John Force, the most successful NHRA funny car driver in history, delivered that message to the rest of the motorsports world Sunday afternoon at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“I can race again,” an emotional Force said. “I’m back in the game, I can compete and I can still do this.”
Force took home the top spot in the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals with a victory over Tony Pedregon, topping out at a speed of 284.93 mph for his third win of the 2010 season.
After a 2007 injury led to a pair of unsuccessful trips in Las Vegas—disqualifying in 2008 and losing in the first round of the nationals last year—Force explained afterward the motivation behind his recent success at the track.
“I’m working to show my kids that their dad can still do this,” he said. “They never saw me win. Every time I won, the trophies were taller than them. Sixty years old is not old and my family pushed me to do this.” Las Vegas Sun
In the Top Fuel final, No. 2 qualifier Larry Dixon got the better of Cory McClenathan, turning in a pass of 4.016 seconds. He won his third event of the season and moved ahead of McClenathan by a single point in the best battle among the four pro classes.
“I love it when a plan comes together,” Dixon said of his 51st career event victory. “We had a car that was unbelievable all weekend.”
Other than an opening-round shootout where Dixon held on late to beat Steve Faria, Dixon turned in stellar times that were on the level with McClenathan. Once he got to the final, the opportunity to grab hold of the points lead was there for the taking.
“I like racing Cory and Cory likes racing me,” said Dixon, who dedicated last week’s win in Houston to his ailing son, Darien. “Nobody plays any games and we just go up there and do our thing.”
Mike Edwards continued his domination in Pro Stock, qualifying in the No. 1 spot and finishing first for the fourth time in the season’s six events. He beat No. 11 qualifier Greg Stanfield in the final with a pass of 6.751 seconds (205.51 mph). St. George Daily Spectrum
“My team, as the Interstate logo says, is outrageously dependable,” said Edwards. “These guys are awesome. To come here and run in conditions that were 180 degrees different than Houston and make the adjustments and make the car do what it did here, those guys are awesome, so hats off to all my guys.
“If you look back last year and we got in these conditions and summer came around, we felt like we could get back to our form, and we really ran good in the summertime. The tracks get worse, and we feel like we’ve got a really good handle on those conditions, so hopefully it can stay hot, maybe not this hot but start getting hot. It feels good to come out here and win at Vegas. I’ve been coming here a long time and ran really, really well but just could never close the deal. It feels good.” NHRA
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