FORCE RACES FOUR IN VEGAS
Fri, 2007-10-26 16:35
After being driven Friday from his Yorba Linda, Calif., home to The Strip at Las
Vegas Motor Speedway to meet, face-to-face, with his drivers and crew chiefs,
injured drag racing champion John Force ended speculation about his team’s
participation in this week’s seventh annual ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals by
certifying as race-ready all four of his Ford Mustang Funny Cars.
Before Friday’s meeting, only title contender Robert Hight’s Automobile
Club of Southern California Mustang had received an okay to compete in the
season’s next-to-last race. The other three Fords were held back while new
chassis data was analyzed by crew chiefs Austin Coil, Bernie Fedderly, John
Medlen, Jimmy Prock and Dean Antonelli.
Hight’s car was excepted because it was built by a different chassis
manufacturer using a different process. The cars driven by Rookie-of-the-Year
candidate Ashley Force, newly-licensed rookie Mike Neff and veteran Phil Burkart
Jr., were released to compete after Force received certain re-assurances from
his brain trust.
Hight, the only Ford driver qualified for the NHRA’s Countdown to One,
drove a chassis built originally by Steve Plueger during last week’s open test
on the same Las Vegas track. Originally built for Force, the car was sold to a
third party but never raced in competition.
Nevertheless, it required extensive modification to incorporate safety
measures developed in the aftermath of Eric Medlen’s fatal crash during testing
at Gainesville, Fla., in March and Force’s Sept. 23 crash at the Texas Motorplex
in Dallas, Texas.
Force, who suffered extensive injuries to his feet, legs and hands when
the chassis beneath his Castrol-backed Ford came apart at 320 miles per hour,
still is confined to wheelchair because of his foot injuries and next week will
undergo additional surgery on broken bones in his right foot.
Categories:
