DRAG RACERS...
FUNNY CAR

SIGNATURE PROFILES
© 1999-2001 Dwight Drum

JOHN FORCE

DOB: May 4, 1949
Home Town: Yorba Linda, California

Story and questions by Dwight Drum
Photos by Gary Larsen and Dwight Drum

Part 2
John Force

"Yeah, Miller Lite from about here to there (John Lifted his arm off the table toward his chin). I've lost about twenty-five pounds. I was getting heavy, 210 pounds, and about two years ago we started buying titanium and magnesium, and my crew chief said, 'Why don't you just lose weight?' So if you look in my refrigerator. (John got up and opened his refrigerator) This what I live on…water, Miller Lite, peanut butter cups, and peanut butter. Then later in the day I'll have a salad. We just spent $10,000 for heart defibrillators for the shop and the trailer. My brother asked me 'What keeps you pumping?' I get up in the morning I'll eat half a bagel, half a chocolate donut. It stops the hunger. The chocolate keeps you going. I'll have a big scoop of peanut butter. Nobody eats out of this jar but me. I'm in a hurry. I don't have time to make a sandwich or soup. I'll have coffee in the morning…Miller Lite or Bud Lite in the evening…depends on who is in the room, Prudhomme or Bernstein."

I got away from bacon and eggs in the morning and eating three meals a day. I keep a jar of peanut butter in my room, so I can eat something. Once you lose control, food starts smelling good everywhere you go. I dropped fifteen pounds the first six months. I used to live at McDonalds, so when I go by them I start to sweat. Now, I get up eat some bread, like a bagel, drink a bunch of coffee and run the day. Maybe I'll have a salad, or chicken salad and a beer at night. The weight dropped off and my crew chief wanted another ten pounds to go, so now I'm under 185.

When I went to the doctor, he asked what happened to me. I lost body muscle, because I didn't exercise. That was a mistake. As you drop weight, you need to exercise because you keep the strength, and your body will draw in what it needs to keep the muscle.

I got in the car at the beginning of this year, and I couldn't hold the clutch down. It was tiring, so we put new clutches in all our cars to make them like street-cars. I've started to exercise. I'm not going to run a marathon, but if I'm in an airport, I don't use the escalators unless I'm late."

"I tried football. I didn't play in High School, but I did in college. I had polio as a kid. Not many people know that. My right leg is smaller than the left. The coach said you stumble a lot. So it's like the race cars did the running for me. I did a lot a surfing as a kid, and I wasn't good at that either. In 1974 I saw the movie Jaws, and I've never been in the water since. I've tried to get back in the water but I can't. I think something is out there. I went to the barrier reef in Australia in75, and saw the big whites, and they weren't fooling. The size of the teeth that came out of a few of them, that convinces me that big whites could definitely swallow a man…and that being digested is not good. I always carry an Elvis pocket knife, that way I can cut myself out."

{Editor's note. Many of John's off-subject answers were hilarious, but won't be printed here today}

"Probably my legs, but it's important to build your mind stronger. My jaws are plenty strong they run all day long."

When I built this bus, I wanted to use the bus as a signature bus, where people knew what it stood for…it stands for racing, in a design of John Force, instead of me, my ego, just putting my name on the bus. My limo, the vehicle used for picking up my sponsors has trophies too. I even have pillows with all my sponsor's names put on them, so if they use it they feel personal. You give back. You give back to your sponsors, you give back to the fans, you give back to the sport.

© Scott O'Dell

I was at the Atlanta Toy Fair, and one of the big name boxers was selling his autograph. The fans asked me, 'Why is your autograph free?' I told them I couldn't speak for him, but in our business, if you try to sell your autograph, you'll get beat up. Later I found out he was giving the money to charity, not really selling his signature.

Sometimes when people buy collector cars, I charge for the signature, because I have to stay up to midnight two nights just signing ten thousand pieces, and it has more value because they want your signature. The toy store will say, sign these, and we'll pay you, and then they jack up the price to the fans.

One day a guy came by with forty posters. I told him, I know you are in business. You've been coming up here one at a time to get them signed. Do you think I'm stupid? I don't mind if you sell one, but I have endorsements sold on the Internet. They have rights to me. The guy said he wasn't doing that. You really think I'm stupid? He insisted he was selling them, so I signed the last ten for him. He said he was legit, but I don't know if he was legit or not.

"Yeah. I have two high-bred dogs."

"Honesty…Motivation. The biggest thing is not giving up. Life is a mountain that you're climbing. You slide down it sometimes, but you got to get up every day no matter what hit you in the head. I discovered that, it's from a Darrell Gwynn example. He was on his way to a championship, and he has really fought back. You see it in sports. I've seen it in marathons with the people in wheel chairs that never break stride. I value that. The guy who really impresses me is the underdog. I've been an underdog my whole life. I've always been a loser. Back in High School our football team lost 29 games in a row. We even lost the red white game against ourselves. I spent fifteen years losing. People say you've got ten championships, going on eleven. People ask me, 'Do you set your goal on eleven?' I set my goal on getting up every day and doing what I love, racing, keeping a group of guys together, and beating the competition. If that gets me to the eleventh championship, that's even sweeter.

It's really the fun of the journey, not the destination.

When you wake up one day, and one of your children is sick, you know that nothing else matters."

"Yeah I have my days, and then you struggle with yourself, and you know you need a happy pill to make you happy."

"Like anybody, I'd like to see world peace. If the world would pull together we could fix this place, and make it a lot better. It's kinda like me trying to have a conversation with Bazemore and Etchells, and Prudhomme. Put Don Garlitts in there too. It's probably impossible. Everybody has his own drive and goals, and everyone is different.

I'd like to spend more time with my kids, they grow up so fast. I have four girls. When I was in Hawaii they saw me standing the surf on a cell phone…too much business. I'm addicted to the media. I think I'm going to enjoy being a team owner, but I'm not ready now. I've got five-year contracts with Castrol and Ford. I want to come to the races and enjoy it. I want to sign an autograph that you can read. Shirley Muldowney signs the most beautiful autograph. It took her seven hours to sing a thousand of the NHRA fifty-year anniversary books. It took me forty-five minutes. Hers were perfect. Mine were perfect, except you can't read my signatures. They were perfectly wrong."

" When I'm frustrated, I run. I don't run much because running is painful to my bad leg, my polio leg. I run to get rid of the anxiety. You know that exercise will take it away. I had a pain in my side the other day, and my car ran out of gas. I was sitting in the middle of an intersection. I thought I was going to scream, and the lady with me said, 'Well one of us is pushing, how big of a gentleman are you?' So I got out and shoved the car out of the intersection into a gas station, and when I got there the pain was gone. I hadn't slept well for three days, and my body was trying to tell me something. It's had enough, and yet when you exercise, get the blood flowing, you keep going. My brother said it was probably just gas. I didn't drink any beer for three or four days, and drank soda pop…that will burn you worse than beer."

Dave Densmore, Public Relations Director for John, added…"You know you never have good results when you give up beer."

"I know I gave up one beer brand, because the beer was too strong. I gave the Sponsor back."

John flipped the pages of my fat notebook and asked… "You got questions going all the way through that notebook? This is amazing." I answered, "I don't think we will get through them all.

"One people take you for granted, that you always did it. Like they want to say… he was always rich, and some people aren't always rich, they earn it. Ask that whole question again."

I passed the notebook to John with the questions and he reread the question.

I don't get complacent, I keep striving to be successful, that's why I work for the fans, and keep racing and testing on Mondays. We've tested more this year than other teams have raced."

"You didn't make these questions up. You ain't that smart."
(We all laughed)
I answered…"I created them, John."

"Some people takes success, as…'I've earned it', and they forget how they got there. They forget the people and they walk away. I won't ever forget Austin Coil, the people who got me here, Tony Pedregon. I won't forget the sponsors and the fans, but the problem is when you get to the top, it's harder to stay. You even become guilty of success, because people want to blame you…'Well…You're too good' …What do you mean, I'm too good? Well…'You win too much, you're hurting the sport.' I'm not trying to hurt the sport. I could have gone out and picked some hot-shot driver, a kid with a future, but I didn't. I went out and picked Gary Densham who struggled for the last thirty years with me, and he's one hell of a driver, and he's my age, and out here driving. I'm going to give somebody who paid their dues a chance. I hired Tony Pedregon when he was a young kid, so we keep a mix in this group of people."

{Editor's Note: If I included all the breaks for laughter that John created during this hour interview, it would take much longer to read.}

"I only cringe at driving 300 miles an hour when I see Don Prudhomme's car out in front of me. I don't cringe. I believe when God's going to take you, he's going to take you. That doesn't mean I go down to City Hall and jump off a building just to see if I splat. When it's your time, it's your time. My dad sold me on that concept. Don't get me wrong, you have to have fear to be respectful. I've been on fire…No BS here, it scared the hell out of me. I came out laughing…I'm Alive!

I've also jumped out of a burning car and the camera guys said …'Ahhh our batteries were out, we missed the shot.' I've jumped back into the burning car, because that what's going to get on TV. We do a lot of retakes, if the batteries screw up."

I've also got into the back of an ambulance at Brainerd once. I've got burns, it was a major fire. The guy says…Well…You need to sign this release.' I said what for? He said, 'The ambulance ride.' What are you talking about, I'm burned. He said. Well…This is a five-hundred-dollar ride. We want to make sure we have payment.' I said Open the door. Out! I got out, and the press was there. I told them if that guy has the time to ask questions while I'm dying, I obviously don't need to go that bad. I got out, road to the hospital in our truck and saved the five hundred bucks."

"Getting into the zone. You need to stop right before the car is ready to roll. Give a couple of autographs, talk to the crew chief. What is the game plan for the day? I go back out. I do my fan deal, the media, and we get ready and we have a little gospel. We get together and have a few prayers for the whole team. Twenty-five guys holding hands…actually now it's thirty five holding hands…half of them don't want to touch each other. You have to have camaraderie. Vince Lombardi would tell you, you can't have camaraderie without everyone being a team, and if one guy has a problem, we have to get over it, because we got to fight today as a team. We all share in the money.

You have to get into the zone, and when it's time to go, get your energy level right and then you got to blank out the world. You got to blank out problems, the media. You got to blank out everything that's beating you up for that day, that your car is slow, and no matter what your fears are…all they can do is screw you up. You've got to have high adrenaline, and you've got to have that fear that gives you that rush, and the burnout gives you that. I'm right up into the play gate. Worse thing that can happen to you is that you are getting ready to run, and you're one round behind in the points, the guy ahead of you gets beat. You're adrenaline level goes right down…Like I'm okay now, and you calm down, and your feet forget how to work.

You've got to have that old saber-toothed tiger chasing you, and your body says…whoa, I gotta go! Okay I'll give you the short version…Let's Go!"