We caught up with one of the most popular and personable stars of the NHRA, Courtney Force, driver of the Traxxas Ford Mustang Funny Car. We discuss everything from her raceday superstitions to John Force Racing’s plans for the future.
How is the chassis different this year?
CF: We built it in house at John Force Racing, which we did last year’s too. It’s just the new design, kind of new and improved. My dad was running it last year when he won the championship, so I’m running the same design on mine now.
What are your top three goals for this year?
CF: My top goals, well we want to pick up another win. I’ve definitely got my eyes set on Indy, I would really love to do well there. You know we want to get into the top ten for the Countdown to the Championship and we’d love to get that ultimate championship at a the end of the year. I mean i think thats everyones goal out here. I’m obviously still a new driver but you know what, I think we have a great car and a great team and I think if we try hard enough we’ll get close.
Over the years there have been more females in the world of motorsports, what do you think the NHRA needs to do to attract a younger female audience?
CF: Well you know, I have quite a few fans that are young females that come up to me at the ropes that are interested. I think the coolest part is that they can get involved going into the Jr dragster field and they can start pretty young. I think it’s just a matter of time for the young kids to look at the sport and see how great it is, and show that you can be a girl and you can be in a sport that goes over 300 miles per hour if you want to. I think it’s kind of cool to be apart of a male dominated sport and I just think it’s fun. It’s only a matter of time.
You sister Brittany is doing quite well in Top Fuel, would you ever consider driving another class?
CF: I don’t know, I love driving my Funny Car. I always tell her that I would love to jump in her Top Fuel dragster and take it for a spin. She’s been doing a great job, she actually just ran her career best at 3.77 ET. which is pretty amazing. We’re proud of her, she’s improving every time she’s out there and it’s a lot of fun watching her. I don’t know if I could get in that, I’m definitely set on the Funny Car class but it would be fun to compete against her.
Do you have any raceday superstitions?
CF: I don’t know if I have too big of a superstition, but I’m always liking to put on my left glove or my left boot first, before my right for some reason. You get the same fist bumps from the same crew guys every time and you don’t want to screw that up. I listen to music before my run and I think that kind of helps relax me. I guess those are my main superstitions.
What’s on your raceday playlist?
CF: Honestly, I listen to a lot of different stuff, I mean country or even house music. A long song, but with good motivating words and it’s enough to kind of block out everything else that’s going on around you and kind of get in the rhythm and kind of forget about everything else.
What would we find you doing away from the track?
CF: During the offseason I’ve been pretty busy doing a lot of appearances and interviews. we were on The Queen Latifah Show which was a lot of fun. We are busy just trying to be out here and promote ourselves and sell our sport and looking for new sponsors. So that was our offseason, that’s what we kept busy doing. I also got to make it out to a few other different type of races as well.
what is John Force Racing doing to help the team for next season onward once Castrol and Ford leave?
CF: We’re definitely getting ourselves out there to talk to other sponsors, new ones. We just signed on with PEAK Antifreeze, we just announced it. We’re obviously talking to a lot of new people, but won’t be announcing anything until next season, if we have something big to announce. We’re just kind of getting out there and talking to as many people as we can and seeing what we can get.
Follow Courtney Force on Twitter & Instagram: @CourtneyForce
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