It appeared Top Fuel star Brittany Force might not make a name for herself in qualifying at the Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals near Seattle.

That changed in seemingly a nanosecond in the third and final qualifying session Saturday evening.

Force clocked a blistering 3.753-second elapsed time at 327.35 mph in her Flav-R-Pac dragster to take the No. 1 qualifying spot.

“That was really important for this Flav-R-Pac team to make a killer run and get this car down the racetrack and safely qualify in the show for (Sunday),” Force said about her run in Q3. “We struggled in Q1 and Q2. In Q1, we just got greedy and pushed the car too hard. We were aiming for a mid 70 and we should have aimed for an 80. Q2, the automatic shutoff shut the car off. It just malfunctioned. I stepped on the throttle and the car just shut down and you can’t really do anything at that point. We had to go back and figure out what the problem was and why it happened and fix it going into race day.

“On that third run, we made a solid pass and put a 75 on the board. I wasn’t expecting that in the heat. (Crew chief David) Grubnic said he wanted to get us in the top three and top five, that’s always what we are aiming for, and we went No. 1. That was outstanding for this Flav-R-Pac team. We need to do it. This is a Flav-R-Pac sponsored race and there’s a lot of pressure on this weekend and I think we made the boss happy.”

This is Force’s fifth No. 1 qualifier in the 2022 season to go with the ones she captured in Pomona, Calif., Richmond, Va., Norwalk, Ohio, and Denver. It is the 37th No. 1 qualifier in her career.

“Going into race day last weekend in (Sonoma), we had three qualifying runs and we only got down the track one time,” Force said. “It is the same thing we did last weekend, and we were successful then. We were able to turn on four win lights and get to the winner’s circle. That’s not how we planned to do it, but we learned from those runs in Sonoma, and they set us up for race day. When I pull up there, I’m not thinking how many good runs I had (in qualifying). It’s a whole new ballgame on raceday when you pull up there on Sunday. You start fresh.” 

Force arrived in Seattle first in the points standings on the strength of four wins, including last Sunday in Sonoma, Calif.

Force’s run Saturday evening was quite impressive considering No. 2 qualifier Steve Torrence came in at 3.819 seconds.

“He (Grubnic) is the crew chief, and he always delivers,” Force said. “I leave it up to him. We obviously want to win this race; we haven’t been here since 2019 (because of COVID-19 restrictions). Back in 2019, we were successful back when Austin Prock and my dad (John Force) doubled up. We would like to do that again and get this Flav-R-Pac car in the winner’s circle.

“The track was 135 degrees on that last run, and they said it was finally cooling down and we still made that good run. Runs that we really struggle with are when the track temps are hot. Everybody struggles. Obviously, we put the killer runs on the board in cool conditions. To be able to that in the heat is very impressive for this team and we need to keep repeating that.”