Welcome to the sometimes-dreamlike, often-challenging, always-hyperfast world of Ashley Force. In addition to being a drag racer on the NHRA circuit and a torchbearer-in-training for the John Force Racing empire, she models for Oakley sunglasses and is a TV star on A&E. Girls dress their Barbies in Ashley Force fire suits, and her younger sisters look up to her as a racing inspiration.
For Ashley, the eldest of the three racing daughters born to John and Laurie Force of Yorba Linda, life is nothing if not a lesson in shifting gears.
The speed and the spotlight, the fear and the danger – Ashley didn’t go looking for any of the above. She was born to the racing life the way a Barrymore is to acting or a Kennedy is to politics.
But she is growing into all of her many roles with a presence and a personality that seems to provide the perfect counterweight to the persona of her Type-A father.
Ashley describes herself as shy by nature and not one to look too far into the future, though the unknown is less fearsome now that she has tamed “the monsters” racing pros say lurk in the realm beyond 300 mph. Of course, there still is the challenge of competing at the elite level of drag racing as the only woman in a division dominated by a 14-time champion who just happens to share her last name.
When the 2007 National Hot Rod Association season begins Feb. 8 in Pomona, Ashley will likely pull up to the staging lanes in a brand new Funny Car, supported by a new crew chief and all the trappings of professional racing.
She’ll arrive with five years of driving experience that include three race wins during her three years in a 275-mph Top Alcohol dragster. There’s a chance she will look to the other lane and see her dad staring back as both prepare for their first Force Family duel.
“I’m excited not just to run against my dad but to run against his team – all of these guys I grew up with and who trained me,” Ashley said.
“Fans come to me and say, ‘You’re gonna show your dad you can take him out,’ but that’s not the feeling I have. I know he has way more experience than I have. He’s done this for 30 years, so he definitely has me on skill.
