Drag Racer Force Says He Won’t Let Up on the Pedal

What’s next for John Force, the garrulous Yorba Linda resident who has eighty-sixed former pro stock champion Bob Glidden from the top of the mountain to become the all-time winningest driver in the 49-year history of the National Hot Rod Assn.?

Not content with toppling one of the sport’s most indomitable records by picking up victory No. 86 on Sunday in the Prestone Route 66 Nationals at Joliet, Ill., auto racing’s irresistible Force immediately started talking--does he ever stop?--about a loftier goal: Glidden’s record of 10 championships.

The nine-time funny car champion, winner of seven in a row, already is contemplating his legacy.

Though he won’t come right out and say it, the 51-year-old former truck driver wants to be remembered as the greatest drag racer who ever lived--a Force to be reckoned with long after his retirement.

He recently signed a new five-year deal with Ford and Castrol to continue pursuit of Glidden, who retired in 1996, and it’s clear that he won’t be satisfied until championship No. 11 is tucked safely away in his garage.

Ever the hustler, Force is looking forward to the day he makes the transition from drag racer to car owner and is trying to drum up sponsorship money on the banquet circuit.

And merely pulling even with Glidden won’t do.

“If I can tie Glidden,” he said this week in a conference call, “I got that record but yet they won’t say, ‘Here’s the [winner of] the most championships in the universe,’ or whatever, because Bob Glidden will still be there. I want to pass that, and I think I can do that in five years. . . .

“I want to pass that record so that I can build my name, build my money, so when people are sitting in a banquet hall and I come up on stage, they’ll say, ‘Here’s the winningest guy in history.’ Then they say to themselves [in the audience], ‘There’s the guy to invest in because he knows how to win.’ . . . That’s why I’ve set the goal on 11. And it’s going to be tough to get. Ten’s going to be tough to get.”

Winner of five of nine events this season, including four in a row, Force is 55 points ahead of Jerry Toliver and his World Wrestling Federation team in the overall funny car standings.

His victory over Toliver in Sunday’s final was especially sweet, and not only because it moved him past Glidden and padded his lead in this year’s points race.

“The WWF has been slamming us every week, telling us with attitude that they were going to take it away from us,” Force said. “[Toliver] came right up to us in the restaurant [at Dallas, a week earlier] and looked us right in the eye and said, ‘It’s over for you guys.’ ”

Said Austin Coil, Force’s crew chief since 1984 and former crew chief of the legendary Chi-Town Hustler: “In my whole career, I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to win a round any more than that final against Toliver and [crew chief Dale] Armstrong. . . .

“It’s like you really feel like, ‘Well, we’re up against it now to show what we can do.’ And we managed to do it. It was a pretty emotional moment for me.”

And for Force, of course.

After covering the quarter-mile strip in 4.842 seconds at 318.09 mph--Toliver made it to the finish in 4.934 seconds at 312.64 mph--Force said he was “tripped out” and couldn’t pull himself out of the car fast enough to celebrate.

“I went over center,” he said. “It’s not just about setting a record, it was about getting yourself up for the fight. . . . It was the fact that we won as a team.”

His emotions were in contrast to his melancholy feelings last month when he was on the verge of matching the record.

His comments at the time made some wonder about his commitment to winning, but Force said they were misinterpreted.

“I don’t want to lose and I don’t want Austin Coil or Castrol or Ford to think that I’m thinking that way--that isn’t it at all,” he said. “It’s just hard to jump up and down and blow your own whistle when you win.

“Then, in the middle of all that, we had the loss of Adam Petty. . . . I put a lot of thought into my own children. . . . I dedicated my life to championships, and all of a sudden I never taught my daughter to drive a car. . . .

“I didn’t really grow up with my children. Even though I lived with them, I was there, I was always tunnel-visioned to the next championship. I stood at a ballpark when my daughter played in her first Little League baseball game and I had a cell phone to my ear. When she hit her first hit I never even saw it because I had my back turned trying to do a talk radio show somewhere.

“So, because of all that, I kind of was just on a bummer that day and I was kind of like, ‘I’m really screwed up.’ ”

Even those closest to Force, a father to four daughters, wondered about his state of mind.

“My own sponsors called and said, ‘We don’t want to sign a five-year contract with you if you’re ready to fold up on us. Are you a tiger or what?’ ” Force said. “I said, ‘Whoa, let me have my day.’ I apologized if anybody misunderstood me, but sometimes it’s just hard to ring your bell and yell how great you are.”

Sometimes it’s just easier to climb into the car and go.

Force said he never gave any thought to Glidden’s record before last summer, when he was in San Francisco watching the Giants play the St. Louis Cardinals and record-setting Mark McGwire.

“One of the media guys was talking to me and said, ‘Aren’t you coming up on a record?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ But then I said, ‘If there’s a record out there, I’ll go after it.’ ”

LAST LAPS

Juan Montoya of Colombia became the ninth driver to follow his Indianapolis 500 victory with a win the next week--and only the second since 1984--when he won Monday’s rain-delayed Miller Lite 225 at the Milwaukee Mile.

Former Ascot Park and California Racing Assn. veterans Allen Heath and Jimmy Oskie were among 16 inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame Saturday in Knoxville, Iowa.

The late Bob Russo, former Southland publicist and Motorsports Hall of Fame director, received a special Hall of Fame Heritage award during induction ceremonies this week in Detroit. Hall of Fame honorees included NASCAR’s Wood Brothers and Smokey Yunick, Indianapolis 500 winners Ray Harroun and Sam Hanks, Indy car/drag racing veteran Danny Ongais, hydroplane driver Tom D’Eath, motocross champion Bob Hannah and sports car legend Peter Gregg.

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Staff Writer Shav Glick contributed to this report.

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* THIS WEEKEND’S RACES, PAGE 16