It seems like only yesterday that John Force and Eric Medlen were
playing cowboy with two-time PRCA champion Jerold Camarillo on his
ranch just outside Oakdale, Calif., Medlen's hometown.
It seems like only yesterday the two were floating in the pool at a Bay
Area spa for an episode of the hit A&E Network TV series, Driving
Force.
And it seems like only yesterday Force was celebrating with Medlen in
the winners' circle at Infineon Raceway, site of the 20th annual
FRAM/Autolite Nationals, where, in a perfect world, his young protégé
this week would have been defending his Funny Car championship.
But, as Force so often has been reminded the last four months, the
world is not perfect and Medlen, one of the brightest young stars of
the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, is gone now, his light
extinguished in a freak accident during testing last March at
Gainesville, Fla.