As a slow and steady rain shower lightly tapped on the window of the John Force Racing hauler, the legend himself slouched on his couch - still in his fire suit, hours from any possibility of racing - and let out a sigh.

Alone for a few moments amid the hustle and bustle of a normal race day routine, John Force looked toward the sky and began to speak to a figure unseen in the room: “(Bill) Bader, you’re up there now, stop the rain, would ya?"

It was one of the first quiet moments Force had to think about the first NHRA national event held at the famed Summit Motorsports Park without the man who put it on the map, legendary track owner Bill Bader Sr. One year ago at this race, moments after the celebrations had ended and the trophies were handed out, the racing community was shocked to learn that Bader had lost his life in an accident at his home in Idaho.

While the news was a somber moment amid the celebrations of John Force Racing driver Robert Hight’s first win at the facility, it was an especially hard blow for Force himself, who has become synonymous with entertaining, fire-breathing passes under the lights at the national event and annual Night Under Fire held in front of tens of thousands of rabid race fans each year.

To Force, Bader was a modern-day P.T. Barnum. He understood the sport like few before him, and revolutionized the promotion and entertainment value of the drag racing profession. To Force, few did it better.

“I was friends with the man. I learned a lot from him -- he was one of the best promoters in the business,” Force recalled. “People don’t realize you don’t run a racetrack just one day a year, you run it year round. He understood that. He worked with the big names, and he worked with the small names. When I met the man, I was one of the small names. He helped me build my brand and I had a lot of respect for him for that. He was also a family man, like me. He was always teaching his kids how to put on a show.”

Of course, it wasn’t just his kids that learned a thing or two from Bader. When Force was a struggling young racer, some kind words and snippets of advice helped put on a path to 16 NHRA championships.

 

 

“I am a stress-filled guy, and Bader taught me that stress is part of it,” Force said. “He said, ‘Get used to it.’ I’d come in here and I’d say, ‘I’m broke and things are going bad. The car won’t run. I’m sick to my stomach.’ He said to me, ‘You don’t think I have the same feelings you have?’ And he gave me advice on how to handle it. I learned so much from him.”

Bader left behind his son, Bill Bader Jr., who had already taken the reins at the track for more than two decades prior to his father’s death, and his entire family had a hand in its day-to-day operation at one point. Bader Jr. has continued in the tradition of his father, and in many ways built upon his legacy, turning Summit Motorsports Park into one of the finest drag racing facilities in the world.

But what made the elder Bader special was his never-ending dedication to the heart and soul of the sport -- the fans.

“He was so good at what he did, not because of the crowds, not because of the money he made, but because at the end of the day he would come down to the track at the end of the race, stand beside me, and watch the fireworks,” Force said. “I’ve said this a million times: When I get beat, I go to the stands and I watch the races. And he was the same way. He was a fan first.

“I’ve only met a few people like him in my lifetime that truly get it and were really good at what they did. It ain’t about the race. We’re here to entertain the fans. He got that. And he loved to watch those fireworks. He loved to watch those big trucks race down there and the wheelstanders and all of it. He just really loved the racing.”

Bader purchased Norwalk Dragway in April 1974 at the age of 31. He slowly transformed the track -- later named Norwalk Raceway -- into the gem it is today. He helped create the wildly popular Night Under Fire exhibition race, of which Force was a regular, and created a calendar of events that drew in fans from around the world.

Originally a track with the International Hot Rod Association, the track held its first race under the banner of the NHRA in 2007 with the inaugural NHRA Summit Nationals.

Bader retired from his role in 2005, handing the reins to his son, but often returned to the track for big events.

After Bader’s death, Force returned to the track to speak at the celebration of life event held after the national event last year, and shared a few memories that stood out from his yearly visits to the facility.

“I remember when they rolled me out in a coffin and my T-shirt said ‘The Nightmare Continues’ because I had won two championships,” Force recalled. “I was scared to death, because I certainly don’t like being in a coffin, but they rolled me to the starting line and that is how they introduced me. He just always had something up his sleeve.

“He also always remembered to honor the military. That’s very important to me, I’m old school. He always welcomed members of the military and had planes flying over or something. He always had a hook or gimmick. Nobody will ever replace him. His boy has a shot. He is his own man and he learned from the best, but I think they will be fine if they continue to promote this the same way.”

As Force racked his brain for more memories of his time at the track, the memories came flooding back.

 

 

 

“(My kids) got to see those amazing fireworks growing up,” Force said. “I still get caught up in all of it now. The burning down of the wall (behind the staging lanes). The ice cream. What he would give to the kids. There was always something special.”

Force was of course referencing the famous burning down of the giant wall beside the control tower by the fire-breathing jet semi of Bob Motz and others. He was also talking about perhaps one of the most famous features of the facility - the $1 pound of ice cream.

“Eric Medlen loved ice cream,” said Force in reference to the late JFR driver who perished in a testing accident in 2007. “He was always freaking out anytime we came here.”

Of course, one unforeseen circumstance of Bader’s death was Force’s own inward look at his own life. Following Bader’s accident, combined with a number of personal incidents in his life involving close friends and family members, Force began to reflect on his own mortality as he continues to strap himself into a machine traveling in excess of 330 miles per hour.

“When it happened, it just freaked me out,” Force admitted. “It made me think, I’ve been on edge in a racecar more times than you’d believe. But I thought it over and realized anything can happen to you at any time. So I thought, ‘I’m just going to stick with racing and stay with what I know.’ (Bader) loved this sport. It broke my heart, I really loved the guy. When Robert won the race and we were celebrating and I ran into (his daughter) Bobbie and she was crying, I knew something was wrong. They are just the best family and they work just like him.

“They are special people. They know how to run racetracks. They lived it every week. He and Bruton Smith, they did it right. If I was going to own a racetrack -- and that is one of my dreams -- I would want it run like this. I remember joking with Bobbie once, ‘If your dad stays there forever, come with me and show me how to do it.’”

With Force less than a year away from turning 75, and plenty of reminders of his mortality around him, the motorsports hall of famer has found solace in an unfamiliar place -- an old, dilapidated Bible originally belonging to his father. The pages are yellow, and his team has had to help him bind it together, but he has found comfort inside its pages.

While he doesn’t always understand some of the deeper meanings behind some of the passages, he has learned to lean on that Bible in his daily life, reading it each morning and even on planes when he is traveling.

“All of this happening around me, it makes you realize,” Force said. “So last year, I started reading the Bible. I grew up with the Bible. This one was given to me in ‘57 when I was in like third or fourth grade at a little church in Redwood Creek on the Indian reservations of northern Humboldt County in northern California. With so many things that happened last year -- Bader, people that were my age, my friends -- I thought I need to read through this thing.

“I go into our library, and I never go into the library because I never read nothing, but I find this old Bible. I opened it up and it had my father’s handwriting and in it was all of the children, his wife, all when they were born. And I thought, ‘I’d never read this, now’s your chance.’

“I take it to the hotels and read it on the planes. I had a guy next to me who said, ‘Sir, could you read quietly?’ He was very nice, but his wife went off on him. She said, ‘The man is reading the Bible, you need to shut your mouth.’ But I’ve had other people lean over and say they admire my reading it. I tell them, ‘Half of it I don’t understand, but I’m getting into it.’”

Closing in on that magic age of 75, an age he once said would be the official end to his racing career, is he truly any closer to hanging up his firesuit and calling it quits as a driver?

“I don’t put a date on it,” Force said. “I thought years back, when I turned 75, that’s when I’m done and I told people that, but when I said that it was five years away. But here it is. Next year I’ll be 75 and it’s like, I don’t feel any different. Do I get tired? Airports are probably the worst, but I don’t feel any closer to calling it quits. I still love what I do.”