This Week in Ford Racing: Growing up Force

Dearborn, Mich. — John Force, driver of the Castrol Edge Ford Mustang Funny Car, is the most accomplished and decorated drag racer in the history of the sport. In honor of Father’s Day, his daughters Ashley, Brittany and Courtney Force talk about how it was growing up with a father in racing and what it’s like to race on their father’s team.

HOW WAS IT GROWING UP WITH A FATHER IN RACING?ASHLEY FORCE—driver of the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang Funny Car“It was all we ever knew, so we don’t know any differently, but it was very exciting to be a young kid whose dad is on TV, whose classmates and teachers follow racing and, it’s something that would always come up. It was fun for us. We would have barbeques on Sunday and have our friends over to swim and we would run out, Mom would call at us when it was time for Dad’s run and we would all run in our suits and stand outside the window. She wouldn’t let us inside because our suits were wet, but we would all stand outside the house and watch the race through the screen door. It was a lot of fun. We got to travel a lot, go to a lot of different places throughout the country and go to his races and it was fun.”

BRITTANY FORCE—driver of the Brand Source A-Fuel Dragster“It was really tough because he was gone a lot of the time and it was pretty much my mom that was always at home raising us. My dad always jokes that my mom would yell ‘Dad’s home,’ and we would all run to the TV to watch him on ESPN, ESPN2 and watch him on TV, but you know having him travel all the time was hard because he did miss some birthdays, or cheerleading competitions or whatever it was.

"Now that we’re grown up and we’re involved in racing, we really understand where he’s coming from and that he’s worked so hard and he’s worked from absolutely nothing all the way up to having this big empire that he has with all of these drivers and teams. We’re really proud of him and we know how hard he’s worked and it’s just kind of how life is and we got used to it so we wouldn’t know any different.”

COURTNEY FORCE—driver of the Brand Source A-Fuel Dragster“Well, it was a lot of fun but it was complicated at the same time. It was real hard not seeing him because I would be in school when I was little and he would always be at the race track. Actually when he would come home I would cry to him, ‘Please don’t go back to the races,’ and he would be like, ‘No, I have to. I’ve got to work, you know. You’ve got to go to school,’ and I would be like, ‘Please don’t go. I just want you to stay here.’

"I didn’t really understand much about it and then when I grew up I got involved with racing and loved being out at the race track and understood why he was gone every weekend, but when I was little I didn’t really know. I would always ask, ‘Why does he have to leave, why is he gone, he’s only home for a couple days a week?’ So it was hard but after a while after I learned about it, it was okay.”

To read the full interview please visit: http://www.fordracing.com/news/detail/?article=36517