Drag racer Ashley Force Hood now a genuine 300-mph threat

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It’s nothing new that a Force is atop the point standings in the funny car division of NHRA drag racing, except this time it’s Ashley Force Hood, daughter of 14-time funny car champion John Force.

Now in her third full year in the National Hot Rod Assn.’s premier Full Throttle Series, Force Hood is tied for the championship points lead with Ron Capps, who beat her in the finals Sunday at Bandimere Speedway near Denver. Force Hood has reached the finals in six of the last 10 races, including her win in Houston in March.

Force Hood, 26, briefly led the standings last year as well after she made history by becoming the first woman to win an NHRA funny car race -- by beating her father, no less. But that was considered largely a fluke as Force Hood continued to hone her skills driving dragsters that reach 300 mph.

Now she’s widely considered a bona fide contender to win every weekend.

‘We know the other teams now look at us as a threat, where maybe they didn’t the first couple of years,’ Force Hood said Wednesday after unveiling a special paint scheme for her car, tied to the Ronald McDonald House Charities, that she’ll race this weekend in Seattle and the next weekend in Sonoma, Calif.

‘The first two years were about learning basic things, getting the car down the track, remembering to shut the fuel off,’ she said. Now ‘it’s really more about the mental side of things,’ such as learning how to beat competitors off the starting line, she said.

Force Hood, a fan favorite but as shy around the public as her legendary father is gregarious, said she still makes mistakes in her Ford Mustang funny car, ‘but a lot less often than I did before.’

-- Jim Peltz