DID YOU KNOW:

John raced in his first NHRA final round in 1979, losing to Kenny Bernstein in a Wednesday night conclusion to the NHRA Cajun Nationals at Baton Rouge, La.

John is continuing to rehab from a Traumatic Brain Injury suffered in a 300 mile per hour crash last June in Richmond, Va.

John’s 157 tour victories span five decades and include wins in 33 different events at 26 different racetracks.

John is one of two drivers to have won three different races at In-N-Out Burger Dragstrip, his home track in Pomona, Calif.  In addition to eight wins in both the Winternationals and the In-N-Out Burger Finals, the track’s traditional events, he also won the one-off 50th Anniversary NHRA Nationals at Pomona on July 8, 2001.

Beyond his success as a driver, John served as mentor to daughters Ashley, Brittany and Courtney and others who, entering the 2025 season, had won an additional 163 events and seven championships for JFR.

He was No. 2 behind only “Big Daddy” Don Garlits in a poll to determine to Top 50 racers during the NHRA’s first 50 years.

FOR THE RECORD:

16-Time Funny Car World Champion (2013, 2010, 2006, 2004, 1993-2002, 1991, 1990)

1996 Driver of the Year for all American motorsports (first drag racer ever so honored)

Overall drag racing record holder for final round appearances, victories, No. 1 qualifying performances, championships and consecutive championships
Inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame (2012), Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (2008), International Drag Racing Hall of Fame (2023), California Sports Hall of Fame (2017), National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame (2020), Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame (2011)

14-time member of Auto Racing All-America Team selected by the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Association and four-time winner of the Jerry Titus Memorial Award (1996, 1999, 2000 and 2002) presented to the driver receiving the most overall votes.

A FORCE OF ONE

Few success stories are more compelling than that of John Harold Force, who overcame childhood polio to become the most prolific winner in professional drag racing history. The youngest of five children, his youthful dream of a football career was derailed by his physical limitations. He could pass the football like a pro, but with one leg markedly shorter than the other, running was a problem.  Ultimately, that is what drew him into drag racing “where the car does the running for you.” 

Of course, at the outset, racing with mismatched equipment and part-time crew members, he and his “Brute Force” entries were little more than fodder for the Funny Car stars of the era. 

That all changed in 1985 when Force hooked up with Austin Coil in one of the most unlikely and at the same time most successful collaborations in motorsports history.  However, success, even with Coil, who had won two NHRA series championships with his own “Chi-Town Hustler” Funny Car, was not immediate.  It would be two years before the duo won its first NHRA tour event at Montreal, Canada, and it would be three more before Force would win the first of his remarkable 16 individual NHRA championships, a record 10 of them in succession (1993-2002).

Prior to teaming up with Coil, Force was runner-up at two NHRA national events in 1979 when he finished eighth in season points.  In 1983, he finished fourth after two more runner-up finishes and, one year later, he was crowned the final Funny Car Champion in the AHRA Grand National Series.  However, It wasn’t until he teamed up with Coil that he won for the first time in the NHRA series.  

Currently receiving treatment for a Traumatic Brain Injury suffered in a 300 mile per hour crash last June in Richmond, Va., the one-time truck driver is the drag racing record holder in almost every imaginable professional category including championships, final rounds (269), race wins (157), round wins (1457) and No. 1 qualifying performances (167).  He won at least one race in 35 different seasons including 2024 when he coaxed his PEAK Antifreeze and Cooto the winners’ circle at the Lucas Oil Winternationals at Pomona, Calif., and the New England Nationals at Epping, N.H.

A five-time winner of drag racing’s biggest single event, the Labor Day U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, Ind., he has won 13 NHRA All-Star events including the 1998 Winston Showdown at Bristol, Tenn., a race in which he enjoyed the biggest payday in the history of the NHRA series: $210,000.  In addition, he’s won five Big Bud Shootouts, one Skoal Showdown and a pair of Traxxas Shootouts.  Notably, he was the first drag racer ever named Driver of the Year for all American motor sports after winning 13 of 19 races and the series championship in 1996.

For that historic 1996 season, he expanded his team to include a second car driven to a second-place points finish by Tony Pedregon, who would go on to become the first driver other than Force to win a championship for JFR (2003).  As a result of Pedregon’s success, Force introduced a Next Generation initiative that would develop a host of young drivers including Eric Medlen, three-time series champ Robert Hight, his own daughters Ashley, Courtney and Brittany, Mike Neff and, most recently, 2024 NHRA Funny Car champion Austin Prock.

It was during his daughters’ initial involvement in the family business that Force became a reality television phenomenon as the star of the A&E series “Driving Force.”   Tragically, at the height of its popularity, production on the series was suspended when Medlen, who had been prominently featured in several episodes, was killed in a 2007 testing accident at Gainesville Raceway.

Force responded to Medlen’s death by leading a movement that compelled long-overdue design changes to Funny Cars and Top Fuel dragsters and the implementation of new safety guidelines that reversed what had become a disturbing and fatal trend. 

His greatest personal triumph, however, may have been his return from life threatening injuries in a crash at the Texas Motorplex in Dallas on Sept. 23, 2007, the most serious accident of his almost 50-year career until Richmond.

Despite doctors’ belief that he never would race again after injuries to his legs, feet, hands and arms, Force endured four months of intense rehab and was back in a race car to start the 2008 season.  Little more than three months later, he hoisted the trophy at Topeka, Kan.  He would go on to win series championships in 2010 and 2013, his first titles during the NHRA’s Countdown Era.