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Driving Force

Ashley Force goes pro with funny cars

story by Dennis Arp '80

They call it a Funny Car, but Ashley Force wasn’t laughing. Jaw set, breath on hold, pulse in overdrive, she hurtled down a Las Vegas racetrack faster than her eyes could focus. Then the clutch kicked in, and the 7,000-horsepower engine unleashed even more of its nitromethane-burning fury. G forces approaching those of a space shuttle at launch pinned her head in place, and she struggled to keep the car at the center of the lane.

In an instant the finish lights were behind her and her braking chutes billowed, the counter-forces throwing her body against its restraints with a jolt that’s been known to detach retinas. The car quickly slowed to a stop beyond the track’s long row of glistening grand stands.

At 315 mph, the quarter-mile run had lasted less than five seconds; the whole experience – from zero to 315 and back again – took less than 20 seconds. But for Force, a 24-year-old Cal State Fullerton graduate, it was a milestone seven years in the making.

She had graduated from amateur to pro driver as she earned her Funny Car drag racing license.

Force climbed from her car and let loose a smile that appeared more fueled by relief than elation. Meanwhile, drag-racing legend John Force, Ashley’s full-throttle father, whooped and jumped around on the track, throwing his arms into the air and then around his daughter’s neck as he flashed a toothy grin at least a quarter-mile wide.

“It’s unbelievable that this young little kid could do this,” he would say later in a moment captured on camera for the family’s reality TV series “Driving Force.” “That was better than any trophy I’ve ever won in my life.”

Then he looked into Ashley’s eyes and said, “Do you realize you’re going where some men have never gone? They dream of what you’re doing.”

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.

“But I do have one advantage other drivers don’t. When you’ve seen your dad roll down a hill in a ball of snow or run a Chinese fire drill around your rental car in a big sombrero, you don’t look at him the same way another driver might.”

Even without the sombrero, John Force casts a broad shadow over racing. In addition to his 14 series titles, he displays the spoils from 122 event victories
at the former Yorba Linda car dealership that is now home to John Force Racing.

And perhaps more powerful than his car is his personality. A tireless promoter at age 57, he can talk till he’s hoarse, and then talk some more. No one works a room or a fan rope line like Force, who looks so much like Gary Busey that there can be only one choice to play him in the movies.

His story does have a lot of Hollywood in it. Former truck driver who grew up in a trailer park pulls himself up by his racing bootstraps to become a sports hero. But along the way his driven nature sabotages relationships with his wife and children, until he finds redemption in the third-act reconnection with his progeny via the very thing that tore them apart: racing.

Of course, it wouldn’t hurt that the children were young and attractive women.

Enter Ashley and her amateur racing sisters Brittany, 19, and Courtney, 17. Right behind them come the reality TV producers.

It’s been two years since producer Brent Travers first started following the family around with a handheld camera, and other crews became part of the Forces’ daily lives. “Driving Force” debuted in July on A&E, earning ratings strong enough that the original commitment of six shows expanded to 14. There are expectations of a second season, although nothing is final yet.

Ashley calls her TV experience positive, and the Force sisters now affectionately refer to Travers as “the brother we never wanted.”

Travers says Ashley is a key reason the show has succeeded.

“If it were just about drag racing, the story wouldn’t be that interesting for us,” he said. “But once I met with John and Ashley, I could see the interesting family dynamic. John, of course, is a very strong-willed person, but Ashley can hold her own with him or with anyone. Behind her quiet exterior is a bright and clever young woman.”

In one episode, John warns Ashley about the potential dangers of Funny Car driving as she prepares for a testing run. He details the times he’s been on fire and how a rival driver lost part of a foot to a clutch malfunction. Then there’s a pause.

“Don’t ever take up a career in motivational speaking,” Ashley deadpans.

Ashley says a lot of her comfort on camera comes from her Cal State Fullerton college experience. Her radio/TV/film studies en route to a degree in Communications showed her what to expect when her own media opportunities arrived.

CSUF assistant professor Philippe Perebinossoff taught Ashley in several classes and said he was flabbergasted the first time he asked about her weekend plans and heard, “Driving my dragster.”

“She was probably the last person I would have expected to give that answer.”

Ashley has since returned to share racing and TV production stories with Perebinossoff’s students during Communications Week.

For her part, Ashley says she regrets not being more involved in campus activities during her college career. Mixing studies with racing left her with little free time.

“A lot of times I would go to school and then right to the airport to go racing,” she said.

These days, Ashley exercises her filmmaking muscles when Force Racing prepares promotional tapes for sponsors. And each year she makes a film that’s shown during the team’s Christmas party. A recent production featured her dad in the role of Scrooge. She titled it “The Bi-Polar Express.”

John Force admits he has made mistakes – that he neglected his family while he chased his early racing dream.

“Racing took me away,” he says, “but it’s given me a chance to come back.”

Ashley remembers a great childhood – one full of fast cars and fun times. She would travel with her mom to the summer races, where they would watch dad and hang out with his crew.

“I thought the crew members were the coolest guys,” she said. “I always thought that was what I wanted to do – to go out on the road and have fun with this big extended family.”

She never worried about her dad getting hurt, although she does recall when she was 6 or 7 seeing him crash at the track in Pomona. His chutes didn’t open, and the car flipped into the hard sand at the end of the run.

“The car caught fire, but no one was panicked, except that I thought he was still in the car,” Ashley recalled. “It turned out he had already gotten out and was on the other side of a fire truck, doing an interview. I remember feeling it was just normal.”

At 16, Ashley announced she wanted to race, too, and she enrolled in Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School in Florida. Then the real training began when she went on the road with her dad.

Now Ashley and her father share a passion – although she says she’s glad her racing experience won’t mirror his.

“For my dad, it’s all about the championships,” she said. “I know that even if I never win the championships, I’ll still race. I love the speed, the travel, meeting the people.”
With Ashley’s move to Funny Car will come higher expectations and more demands.

“The next few years are going to be tough,” she said. “I’ve done testing (in the Funny Car), but I know I haven’t even dipped into what’s going to be happening (this) year.”

Her dad said he worries every time Ashley gets behind the wheel. But it’s clear he couldn’t be more proud of her career choice or her accomplishments.

“I’ve told her, ‘You have the talent to win – I believe it’s in you,’” he said. “Without a doubt, she can be a champion.”

The view from inside a Funny Car is one of the worst in racing. A massive injector sticks up through the car’s fiberglass shell, obscuring a driver’s vision, and clutch dust can coat the windshield in a hazy film.But Ashley Force can see far enough down the road to know she’s headed in the right direction.

“There are demands and responsibilities, but I’m still having fun,” she said. “There’s no point in being out here if it isn’t fun. Hey, this is drag racing – we’re playing every day. And I’m having a blast.”