John Force

John Force struggled early-on, both financially and professionally, racing in a belief shared by virtually no one else that one day he could become champion. In fact, Force was winless in his first 10 seasons on the NHRA tour. Not only that, he came up second best the first nine times he took a Funny Car to a final round before finally breaking through on June 28, 1987 when he and a team led by crew chief Austin Coil beat Ed “the Ace” McCulloch to win the Grandational at Montreal, Canada. Force was 38 years old.

Partnered with Coil, Force began to build what would become an American sports dynasty. He would go on to win two outright championships with Coil (1990-91) and 12 more with Coil and Bernie Fedderly, who came on board as co-crew chief in 1992.

With Mike Neff making the mechanical decisions in 2010, he won his first title in the NHRA’s Countdown Era and, three years later, he won again with Jimmy Prock assessing the performance data. He’s also won NHRA tour events with Dean Antonelli, Jon Schaffer and the crew chief tandem of Brian Corradi and Dan Hood.

Force has been the lone constant, along the way starring in his own TV show (“Driving Force” which aired on A&E Network in 2006 and 2007); becoming the first drag racer to earn Driver of the Year recognition for all American motor racing (1996); being voted No. 2 racer behind only Don Garlits in the NHRA’s first 50 years; and being inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in Daytona Beach, Florida (2008), the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame in Fort Worth (2011), the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in Talladega, Alabama, (2012), the California Sports Hall of Fame in Alta Loma (2017) and the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame (2019).

In 2005, he traveled to London, England, to accept the John Bolster Award for lifetime achievement, and in 2008 he was presented the MSEC Motorsports Achievement Award by the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) for his work in improving race car safety following the death of Eric Medlen.

Now, Force is bidding to extend his record number of Top 10 finishes and the record number of different seasons in which he has hoisted at least one of the NHRA’s distinctive Wally trophies. He’ll be trying to improve on the perfection of a career in which he has won more races, appeared in more finals, been the No. 1 qualifier more often and won more racing rounds than anyone else in history.

TEAM

Daniel Hood

Daniel Hood

Hometown: Lisle, IL
Daniel grew up racing with his dad. He enjoys playing hockey and spending time with his wife and two little boys.

Chris Cunningham

Chris Cunningham

Hometown: Hollywood, FL
Chris’s hobbies include golf, going to the Caribbean, riding Harley Davidson’s and spending time with his wife Sheila and daughter Lacey.

Tim Fabrisi

Tim Fabrisi

Hometown: Naugatuck, CT
Tim proudly served as a SGT in the US Marine Corps and started working on an Alcohol Dragster in 1997, Pro Mod in 2004 and nitro Funny Car in 2008 where he won a Championship with John Force in 2010. His hobbies are shooting, boating, camping and spending time with his family. He’s married to Alicia with 3 little girls (one is an angel watching over them, Skylar Grace) has two furry kids and is proud to work at JFR.

Mark Freidenfelt

Mark Freidenfelt

Hometown: Sacramento, CA
Mark started working for JFR on Courtney Force’s Funny Car her rookie season and has been here ever since. He enjoys building and riding Harley Davidson’s in his free time.

Jay Carter

Jay Carter

Hometown: Dayton, OH
Jay has been involved in racing since he was 19 and has worked on various professional NHRA teams including Pedregon Racing, Terry McMillen Racing and Maroney Racing. In his spare time he enjoys hiking.

Trace Coe

Trace Coe

Hometown: Mineral Wells, TX
At age 15, Trace built and raced a 1988 Mustang that led to other cars upwards of 1,500 horsepower. He previously worked for Kalitta Motorsports and Cruz Pedregon Racing. Racing is life!

Dillon Elkins

Dillon Elkins

Hometown: Kalida, OH
Dillon attended University of Northwestern Ohio and worked at Hot Rod Magazine Drag Week and on various NHRA race teams. His interests include engines, cars and dirt circle track racing.

Hunter Hagen

Hunter Hagen

Hometown: Broomes Island, MD
Hunter got his start racing on a UNOH Motorsports team and has also worked on dirt UMP modifieds and CRA asphalt late models.

Zachary Lunn

Zachary Lunn

Hometown: Pacific, MO
Zachary’s dad had a sand dragster when he was a kid, so he grew up around racing. Previous drag racing experience was with Jim Head Racing.

Cody Swartwood

Cody Swartwood

Hometown: Lakewood, CO
He grew up racing with his family and previously worked at Terry McMillen Racing. In his spare time he likes fishing, camping and outdoor activities.

Sterling Van Dusen

Sterling Van Dusen

Hometown: Irvine, CA
Sterling has been involved in drag racing on and off for most of his life. Growing up near Orange County International Raceway, racing was always a part of his life. In his spare time he enjoys reading.

SUPPORT STAFF

Lanny Miglizzi

Lanny Miglizzi

Hometown: San Dimas, CA
Lanny grew up racing with his dad who started L&T Clutches in 1980. Around 1982 he went drag racing full time as he needed to learn the race track in order to help their clutch customers. He’s still learning everyday.

Eric Frampton

Eric Frampton

Hometown: El Paso, TX
Eric got his start in drag racing shortly after he got out of the Navy and worked on dirt modified cars for a few years while working evenings as a Diesel mechanic at the Kenworth shop in town. He met a guy who helped get him hired in drag racing doing the Mopar Performance tech trailer at the races which led into working with John Force and the team. He moved into the Castrol midway trailer in 2006 and then eventually moved to JFR Race Support. His hobbies include desert racing his dirt bike and driving his pro street car.

Chuck Grospitch

Chuck Grospitch

Hometown: Cleveland, OH
Previous drag race experience includes working on John Force and Tony Schumacher’s race cars in years past. Chuck grew up racing at Norwalk and goes by the nickname Chuck Daddy.

TEAM

Daniel Hood

Lisle, IL

Chris Cunningham

Hollywood FL

Tim Fabrisi

Naugatuck, CT

Mark Freidenfelt

Sacramento, Ca

Jay Carter

Dayton, OH

Trace Coe

Mineral Wells, TX

Dillon Elkins

Kalida, OH

Hunter Hagen

Broomes Island, MD

Zachary Lunn

Pacific, MO

Cody Swartwood

Lakewood, CO

Sterling Van Dusen

Irvine, CA

Support Staff

Eric Frampton

El Paso, TX

Lanny Miglizzi

San Dimas, CA

Chuck Grospitch

Cleveland , OH