Ashley Force Hood was the first of multi-time Funny Car champion John Force’s daughters to become a professional race-car driver.

But Monday at The Strip at as Vegas Motor Speedway, she was the one playing catch-up, the one hoping she absorbs all the advice and knowledge and applies them properly.

Force Hood went through the National Hot Rod Association’s Funny Car licensing renewal procedures Monday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“I want to get re-licensed just so if there ever was a situation if someone broke their arm or got sick or something,” the four-time Funny Car winner said.

JACOB HOOD’S MOM REFRESHES FUNNY CAR LICENSE ***

Jacob John Hood is used to seeing his grandpa, Auntie Courtney Force, and even Jr. Dragster driver cousin Autumn Hight suiting up and getting into a race car.

Mom Ashley Force Hood also keeps her racing gear in a cupboard at her Yorba Linda, Calif., office, and Jacob plays with it when he visits. He even saw her try on the suit last week and, she said he “didn’t think anything strange. He thought I was playing dress-up.”

But when Mom sank down into a race car and belted herself in, he wasn’t so enthusiastic.

“He acted a little weird when I got in the car,” she said. “He was looking at me funny. When I got in the car, he suddenly was a little concerned. They brought him over to me, but he wouldn’t talk to me. He was shy. It was just something different.”

But Jacob’s mom did just fine Monday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway when she made a few passes to renew her NHRA Funny Car license.

She started the experience she called “nice but nerve-wracking” with a 4.11-second, 292.90-mph pass. Following that first run since the 2010 Auto Club Finals at Pomona was a 4.042, 314 mph effort.

“It was nice, but it was nerve wracking,” Force Hood said after her opening run Monday. “I feel like I have added five years to my life. I am glad the first one is out of the way.

“I was trying not to overthink it too much. The nerves finally hit. Right about the time that I was staging, I remember going, ‘Please Eric, help me out here,’ ” she said, referring to her late teammate, Eric Medlen. 

“It is hard to remember what the launch is like until you are back in the seat. The run was really smooth and everyone did the routine just like Dan told me they would. Everything went better than I was expecting, actually,” Force Hood said.

Sister Courtney has been returned the favor, giving her tips to encourage her.

“The hardest part was when I was starting out, my team was brand new. So we were all kind of messing up and learning together. Getting in this Funny Car, all these guys are established and have a routine with Courtney. The spotlight will be on me if I mess up. I just wanted to do everything right and not mess them up or mess the car up,” Force Hood said. “It was weird to be in Courtney’s seat and get tips from her.

Husband Dan, of course was helpful, she said: “The last few weeks [he] has been walking me through the routine. He was letting me know what was different. For the most part, it is not that much different from when I drove. I know when I got done with the burnout, I went over all my routine about three times, because the reverse and the fuel are close together and I was just so scared I was going to grab the wrong one. You just don’t want to make one little mistake that will ruin the whole run.” 

Courtney Force said the process was “a little crazy. She obviously knows what she is doing out there. She has more experience than me, but it has been a few years since she was in the car. She was coming to me to brush up on some tips. It is a little bit different than the one she was running a few years ago. The team is different, so there is a different routine. She was coming to me for advice, which was a little strange since I was the one going to her for advice and I still get advice from her.

“It was exciting watching her run out there. She made good runs, which was good for the Traxxas Ford Mustang team to get data. She ran a 4.11 on the first pass, and she clicked it a little early. That run was a little unexpected for everybody. She still has it,” Courtney Force said. 

“Once you get past the routine issues which are the hardest parts. Remembering the burnout, backing up, pulling up again, letting the clutch out, and all the little things are where you could make a mistake. Once you hit the throttle it gets easier from there. Once you get back in the seat and you are flying down the track at 300 miles an hour, I am sure for her it was like going back in time four years,” she said. 

“I am sure she was comfortable, because I saw that big smile on her face when she got out of the car at the top end. It was a little strange for me in the staging lanes to walk around the outside of my race car with another driver inside,” Courtney Force said. “Seeing my guys giving her the fist-pumps that they usually give me and saying the same good luck sayings that I am used to hearing . . . It was a little emotional for me to hear from the outside. I was really proud of her and see her back renewing her license.”

Greeting her at the top end were Jacob and Noah.

Said Force Hood, “It was fun -- when I pulled of the track, Matt Madden was there helping, and he was on my team before. So that was nice to see a familiar face. I don’t think Noah had a clue what was going on. Jacob’s big news to me when I asked him what he thought was, ‘Gramma gave me gum!’ So he wasn’t that impressed. Apparently that is old news, since his Poppa and aunts have been doing this for awhile.

“I will have to do something really extraordinary to impress him. I’ll give him a lifetime supply of gum or something.”

In three runs on Monday, she ran 4.11, 4.042 and 4.14. - Susan WadeAshley Force Hood was the first of multi-time Funny Car champion John Force’s daughters to become a professional race-car driver.

But Monday at The Strip at as Vegas Motor Speedway, she was the one playing catch-up, the one hoping she absorbs all the advice and knowledge and applies them properly.

Force Hood went through the National Hot Rod Association’s Funny Car licensing renewal procedures Monday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“I want to get re-licensed just so if there ever was a situation if someone broke their arm or got sick or something,” the four-time Funny Car winner said.

She stepped away from the sport after the 2010 season, when she learned she and husband Dan Hood, one of her crew chiefs, were expecting their first child. They are the parents of two boys, Jacob and Noah. Dan Hood serves with crew chief Ron Douglas for the Traxxas Ford Mustang that Ashley’s sister Courtney drives. Ashley Force Hood is the president of John Force Entertainment.

“My license expired a year or so ago, when I was pregnant with Noah. So I couldn’t do anything about it,” she said. “A few weeks ago, my husband said, ‘We’re going to be in Vegas, testing. If you want to update it, maybe now’s your chance to do that.’ We’re not in the Countdown and all that stuff.

Later testing opportunities likely wouldn’t have worked with her schedule, as she hadn’t planned to attend those national events. The Indianapolis test session falls on the eve of the season’s marquee race, when teams are focused on the six-event Countdown.

“So if there’s a race that would be nice and easy that I’m going to be at, it’d be here,” she said.

The choice to renew her license was not a haphazard, last-minute decision.

“I talked about it over the winter. Of course, Dad’s always bringing it up. But when there was an actual, specific day that came up – because Dan knows the testing schedule better than me – he’s like, ‘We’re going to be there. We’re going to be testing. Maybe this is an opportunity.’ I was going to be here anyway,” Force Hood said. “We checked with Ron [Douglas] and Courtney to make sure that was OK with everybody. And everyone’s like, ‘Sure!’ “

She said she had no delusions that operating the car again would be a cinch, although everybody had been telling her driving the Funny Car again will be like riding her bike.

“But I’m like, ‘No, it won’t.’ I think it’ll come back to me. It’ll take a few runs, even simple things like which side of the car you got in and basic little things that you don’t stop and think about,” she said before strapping in the car Monday.

She recalled that even active drivers are a bit apprehensive to start a season. “Everyone’s a little nervous to jump back in after being off for three months, because they’re such powerful cars,” she said. And she was talking about being out of the car for about three months, not three and a half years.

Force Hood said she prepared herself by sitting in one of the cars at the shop and becoming familiar again with the landscape of the cockpit. She said she knew a few changes had taken place in the warm-up process, for example. “There’s really no big things,” but she did as much homework as she could.

She also watched the Traxxas Mustang team’s routine during the weekend’s SummitRacing.com Nationals. They have developed a uniquely specific set of practices, and Force Hood said she wanted not to take her sister’s team out of its rhythm.

“We want to do exactly what their routine is. They just need to tell me what it is and I’ll adapt to it,” she said during the past weekend.

One comforting thought for her was that a couple of the crew members were on her team when she drove this particular Mustang. “It’s kind of nice to have familiar faces, and I know Courtney’s team anyway,” Force Hood said.

While Courtney Force said she’d like to try out sister Brittany’s Top Fuel dragster sometime, Force Hood declared herself “really hesitant about the dragster.” She said, “I really don’t know why. I’ve always had a fear of them, which doesn’t make sense. Funny Cars can be just as crazy as dragsters.”

She raced a Top Alcohol Dragster and won five of nine final rounds and compiled a 67-33 elimination-round record. So it’s not like she can’t handle a “long, skinny car.”

However, she said, “The front coming up stopped my heart every time. That’s how it had to be to take off, but with the Funny Car you don’t see that. So every time in A/Fuel I was [anxious], just getting through that spot until it sat back down. So I think that would come back. I feel more comfortable in a Funny Car. I like the body over me. I like the shorter wheelbase.

“It’s all just your experiences with racing. We all have our own little reasons. I’m terrified of sharks. Then there are people who by choice swim with sharks. I think they’re nuts. And then there’s people who look at race-car drivers and they think we’re nuts,” Force Hood said. “So it’s all a matter of what your background is, I guess.” 

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