about her ability to save her life in a split second......

I see there is a lot of talk about rookies, lets post some actual racing experience for the rookies.... I think its pretty amazing to be able to jump in a fuel car with less than 10 years racing experience ,but I guess thats just me...

Originally Posted by BigTruckDriver

I see there is a lot of talk about rookies, lets post some actual racing experience for the rookies.... I think its pretty amazing to be able to jump in a fuel car with less than 10 years racing experience ,but I guess thats just me...

There is no training for driving a funny car other then what she's been through.... She ran a top alcohol car, went to a good funny car driving school, and moved up to nitro funny car... Same as the majority of the top fuel drivers. Nothing other then a funny car will train you to drive a funny car....Nothing... The only way you learn how to handle the situations that come up in a funny car is by being in them. Everyone who is in funny car and top fuel now has crashed at least once, some many more times then that. Read the other posts, there is a listing of other top fuel drivers who crashed in their rookie season. Crashing and making mistakes is part of being a rookie... All the top fuel drivers were rookies once and they all went through the same ordeal. It's no different for Ashley they it was for any of the others.. We all learn by making mistakes. If you're looking for drivers who haven't made mistakes....well....quit looking!!!!! Did you see her first pass? The car got loose, moved out of the groove and was all over the track, she brought it back to the center, ran a good time, and won..... She has a competition license and has met all the criteria that NHRA has for driving a funny car... I believe those folks are much better at determining a driver's competence then those of us watching it on the tube!!!!!

Going with your logic, I must be qualified to drive a top fuel car, I've been drag racing for better then 40 years!!!!!

Rookies are rookies and make rookie mistakes. The only reason the spotlight is on Ashley is because of who here Dad is....

Though I haven't seen any footage of the crash that killed Eric Medlen and doubt that any of us ever will, I wonder how close in similarity her crash was to his? Point being that Eric had quite a bit of experience in contrast to Ashley. It's a dangerous sport, always has been and always will be. IMHO it's part of her learning curve which will continue as long as she drives. So many have come and gone before her and each and everyone of them have experienced crashes and/or burn downs. She will get better with each pass and will be a force (pun intended) to be reckoned with in the coming years.