Drag racing’s John Force remains upbeat despite setbacks

Still carrying the psychic pain of a teammate’s death three years ago and the physical pain from his own injuries from a racing crash six months later, John Force now faces another curve that life has thrown at the celebrated drag racer.

The leader of John Force Racing arrives at this year’s season-opening NHRA Winternationals in Pomona with only three funny cars on his team instead of four, the woeful economy having recently forced him to park one dragster to save money.

The remaining three cars are driven by Force, his daughter Ashley Force Hood and his son-in-law Robert Hight.

Force -- who has won a remarkable 14 funny car championships in his long career and is perhaps the most popular driver in the National Hot Rod Assn. -- also is coming off his first personal winless season in 23 years.

But at age 60, the irrepressible Force remains upbeat about his team, his sport and his ability to contend for a 15th title.

“I’m ready to race,” he said recently at his team’s Yorba Linda headquarters. Force said he has no plans to retire after this year, but “I imagine by 65 I’ll be done.”

Force and his team were rocked in early 2007 when one of their drivers, Eric Medlen, 33, died of head injuries suffered in a crash during practice in Gainesville, Fla.

Six months later, Force sustained severe injuries to his limbs when he crashed into Kenny Bernstein’s car during a race, splitting Force’s car in half.

Force’s fate might have been worse had it not been for Medlen’s death, which prompted his team and the NHRA to add padding to dragsters’ cockpits and make several other safety improvements.

After months of rehabilitation, Force returned to racing in 2008. And last year, despite not winning a race himself, Force reveled in two other events: Hight won the funny car title in the NHRA’s Full Throttle Series, and Hood nearly became the first woman to do so and finished second to Hight in the points standings.

“I’m building the next generation [of winning drivers] and that’s my excitement,” Force said.

But Bernstein, now retired as a driver but still a team owner, said Force remains capable of winning races. “John will be back,” Bernstein said. “The desire is certainly there and he has the people and the technological means to put all the pieces together.”

Force helped provide what might have been the most talked-about moment in NHRA drag racing last year even though he wasn’t in his race car.

At the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, Force got into a heated argument with rival Tony Pedregon after Pedregon and his drag-racing brother, Cruz Pedregon, accused Force of purposefully losing a semifinal round against Hight so that Hight would qualify for the sport’s playoffs.

Force confronted Tony Pedregon near the track as TV cameras rolled and the two had to be restrained, and Force made physical contact with an NHRA official, so the NHRA levied a $10,000 fine against him.

That’s all been forgotten as the new season opens, and Force said he’s physically ready thanks to his workout regimen in the gym. “I’ve still got pins keeping my foot held on, and if I don’t work out I have pain in my wrist,” he said. “They say if you keep working out maybe it won’t get worse, but it will never get perfect again.”

The workouts also have a side benefit. “Before the crash, I was finding it hard to get through a day because I was totally out of shape,” Force said. “After the crash, two years in the gym, I’m back at it” in racing form.

Winternationals is a special weekend of racing for Force, who grew up reading about famous drag racers -- and Winternationals winners -- such as Don Garlits, Shirley Muldowney and Don Prudhomme.

“When I [first] got to the Winternationals the first guy I went looking for was Don ‘The Snake’ Prudhomme,” Force recalled, even though he was “scared to death” to meet him.

So Force said he and his crew members “would hide behind the trailer or the hot-dog stand and say to each other, ‘Be cool and let’s walk by him.’ But he didn’t notice us.”

It’s a memory that brings yet another smile to Force, who has since won the Winternationals four times.

Force then noted that this is the 50th anniversary of the Winternationals, and added: “I’m excited about the next 50 years.”

james.peltz@latimes.com