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 Dwight Drum and Gary Larsen

DWIGHT CHATS WITH JOHN FORCE:

AN EARNHARDT STORY

Scott Odell had given John a number 3 Earnhardt decal earlier and John asked if he had more. (he didn't) John Force stared at the decal and began talking about Earnhardt…

"They gave me three, one for each car, and I wanted to put one on my helmet. I knew Dale personally…or no…I don't think anybody knew him personally, but I think his wife did. What I know of him from the times we did shows together, when I was at the ESPYS for ESPN last year. I was up for Driver of the Decade, nine championships, Earnhardt had eight. I had four wins, and I was the most nervous I've ever been. When I say I've been a fan of somebody, I probably would rather have a handshake than an autograph. I've never been one to chase a signature, but I did ask for Elvis' autograph. An autograph is nice, you can put it on a wall, but I wanted to look into the guy's face, like a few I have met, Petty and Earnhardt.

At the ESPYS the lines at Ford and GM were long. My lines were huge, his were bigger, but mine were pretty big. When Earnhardt came in, the Ford people applauded him. Everyone applauded him. Maybe at the racetrack they stick and they separate, but in that room they didn't. When I was leaving the stage, everybody was cheering, and of course, I like a little media, right? I went back up on the stage and I bowed down to him, and he put his hand on my head. It was awesome. When he won that deal that night, Driver of the Decade, which every one was telling me that I was going to win….well, first of all there's a lock why they win. The NASCAR following is huge. You can't compare them, and the bottom line is, I was proud just to be in the room with him.

Then Jarrett won driver of the year, and I thought...HEY! …I should have won that. What was really neat was when Earnhardt and Jarrett came back down, and I was sitting with Tom Compton, President of the NHRA, Earnhardt stopped to recognize me. We weren't buddies. I never fished with him, but we've done enough shows together, and we have talked cool stuff. He said…'Hey, how are you doing?' as his entourage marched by, but he put his ring out to me, and we hit rings. That was probably the first time I've ever been nervous. I thought he wanted to shake my hand. He reached out. I'm sitting in my seat… like well… I lost, and I said…Hey, way to go! I reached up to shake his hand. It was a big moment at the ESPYS. It was huge. Michael Jordan was on the stage, and somehow I poked Earnhardt's hand with my nail. I think I stuck a hole in him and then our rings hit. He's probably thinking this guy doesn't even know how to shake hands, and he went by. It was kind of a unique moment, and not because he has passed on now, it's because of that moment to be recognized. They can stand you up and tell you that you have the votes, but to be recognized by the guy next to you, that you're awesome, that meant more to me than the ESPYS. So I went back this year, and got beat… again.

I'm like the old guy in that movie OSCAR…. where that guy wheels and deals to get an Oscar, and when they said…the winner is…he stood up because he thought it was him, and the other guy won, so he starts clapping…and has a nervous breakdown…That's me.

[The ever-present laughter got deeper with that question]

"This is it! A movie theater, probably that's my biggest hobby. I'm a movie buff. They'll say what happened to Force at work. I went to the movies. I've never gone between rounds. I like Jaws, ET, and Jurassic Park. I'm very much into dinosaurs. I'm watching dinosaurs by a guy named Ken Novak…you know was it the Big Bang, or have we really only been here for 4000 years."

"He's giving you my story first, he wants to see if I remember my lines… On New Years Eve, I did a drag race for the millenium at West Palm Beach in Florida, and when I came back I saw the movie…'On Any Give Sunday' with Al Pacino. Every year I get my team ready by gathering the older guys and the new guys with a big motivational meeting. Let's go kill em. Let's go get em. The truth is I wasn't motivated, and I was going after my tenth title. Something is wrong, and Coil asked 'What?'

We all gathered the first day after New Years, and I said. I'm not ready for this. We're all going to the movies. I called the movie-theater, and rented it for the ten AM showing. No big deal, no one shows up for that time any way. I wanted to see what my team got out of it, because if that movie doesn't motivate you…he stands up there…'You gotta team mate, you gotta team up!' … and the team gets together and they win. Their quarterback retired, a young kid takes over, and the team came out of it. I wanted my team to get the message."

"I've been scared a lot of times…probably my scariest moment was when my five year contract with Castrol was up a few months ago, and I was getting ready to sign, and on the day of the closing, they told me British Petroleum bought them. Dave Densmore called me and said, ' Don't worry, they'll never fire Babe Ruth'.

That was as scary moment because without that money, it would be tough to find a sponsor quick.

But my scariest moment racing was in the sand traps at Pomona, opening race, my first year with Austin Coil. My parachute failed at about three hundred miles an hour, and I went off the end of the track. I though I could make the turn, but the car swerved, and I thought I might roll it, so I put it into the sand. The sand was wet from the rain the day before, so when the car went into the sand, it stuck. Then, it flipped end over end. The tail end came over and it buried itself in the sand…and I couldn't see anything.

I couldn't get out of the car, and I was waiting for it to explode, and I tried to kick the window out. The side windows have to be aerodynamic, but ever since then we make the cars now so the driver can kick the windows out, because if the car is on the roof hatch, the driver can't get out. The biggest fear I had was being alone. I'm claustrophobic. I don't get into an elevator. If an elevator stalls, John Force is gone out the roof. If I can get up to the roof, and see daylight, I'm okay. After that we put radios in the car. Everyone was talking about radios, and they said they would distract the driver. I want to have somebody to talk to, if I'm on fire. If I'm going to crash, I want to be able to say, I'm here, come get me. Just the sound of Bernie's voice saying, you're okay, and you're on fire. The fire trucks are coming. That being alone is my biggest fear…and in life it's probably my biggest fear. "

[As I flipped pages to the next question John commented on my question book]
"You can't be out of questions with the size of that book."

"If we are talking racing instead of my children, I know this sounds crazy, but when I got my 86th win, I said Thank God it's over, so the media will leave me alone. When I got my tenth Championship, I was glad it was over, but probably when I saw Del Worsham beat me. I know my crew chief gets mad about this. I'm not trying to be corny, but when Worsham beat me at Houston, his happiness afterward. Here's a young kid that struggled. He ran over to me and hugged harder than I've ever been hugged, and right in my face, he says, ' I kicked your butt.'

I had to turn my head, because I wanted to ball-up, and then I went back to my mean old self, and said, We'll get em next week. To see a young kid who lost to me 28 times, and won once, and hasn't won a race in five years, and all of a sudden wins. What was really unique, they all came over that night for a beer and we all sat and watched it on TV. My crew chief said, 'They're drinking your beer, watching them kick your butt, and you're cheering them on'. They were going for a contract with CSK, and that win, maybe it pushed it over the top for them.

Del used to sit on a tailgate, wagging his legs, when he was a kid and say, "I'm going to be just like you someday and drive. Actually he said, I'm going to be just like Prudhomme and beat you."

"I always try to get in a car, and buckle up. I'm a cell phone nut, which is bad, but I try to abide by the rules, because I've been in a number of accidents when I was stupid-young. Luckily, I never hurt anybody but myself. When everything just seems perfect on a race- track. Perfect! Out there yesterday, I had a motor burn a piston and throw oil on a tire, and I almost crashed. It came around hard to the left. All of a sudden, I was right on the wall. It straightened, and it never even touched the header. Why it recovered, I think is that it hooked back up, because I couldn't have turned it that quick. It wouldn't come around, because I couldn't have steered it back. I've learned that can happen. All you need is a blowout on a tire, and if you're daydreaming, you lose. So, I really focus on the street. I don't know if that makes me better than anybody, but I do focus."

"What do I worry about the most? Next to the health of my children, and my own health, I probably worry the most about the day I don't have a sponsor and I can't do this. These are like all my children out here. That's corny too, but I'm excited to get to the races. I got off the plane last night, and they told me everyone's gone to the hotel. I drove straight to the track, cause I wanted to see them putting up the awnings. Only a few of them were there, and they asked, 'Why didn't you go to the Ale House?' I said I wanted to come and see you guys. The Ale House is right here.' The point is, maybe that day that I can't race, health or bad crash…If I'm going to go, I hope I go out in a ball of glory. I hope that's when I'm ninety. I really love what I do, and I'd hate to lose it."

If somebody says well, he never cares about his kids. My kids are top priority. My racing is my whole life, better than any hobby. I make movies in my mind. I really love what I do, and I'd hate to have it taken away from me. So every day of my life, I work. Every couple weeks I drive back to my mom's trailer-house. She now lives in a nice condo that I bought her in a neat area. My dad died, but I still have the trailer-house. It's still there. That's to keep my mind right about where we came from. If you don't do that, you forget, and you won't get up every day fighting.

I woke up this morning, sat at the end of the bed, and wondered, How long are you going to do this? I got on the phone to the local radio station, and got to talking about racing, and when I got to the track, I'm thinking… come on, you young guys, I'm going to kick your butt. That's a motivational thing. I do swear a lot, and I promised I'd quit."

JOHN FORCE…. PART FOUR…