Ashley Force Applies Exclamation Point To Vegas Test Session
Rookie-to-Be Records Career Best 4.729 Time in Castrol GTX Ford
LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- After making slow and steady progress in the
first three days of testing at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway,
second generation Funny Car driver Ashley Force made the most of her
final opportunity by pushing her Castrol GTX Ford Mustang through the
timers in a career best 4.729 seconds on Tuesday.
It was the quickest run of the Rookie-to-Be's brief career and the
best by any John Force Racing, Inc., team member during the
Friday-through-Tuesday test on a track that hosts two of the 23 events in
the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.
Nevertheless, the run was anything but uneventful. The 8,000 horsepower
hybrid made a hard move toward the guardwall, recalling a 2005 test
during which Ms. Force crumpled the header pipes on her father's
borrowed Castrol Ford when it brushed the guardwall at Indianapolis.
This time Ashley managed to keep the car off the wall and record the
second quickest Funny Car time during the test. Tommy Johnson Jr.,
driving a new Chevy Impala for Don Prudhomme, was slightly quicker at
4.724 seconds.
Testing for Ashley, her father, 14-time NHRA Funny Car Champion John
Force, Robert Hight and Eric Medlen will continue this week at Firebird
International Raceway. If the team requires more testing before the
opener, it will return to LVMS fora Last Chance Test Session in two
weeks.
-credit: jfr
