Las Vegas is home away from home for drag racing royalty

Before she became a full-fledged drag racer like virtually everybody else in her family, Brittany Force earned a teaching degree at Cal State Fullerton.

She never thought she would have to fall back on it. But when COVID-19 struck just after the start of the 2020 season and forced her father, John, to temporarily shutter his four-car NHRA stable, the thought crossed her mind.

“I tried to stay positive,” said the 2017 Top Fuel champion, who returns to The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with a slimmed-down John Force Racing team for this weekend’s Denso Spark Plugs NHRA Four-Wide Nationals. “But month after month, you’re seeing the sport slowly returning, and John Force Racing, we weren’t back yet.

“There’s that fear in the back of your head. What if this thing really does go south and we can’t return? Drag racing is all my family has ever known.”

Before the start of the season, John Force said he was so happy to be back on track that he planned to bow down and kiss it at last month’s Gatornationals in Florida.

He’s not totally back, having had to mothball promising driver Austin Prock’s Top Fuel ride because of a lack of sponsorship. But most in the sport agree that three Force cars — Brittany in Top Fuel, 16-time champion John and two-time title winner Robert Hight in Funny Car — is much preferred to no Force cars.

“We’re going drag racing; I’m ready,” said the 71-year-old family patriarch who, like his team, also is slimmed down after having shed 20 pounds during the pandemic.

That most of her dad’s sponsors returned for 2021 speaks volumes about the equity the team has built, Brittany Force, 34, said.

“It shows loyalty; it shows that John Force Racing, all of us, all of our sponsors, are a family. They still see value in that even though everything has been turned upside down. It was a trying time for all of us. But if I didn’t already know how much I loved my job, last year made me realize how much I missed it, and how much I wanted to come back.”

She qualified fifth at Gainesville before being eliminated in the first round. But Force has high hopes for another strong showing at LVMS after setting a national speed record (338.17 mph) in qualifying for the 2019 fall race and then beating three-time reigning champion Steve Torrence for the win with a track record 3.652-second run.

“Vegas just feels homey to me,” she said about all three Force daughters — Funny Car drivers Ashley and Courtney both retired to start families — having raced at LVMS, and she having cut her racing teeth in the sportsman divisions. “It’s like I grew up at that racetrack.”

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.